More sleep means less chances of getting the flu

In 2015 researchers at Carnegie Mellon University conducted a study involving 153 participants who documented their sleep patterns and voluntarily subjected themselves to rhinovirus infused nasal drops. The results were overwhelming, showing that individuals who sleep an average of six hours or less each night are over four times more likely to catch the common cold than those who sleep seven hours or more. Participants who averaged five hours showed even greater susceptibility to infection. In other words, the more sleep you get in the weeks leading up to viral exposure, the less likely you are to catch a bug.

Quality is as important as quantity

But it wasn’t simply the duration of sleep that proved significant in flu prevention. Sleep efficiency, a measure that accounts for overall sleep quality by discounting disturbances and middle-of-the-night awakenings, was the primary predictor of infection. More so than age, BMI, race, sex, season of exposure, psychological factors such as stress, or health practices such as smoking and physical activity, the quality of your sleep is the most predictive measure of your viral susceptibility. So, the deeper you sleep, the less likely you are to come down with a cold or a flu.

Sleep also helps to heal an infection sooner

Sleep not only promotes your ability to avoid infection, but it’s a major factor in the ability to recover once you’ve contracted a virus. Extended periods of deep sleep allow for the production of immune bodies such as T cells. T Cells exist in two varieties, Killer T Cells, which scan the body and destroy infected and cancerous cells and Helper T Cells, which coordinate immune responses through the release of messenger molecules called cytokines. Cytokines travel throughout the body regulating and activating appropriate pathways within your body’s adaptive response to pathogens. Sleep deprivation prevents proliferation of these essential immune bodies, depleting your arsenal and leaving you with weakened defense.

Interestingly, in the Carnegie Mellon study I cited earlier, the sensation of feeling “well rested” was not a sure indicator of good health in study participants. It was the objective measure of sleep quality and duration rather than perceived energy level that carried weight. There is no shortchanging the physiological processes that repair our bodies and brains and bolster our immune responses while we sleep. It’s not always easy to get the 7 – 9.5 hours of sleep necessary to optimise your physical and cognitive health, but if you prioritise your commitments and exercise good sleep hygiene, you’ll be well on your way to kicking the common cold and keeping the flu at bay.

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Melatonin is a hormone which plays an integral role in circadian cycles and the regulation of sleep onset. Studies have proven judicious melatonin dosage is effective in easing jet lag and shift work sleep disruptions, maintaining sleep patterns in children with neuro-developmental disabilities and in older adults with natural melatonin deficiencies.

In addition to sleep regulation, melatonin functions as an antioxidant, preventing cell damage and inflammation through elimination of free radicals. Recent studies have shown that melatonin, by virtue of these free-radical scavenging properties, could even be responsible for reducing neuronal damage in cases of stroke, chemical toxicity, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

With all of this evidence stacked up in its favor, why not head for the pharmacy to stock up on the supplement? Wait!

Possible Side Effects of Using Melatonin Supplements for Sleep

First, it’s important to recognize that your body produces its own melatonin. This endogenous supply is produced primarily by a small gland just above the center of your brain, the pineal gland. Retinal [eyes], epithelial [skin], and intestinal cells also produce melatonin, but not in the form that regulates circadian rhythms. While external melatonin, whether from natural food sources or a supplement, interacts with your brain in the same way as the bodily form, the influx of the hormone can flood your system and offset your natural melatonin production.

When you purchase melatonin as a supplement in the pharmacy, you typically get a dose between 1 and 10mg. This is a dramatically large range which reflects the lack of regulation on production and sales. Melatonin is the only hormone in the United States available for purchase without a prescription. And the United States is one of the only western nations that allows non-prescriptive sales of the hormone. Because melatonin can be obtained through natural food sources, it is designated as a dietary supplement alongside vitamins and minerals. This designation absolves melatonin sales from FDA regulation, meaning that the factory-produced, synthetic hormone makes it to the shelf in doses that are much too large and with incredible variance in purity between brands.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, a melatonin dosage of 1mg to 3mg can increase its blood levels to up to 20 times their normal value. This is problematic because in excess, this hormone can cause grogginess and sleep inertia the following day. Sleep inertia is the physiological condition that persists between sleep and wakefulness, characterized by impaired cognitive, sensory motor acuity and persistent drowsiness. Melatonin production by the pineal gland is a single element in an eloquent symphony of hormonal regulation; cranking up the volume on any one contributor will throw off the balance of the entire ensemble and offset your body’s natural cadence. In most cases of insomnia and delayed sleep onset in adults, there is not enough evidence, particularly for long term intervention, to support supplementation.  It is far safer and more effective to promote the body’s natural ability to produce the hormone on its own.

