Good Sleep Hygiene - Tips For Improving Your Sleep Habits

WHY DO WE NEED SLEEP?

Sleep is not a time when we shut down and do nothing. Our brains and internal organs are very active during sleep. It is a time for vital body functions, such as cell growth and repair, and hormone release and rebalancing.

Researchers are just beginning to understand the many ways sleep affects our physical and mental health. Studies reveal that we learn and remember better when we are well rested. Researchers have also discovered that being well rested improves the body's response to infection. Sleep reduces heart rate and blood pressure by about 10%. Sleep even affects our blood sugar levels and appetite.

Unfortunately, many people suffer from poor sleep hygiene which can lead to insomnia and other sleep health disorders. To develop good sleep hygiene, it is important to understand how your daily habits can keep you from getting the full night's sleep you need.

HOW MUCH SLEEP DO I NEED?

Most adults need between 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night, although some people seem to need as few as 5 hours and other people need as many as 10 hours. Teenagers and older children typically need about 9 hours of sleep, young children need between 10 and 12 hours, and infants need 16 to 18 hours of sleep every day. While older people may report more difficulty sleeping, they still typically need 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night.

When people do not get enough sleep, they create a "sleep debt," which, like other types of debt, has to be paid off eventually. We may think that our bodies can adjust to less sleep, but in reality we become sleep-deprived. Without enough sleep, physical and mental functions become impaired. We become slow to react and make decisions, and we are more likely to get sick. People who chronically suffer from a lack of sleep are at greater risk of developing depression.

DO I HAVE A SLEEP DISORDER?

As many as 70 million Americans may have chronic sleep loss or a sleep disorder. You should talk to your doctor if you don't sleep well or are often tired during the day for more than a few weeks--especially if you are so tired that you cannot function normally. Many safe and effective treatments are available.

The Most Common Sleep Disorders

o Insomnia: Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep on a regular basis with no apparent cause; un-refreshed sleep despite ample opportunity to sleep

o Sleep apnea: Common sleep disorder in which people stop breathing for brief periods throughout the night; the most common symptoms are loud snoring, choking or gasping during sleep, and excessive daytime sleepiness

o Restless legs syndrome (RLS): Common disorder in which "unpleasant" feelings in the legs (and sometimes arms) cause an almost irresistible urge to move the limbs; symptoms make it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep

o Narcolepsy: Excessive daytime sleepiness with muscle weakness and/or falling asleep at inappropriate times and places; some people also experience sleep paralysis (temporary inability to move when falling asleep or waking) and vivid, often frightening dreams

Tips to Help You Sleep

Good sleep hygiene habits to help all people sleep...

o Develop a regular sleep schedule--try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time, even on weekends

o Create a good sleeping environment that is dark, quiet, cool, and free of distractions

-- If light bothers you, wear an eye mask and cover the windows

-- To drown out noise, run a fan or a white noise machine, or use earplugs

-- Keep the temperature cool to help signal the body that it is time to sleep

-- Turn the alarm clock away from the bed if it is a distraction

o Find a way to relax before going to bed--after you relax in a hot bath, your body temperature drops, signaling your body that it is time to sleep

o Develop a bedtime routine--try to do the same things every night before going to sleep so your body will make the connection between these things (such as a hot bath and reading for 10 minutes) and sleep

o If you consume caffeine, do so early in the day and try to minimize the amount--caffeine is a stimulant and may disrupt sleep when taken within 4 to 6 hours of bedtime

o Avoid drinking alcohol before bed--while it may help you relax and fall asleep, it causes disrupted, often restless sleep

o Avoid nicotine, especially near bedtime and upon night awakenings--nicotine is a stimulant and the many dangers of smoking include the risk of falling asleep with a lit cigarette

o Avoid eating and drinking too much late in the evening-- large meals can interfere with sleep and may cause discomfort and heartburn (the backflow of acid and food from the stomach into the esophagus); too much drinking right before bed may result in nighttime trips to the bathroom

o Try to limit napping during the day, especially after 3 PM, as it may make you less sleepy at night

o Try to get natural sunlight for at least 30 minutes each day; if you have trouble falling asleep, an hour of exposure in the morning can help regulate your daily sleep pattern

o Try to exercise 20 to 30 minutes every day at least 3 hours before bedtime--late afternoon exercise may deepen sleep; however, vigorous exercise too close to bedtime may interfere with sleep

If you have trouble sleeping...

o A light snack before bed, such as warm milk and a few crackers, may help you sleep

o Avoid worrying about things, especially sleep, and don't lie awake in bed--give yourself about 15 minutes to fall asleep; if you are not drowsy, get out of bed and do something relaxing until you are tired

o Use your bedroom only for sleeping and sex--don't read or watch TV in bed, or eat or talk on the phone in bed

o Take an effective pain reliever if pain from conditions (e.g., arthritis or back problems) interferes with your sleep

o If you regularly take medications, check with your doctor to make sure they are not interfering with your sleep; check over-the-counter medications to make sure they do not contain caffeine or other stimulants, such as pseudoephedrine

High Blood Pressure Linked to Bad Sleeping Habits

One of the deeper stages of sleep which is often referred to as SWS is characterized by non-rapid eye movement from which it is hard to awaken. It is represented by significantly slow, synchronized brain waves that are referred to as delta activity on an electroencephalogram. In a research from the Outcomes of Sleep Disorders in Older Men Study (MrOs Sleep Study), it revealed that people with the poorest level of SWS had an 80 percent increased risk of developing high blood pressure.

According to the study's co-author, Susan Redline, M.D. and Peter C. Farell, a professor of Sleep Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Beth Israel of Deacones Medical School, Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, the study reveals for the first time that low quality sleep, reflected by reduced slow wave sleep,sends individuals at greatly increased risk of developing high blood pressure and that the said effect seems to be independent of the influence of breathing pauses while sleeping.

Men who spent less than 4 percent of their sleep time in SWS were greatly more possibly to develop high blood pressure during the 3.4 years of the study. Men with lessened SWS had usually poorer sleep quality as measured by shorter sleep duration and more awakenings at night and had more serious sleep apnea than men with higher levels of SWS. Meanwhile, of all measures of sleep quality, reduced SWS was the most firmly associated with the development of high blood pressure. The said relation was seen even after considering other factors of sleep quality.

The researchers made a comprehensive and objective evaluation of sleep characteristics linked to high blood pressure in 784 men who didn't have hypertension. They were studied in their own home using standardized in-home sleep studies, or the so-called polysomnography, with brain wave activity measured and distinguished between REM and non-REM sleep and sleep apnea through measurement of breathing disturbances and oxygenation level while sleeping.

The researchers assessed a wide range of measurement of sleep disturbances, such as frequency of breathing disturbances, time in each sleep state, number of awakenings, sleep duration by using a central Sleep Reading Center directed by Redline.

The participants of the said study were an average of age 75 and about 90 percent were Caucasian. All were healthy and living in one of six communities, geographically representative of the United States.

Most commonly, older adults are more possibly to develop high blood pressure than younger people. Apparently, sleep disorders and poor quality sleep are more common in older adults than younger ones. The researchers further noted that obesity also comes along with hypertension.

Although the said study only includes men, it could also be possible that those women who have lower levels of slow wave sleep for any reason may also have an increased risk of developing high blood pressure.

Slow wave sleep has been implicated in learning and memory with previous data also stressing it significance to different psychological functions which includes metabolism and diabetes and neurohormonal systems affecting the sympathetic nervous system that is also a contributing factor to high blood pressure, according to the researchers.

God quality of sleep is very significant to one's health. People should be fully aware that sleep, diet and physical activity are crucial to health, including to heart health and normal blood pressure control. Although the elderly often suffer from sleep disorders, the study presents that such a finding is not benign. Poor sleep may be a strong predictor for adverse health results. Initiative to improve sleep may give novel approaches in reducing high blood problems.

To avoid sleep disorders, many older adults tend to seek comfort from natural sleep remedies that does not impose negative effects to one's health.

Sleep: how much do we really need?