So How Do You Make Your Body Produce the Right Amount of Melatonin?

In order to synthesize melatonin, your body needs access to all the right ingredients, the main one being tryptophan, an amino acid. You may remember hearing this funny word around Thanksgiving, when turkey is held responsible for the drowsiness after the Thanksgiving meal. And there’s something to this. Turkey, like chicken, eggs, cheese, meat, is rich in tryptophan. In a series of reactions, tryptophan is converted to serotonin, which is then converted to melatonin. But tryptophan isn’t the only ingredient needed to synthesize melatonin. Other key players include vitamin B6 and co-enzyme A, a derivative of biotin and amino acid L-lysine.

Both tryptophan and lysine are essential amino acids, meaning they cannot be synthesized by the body and therefore must be obtained in the diet.  Foods such as nuts, seeds, beans, lentils, poultry, and eggs all contain high levels of tryptophan, lysine, and vitamin B6. You can also use supplements to obtain a balanced mix of these crucial ingredients. Adhering to a healthy diet rich in melatonin precursors will optimize your body’s ability to synthesize melatonin and naturally regulate consistent sleep-wake cycles.

More Reasons to Break the Bad Habits

For as much emphasis as you place on putting healthy fuels into your body, equal care should be given to keeping unhealthy substances out. Caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol suppress melatonin production and will result in disrupted sleep patterns. Additionally, surges in blood sugar cause cortisol levels to spike and melatonin levels to plummet. So if you’re trying to kick a sweet-tooth induced habit, this is one more reason to do so. And if you’re accustomed to grabbing a late-night snack, avoid the sweets and make sure it’s low in carbohydrates. Human physiology is dynamic and resilient. Give your body its best shot at wellness and self-regulation by breaking these habits.

Exercise During the Day, Cut the Lights at Night

In general, exercise will improve the quality of your sleep, but exercising at night can decrease melatonin production and delay or prevent sleep onset. If possible, exercise during the morning [not at the expense of your sleep quantity] or in the afternoon. Adopting a consistent schedule will assist your body in regulating hormonal balance and maintaining circadian rhythms.

The most important way to promote your circadian rhythm and your body’s melatonin producing abilities is through regulation of light exposure. Light, registered as an electrical impulse, passes along a bundle of nerves from the eye to the brain, signaling and synchronizing circadian processes throughout the body. This electrical impulse deactivates the pineal gland, inhibiting melatonin.  However in the absence of light, the pineal gland is able to operate in high gear producing melatonin and promoting sleep onset and maintenance. It is important to establish a regular schedule that involves exposing yourself to bright light every morning and avoiding daylight spectrum and blue light within an hour of bedtime.  This means no TVs, tablets, phones, computers, or bright households lights.  Dim the lights and put away the electronics to set the stage for a sound night’s sleep.

Related » Daytime strategies to help you sleep better

Conclusion

While it is a key element in sleep physiology, it is essential to consider supplemental melatonin dosage with proper discernment.  If you regularly travel internationally, work night shifts, or if you’re over the age of 60 and have difficulty sleeping, with the consultation of your doctor, a melatonin supplement could be an effective alternative to prescription sleep aids. However, before visiting the pharmacy, give your body a chance to produce and regulate an endogenous supply of melatonin by adopting a healthy diet, maintaining a regular schedule, and regulating your exposure to light.

The post How to Improve Melatonin Production Naturally and Sleep Better appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

1. Establish a regular sleep-wake schedule

The single most effective strategy for improved sleep is establishing a consistent schedule. Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. Pre-deadline days, weekends, birthdays, and holidays are no exception; your circadian rhythm does not, unfortunately, accommodate your social life or your professional obligations. It is vital to maintain consistency despite the occasion.

Inconsistent sleep schedules correlate with poor sleep quality, increased sleep latency [time it takes to fall asleep], and shortened sleep duration. To establish consistency in your sleep routine, start by determining your sleep need. The majority of the adult population requires 7.5 to 9 hours each night for optimal performance and alertness the following day. However, this need fluctuates with age and activity level, and is largely specific to the individual.

Studies show that most people overestimate their actual sleep and underestimate their sleep need [you would have thought it’s the other way!], so choose a realistic schedule that fulfills your true sleep need and stick to it. Adding one to two more hours can dramatically change your health, your mood, and your daytime performance.