Why do we sleep?

“The only known function of sleep is to cure sleepiness,” the Harvard sleep scientist Dr J Allan Hobson once joked. This isn’t quite true, but the questions of why we spend about a third of our lives asleep and what goes on in our head during this time are far from being solved.

One big mystery is why sleep emerged as an evolutionary strategy. It must confer powerful benefits to balance out the substantial risks, such as being eaten or missing out on food while lying dormant. The emerging picture from research is that sleep is not a luxury but essential to both physical and mental health. But the complex and diverse functions of sleep are only just starting to be uncovered.
What’s going on in our brains while we sleep?

The brain doesn’t just switch off. It generates two main types of sleep: slow-wave sleep (deep sleep) – SWS – and rapid eye movement (dreaming), or REM.

About 80% of our sleeping is of the SWS variety, which is characterised by slow brain waves, relaxed muscles and slow, deep breathing. There is strong evidence that deep sleep is important for the consolidation of memories, with recent experiences being transferred to long-term storage. This doesn’t happen indiscriminately though – a clearout of the less relevant experiences of the preceding day also appears to take place. A study published last year revealed that the connections between neurons, known as synapses, shrink during sleep, resulting in the weakest connections being pruned away and those experiences forgotten.

Dreaming accounts for the other 20% of our sleeping time and the length of dreams can vary from a few seconds to closer to an hour. Dreams tend to last longer as the night progresses and most are quickly or immediately forgotten. During REM sleep, the brain is highly active, while the body’s muscles are paralysed and heart rate increases, and breathing can become erratic. Dreaming is also thought to play some role in learning and memory – after new experiences we tend to dream more. But it doesn’t seem crucial either: doctors found that one 33-year-old man who had little or no REM sleep due to a shrapnel injury in his brainstem had no significant memory problems.

How much sleep is enough?

Eight hours is often quoted, but the optimum sleeping time varies between people and at different times of life. In a comprehensive review, in which 18 experts sifted through 320 existing research articles, the US National Sleep Foundation concluded that the ideal amount to sleep is seven to nine hours for adults, and eight to 10 hours for teenagers. Younger children require much more, with newborn babies needing up to 17 hours each day (not always aligned with the parental sleep cycle).

However, the experts did not consider quality of sleep or how much was SWS v REM. Some people may survive on less sleep because they sleep well, but below seven hours there was compelling evidence for negative impacts on health. According to experts, too much sleep is also bad, but few people appear to be afflicted by this problem. In the UK the average sleep time is 6.8 hours.

What about shift work – does it matter when you sleep?

In the 1930s, an American scientist Nathaniel Kleitman spent 32 days 42m below ground level in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. The aim was to investigate the human body clock. Living in complete isolation, with no external cues of night and day, he adopted a 28-hour day. Despite sticking rigidly to a schedule of mealtimes, delivered in a bucket down a shaft, and bedtime, Kleitman failed to adapt and continued to feel awake only when his assigned “daytime” happened to coincide roughly with daytime in the outside world.

His body temperature also continued to follow a cycle of close to 24 hours. Many shift workers – particularly those working irregular shifts – face similar problems. In recent years this issue has been taken more seriously, with professional sports teams taking on consultants about schedules for training and travel abroad. The US navy has altered its shift system to align it with the 24-hour clock, rather than the 18-hour day used in the old British system.

Why are we stuck on this 24-hour cycle?

Over millions of years of evolution, life has become deeply synchronised with the day-night cycle as our planet rotates. So-called circadian rhythms are evident in almost every life-form and are so firmly imprinted on our biological machinery that they continue even in the absence of any external input. Plants kept in a dark cupboard at a stable temperature open and close their leaves as though they can sense the sun without seeing it.

In the 1970s, scientists uncovered a crucial piece of machinery for this internal molecular timekeeping. In experiments using fruit flies they found a gene, later given the name “period”, whose activity appeared to reliably rise and fall on a 24-hour cycle. Scientists, two of whom received Nobel prizes last year, later showed that the period gene worked by releasing a protein that built up in cells overnight, before being broken down in the daytime.