2. Ditch the snooze button

If you’re getting enough sleep and keeping a regular schedule, you should have no use for an alarm, much less the snooze button. It’s not an issue of mind over matter, it’s a physiological necessity. If you’re not getting enough sleep or if you’re waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle, you’re going to feel drowsy, but pressing the snooze button won’t help.

Pressing it affords you only a few minutes of fragmented rest, which leaves you feeling more groggy than you would otherwise. Either set your alarm later to maximise quality sleep or bite the bullet and wake up on the first alarm and plan for a power nap or an earlier bedtime.

3. Expose yourself to bright light every morning

Your body’s physiological [circadian] rhythm is a symphony of physiological and behavioral patterns conducted by the suprachiasmatic nuclei [SCN], a 20,000 neuron area in the brain’s hypothalamus. Through electrical impulse, the SCN controls the crescendos and decrescendos of body temperature, hormone production and release, neural activity, and resultant patterns of drowsiness and alertness. These cycles maintain a pattern that is nearly 24 hours in length, but they depend on external stimuli, namely light, to keep the cycle in sync with the 24 hour progression of the external world.

Start your day by exposing yourself to bright [ideally natural] light for at least 15 minutes first thing in the morning to “sync” your circadian rhythm and activate the systems that keep you awake and active.

4. Avoid light exposure within one hour of sleep

Melatonin is a hormone chiefly responsible for coordinating your circadian rhythm. Its release is dependent on the absence of light. The absence of light triggers melatonin release, which initiates the onset of sleep and is integral to every stage of sleep thereafter.

Electronic devices like TV and iPads emit daylight spectrum light. As long as you’re in front of a screen or under bright household lights, you’re inhibiting melatonin release and sleep onset. It’s important to avoid light exposure for an hour before going to sleep or wear blue light blocking glasses to prevent retinal stimulation. This cues your body to release melatonin and ready itself for sleep.

5. Cut caffeine from late afternoon to bedtime

It takes at least six hours to metabolise caffeine, so it’s a good idea to stop drinking energy drinks, sodas, coffee, and tea from late in the afternoon until bedtime. Also avoid other caffeine sources, including chocolate or java flavoured desserts and protein bars, and more surprising sources including some weight-loss pills and pain relievers.

The final caffeine caveat is to mind your decaffeinated beverages. The FDA designates decaffeinated coffee as containing 2-5mg of caffeine per 5oz cup. This concentration alone can disrupt sleep and considering that most retailed decaf coffee contains levels far exceeding this limit, it’s wise to completely cut coffee consumption from mid afternoon.

6. Avoid alcohol consumption within three hours of bedtime

If you’re one to partake, you know that alcohol, being a depressant, can make you drowsy. But don’t let this sensation fool you into believing that alcohol consumption aids sleep. Alcohol, in fact, does just the opposite. It disrupts your circadian rhythm, causing mid-night awakenings and preventing restorative REM sleep.

Aside from disturbing your physiological sleep rhythm, alcohol can increase snoring and sleep apnea by decreasing muscle tone and it will likely cause disruptive trips to the restroom [not the kind of rest you want or need].

Avoiding alcohol consumption within three hours of bedtime ensures a restful and uninterrupted snooze.

7. Exercise regularly

Regular exercise reduces the incidence of insomnia, decreases snoring and sleep apnea through weight loss, and improves overall restfulness through improved respiration and circulation.

Body temperature is an important component of circadian rhythm. Core body temperature spikes during exercise, then plummets approximately five hours later. Coordinating this with the natural rise in body temperature in the morning or the natural drop in body temperature preceding sleep optimises the onset, quality, and duration of sleep.

Morning and afternoon exercise are therefore optimal, while evening and late night workouts are likely to delay the onset of sleep. However, if you opt for a morning workout, be sure not to compromise your nocturnal sleep requirement.

8. Eat a balanced, anti-inflammatory diet

When it comes to diet, the major aim is stabilising blood sugar, obtaining necessary micronutrients, and balancing consumption of protein, fibre, and healthy fat. Doing so will promote healthy hormone production and release, avoid inflammation, equip your body with adequate fuel, and ultimately contribute to optimal sleep latency, quality, and duration.

Stabilise blood sugar by eating meal low in glycemic index every five hours. Avoid processed foods and added sugar. This will help regulate cortisol levels, preventing disruption of REM sleep.

Build your meals up from a base of vitamin and mineral rich veggies, clean proteins, and healthy fats. This will provide the necessary precursors for sleep inducing hormones, while minimising inflammation and spikes in blood glucose.

Begin curbing difficult-to-digest foods three hours before bedtime. This includes spicy, fried, and high protein foods. Instead, opt for fruits such as cherries, kiwis, and bananas, which are readily digestible and packed with potassium and magnesium for muscle relaxation.

9. Quit smoking

Cigarette smoke is a multifaceted sleep thief. Nicotine, a stimulant, inhibits the onset of sleep and causes insomnia and increased awakenings. Individuals who smoke cigarettes are also 2.5 times more likely to suffer from obstructive sleep apnea due to inflamed tissues in the nose and throat.

Smoking alters the expression of genes that facilitate circadian rhythms and may permanently hamper the quality of your sleep. Quitting relieves symptomatic sleep problems and avoiding cigarettes altogether places you among the soundest sleeping demographic.

10. Practice mindfulness

Maintaining a prayer life or cultivating a meditation or yoga practice has been linked to healthier sleep habits and sounder sleep. These practices maintain stress hormone levels during the day that otherwise accumulate to disrupt the onset and depth of sleep come nighttime.

Meditation enhances neural plasticity and network synchronisation, which allows for seamless transitions into and out of deep sleep.

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Sleep myth 1: During sleep, your brain rests completely

Most people think of sleep as a passive, dormant part of their daily lives. Wakefulness contains only a single brain wave. To be physically, psychologically, and emotionally at your best, you have to experience five different types of brain waves every night during sleep. That’s how much work your brain does while you are asleep. The sleeping brain regulates endocrine, immune, and hormonal functions essential for healthy living. It is also a critical period for memory consolidation.

Sleep myth 2: Sleeping longer makes you gain weight

The opposite is true. Lack of sleep can stall your weight loss efforts. By adding one extra hour of sleep every night, you can lose up to half kg per week. Sleep deprivation causes leptin levels to decrease and ghrelin levels to increase, leaving you craving for sugars and junk food. That’s how, contrary to popular belief, regular and sound sleep can actually help you lose weight.

Sleep myth 3: You can condition yourself to need less sleep

You may want to believe that but you cannot convince your body of it. You can condition yourself to wake up after just a few hours of sleep, but it does not change your need for adequate sleep. Your sleep requirement is hard-wired! Determine the amount of sleep that will permit you to be energetic and alert all day long. You must condition yourself so that the hours in bed correspond to the sleeping phase of your circadian rhythm and the hours out of bed correspond to the waking phase. Therefore, establish a regular sleep/wake schedule, Monday through Monday, including the weekends.

Sleep myth 4: A boring meeting, warm room, or low dose of alcohol helps you fall asleep

Not true, unless you are sleep deprived. These factors simply unmask the sleepiness that is already in your body. If you are not sleep deprived, you may be restless and fidgety, but not sleepy.

Sleep myth 5: Snoring is not harmful

If left untreated, heavy snoring can lead to a higher risk of high blood pressure [heart attacks and strokes]. Heavy snoring with repetitive pauses in your breathing, followed by a gasping for air, is indicative of sleep apnoea. This life-threatening breathing disorder is commonly treated non-surgically by wearing a mask at night that delivers continuous, positive airway pressure through the nose to keep the airway open. Without the mask, these individuals may stop breathing up to 600 times a night and must wake up for a microsecond each time to resume normal breathing.

Sleep myth 6: Not everyone dreams at night

All of us dream every night, although many do not remember having done so. Most dreams occur during rapid eye movement [REM] sleep that occurs every 90 minutes. If you sleep for eight hours, approximately two hours will be spent dreaming.

Sleep myth 7: The older you get; the lesser sleep you need

As you age, the ability to maintain sleep becomes more difficult. This is due to hardening of the arteries or the result of taking medications for rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension, or type II diabetes that may interfere with sleep. We need almost as much sleep in our senior years as we needed when we were of middle age or younger.

Sleep myth 8: Most people know how sleepy they are

The majority of sleepers overestimate the amount they actually have slept by about 47 minutes.

Sleep myth 9: Raising the volume of your radio, air conditioning or drinking coffee will help you stay awake while driving

None of these “remedies” will help prevent drowsiness or falling asleep at the wheel for a person who is sleep deprived. Drowsiness is a red alert—get off the road and take a 20-minute power nap in a safe area. At best you will have another 30 minutes of driving.