Later, humans were shown to have the same gene, expressed in a tiny brain area called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). This serves as a conduit between the eye’s retina and the brain’s pineal gland, which pumps out the sleep hormone melatonin. So when it gets dark, we get sleepy.

So is it just our brain that is affected?

The SCN clock is our body’s master timekeeper, but in the past decade, scientists have discovered clock genes are active in almost every cell type in the body, and the activity of roughly half our genes appears to be under circadian control.

The activity of blood, liver, kidney and lung cells in a petri dish all rise and fall on a roughly 24-hour cycle, and virtually everything in our body – from the secretion of hormones to the preparation of digestive enzymes in the gut, from changes in blood pressure to body temperature – is influenced in major ways by what time of day these things are normally needed.

Just how the ticking of each neuron is linked to the more complex brainwave rhythms that emerge in our brain during sleep is not yet clear, but scientists are investigating. When brain cells are grown in a dish in the lab they begin to self-organise and, somewhat unnervingly, start to show patterns of activity similar to those seen during sleep.

Did we sleep more soundly in the past?

Poor sleep is often seen as a modern problem, a blight of sedentary lifestyles and being glued to smartphones late into the night. However, research into the sleep patterns of modern-day hunter gatherers suggests this may paint an overly romantic view of the past. One study, of the Hadza people in northern Tanzania, found frequent night-time waking and widely differing sleep schedules between individuals. Over a three-week period, there were only 18 minutes when all 33 tribe members were asleep simultaneously. The scientists behind the work concluded that fitful sleep could be an ancient survival mechanism designed to guard against nocturnal threats.

The main difference appeared to be that tribe members were unburdened by paranoia and anxiety about sleep problems, which are a common cause of concern in western countries.

What happens when you don’t get enough sleep?

In extreme cases, sleep deprivation can be fatal. Rats that are completely deprived of sleep die within two or three weeks. This experiment hasn’t been repeated in humans – obviously – but even a day or two of sleep deprivation can cause otherwise healthy people to suffer hallucinations and physical symptoms. After a poor night’s sleep, cognitive abilities take an immediate hit. Concentration and memory are noticeably affected and people are more likely to be impulsive and favour instant gratification over waiting for a better outcome. We are also worse people when we’re tired – one study found that sleep deprived people are more likely to cheat and lie.

What about physical health?

Cumulative lack of sleep can have long-term health consequences, and links are seen with obesity, diabetes, heart disease and dementia. Last year, a review of 28 existing studies found that permanent night-shift workers were 29% more likely to develop obesity or become overweight than rotating shift workers. Findings based on more than 2 million individuals found that working night shifts raised the risk of a heart attack or stroke by 41%.

The reasons for some of these associations are complex and hard to separate from other lifestyle factors. The studies mentioned above attempted to filter out socioeconomic factors, for instance, but factors like stress and social isolation can be harder to capture. That said, there is growing evidence for a direct biological influence. Sleep deprivation has been shown to alter the body’s basic metabolism and the balance between fat and muscle mass.

Insomnia has long been known as a common symptom of dementia, but some scientists also believe poor sleep could play a role in causing Alzheimer’s. Research has shown that the brain “cleanses” itself of beta-amyloid proteins linked to Alzheimer’s during sleep and that sleep deprivation causes the levels of these toxins to rise.

Do all animals sleep?

The answer partly depends on what counts as sleep. Most scientists seem to go with the definition of (a) being immobile and (b) being significantly less responsive than when awake. Based on these criteria, there have been some candidates for sleepless species, but none has been conclusively shown to be true. The bullfrog was an early contender – a 1967 study found the frogs reacted similarly when given electric shocks in the daytime and middle of the night. But doubt has since been cast on this finding. There are animals that require little sleep: adult giraffes rarely sleep for more than five minutes at a time, while the little black bat is thought to sleep for 19 hours each day. And sleep is not the same for all animals. Dolphins have the ability to put only half their brains to sleep at a time, known as unihemispheric sleep. Migratory birds are thought to sleep-fly and sharks sleep-swim.