Sleep myth 10: Sleep disorders are mainly due to worry

There are 89 known sleep disorders whose causes range from neurological issues to biochemical imbalance and physiological problems. Examples are sleep apnoea, narcolepsy, restless leg syndrome, nocturnal myoclonus, enuresis, sleepwalking, sleep talking, and REM sleep behaviour.

Sleep myth 11: Most sleep disorders go away without treatment

Sleep disturbances that last for more than three weeks typically require professional treatment, ranging from learning good sleep hygiene practices to medicines and psychotherapy.

Sleep myth 12: Men need more sleep than women

On the contrary, women tend to need more sleep than men, especially during premenstrual, pregnancy, and premenopausal stages. Women sleep lighter than men and are more susceptible to bouts of insomnia.

Sleep myth 13: By playing audiotapes during the night, you can learn while you sleep

If you are asleep you cannot acquire new knowledge. However, sleep enables you to process and retain information learned during wakefulness and recall it better the next day.

Sleep myth 14: If you have insomnia at night, you should make up by sleeping in the day

If you wish to cure your nocturnal insomnia you should never nap during the day.

Sleep myth 15: The best time to exercise is early in the morning when you are most alert

Exercise is good for promoting the quantity and quality of sleep whenever done during the day. However, early morning exercise is only suitable for people who have met their nocturnal sleep requirement. Furthermore, it’s best to avoid heavy aerobic exercise within an hour of bedtime.

Sleep myth 16: Sex at night will arouse you and keep you up, delaying sleep onset

Satisfactory sex might help you to go to sleep fairly quickly. However, concerns about performance and unsatisfactory sex can delay sleep onset and make sleep more fitful.

Sleep myth 17: A sound sleeper rarely moves during the night

Most people move 40 – 60 times during the night although they might be unaware of having done so.

Sleep myth 18: A glass of wine before bed helps you fall asleep

A nightcap might put you to sleep but any alcohol within three hours of bedtime is likely to disrupt ensuing REM sleep. Alcohol in large amounts is a stimulant, not a sedative.

Sleep myth 19: Sleeping in late on the weekends is a good way to catch up on lost sleep

You have one biological clock—not one for the workweek and one for the weekends. You must go to bed and get up at the same time Monday through Monday. To do otherwise would have the same effect of dieting or exercising only on the weekends—it doesn’t work.

Sleep myth 20: It is not normal to awaken several times a night

It is rare that people can sleep uninterrupted for long periods of time. However, if you wake up during the night and cannot get back to sleep within 20 minutes, this is indicative of insomnia. Often such awakenings will last for an entire 90-minute wake period before you will be able to resume sleep.

Sleep myth 21: Cozying up under heavy blankets will make you go to sleep faster

An ideal sleeping room temperature is between 65 – 67 degrees Fahrenheit. Being too warm may lead to awakenings and emotionally laden dreams.

Sleep myth 22: You are a good sleeper if you can fall asleep within five minutes

The well-rested sleeper will take about 20 minutes to fall asleep. Going to sleep as soon as your head hits the pillow is a sure sign of sleep deprivation.

Sleep myth 23: Sleeping pills are absolutely safe if taken in correct dose

Many sleeping medications can be harmful, causing memory loss, daytime grogginess, depression, cancer and even death. Cognitive behaviour therapy for solving sleep problems is a much better long-term treatment for insomnia.

Sleep myth 24: Sleep cannot help you improve your athletic skills

In the last quartile in an 8-hour night, the brain secretes calcium into your motor cortex. This permits well-rehearsed good athletic moves to be consolidated into motor muscle memory, improving athleticism, reaction time, and situational awareness.

The post 24 surprising sleep myths and facts appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Why do we persist in thinking that it’s efficient, effective, and macho to function on as few hours of sleep as possible?

For one, we simply don’t understand the importance of sleep and the serious deleterious consequences of sleep deprivation on health and performance. These include a significantly higher risk of high blood pressure [heart attacks and strokes], type-2 diabetes, depression, influenza, skin and allergy conditions, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and obesity. Furthermore, sleep deprivation disrupts cognitive processing, including acquisition, retention and recall of information, as well as diminishing our creativity, and critical thinking skills.

Along with not understanding sleep’s importance, many of us suffer occasionally from one or more of the 89 known sleep disorders and are unaware of the proper treatments. In a culture that devalues sleep, we think we can accomplish more if we sleep less. Nothing could be further from the truth. After 16 hours of being awake, we are incapable of performing efficiently and effectively; mistakes are made and accidents and illness often follow. The bottom line is that most of us have no clue as to what constitutes good sleep hygiene and how to obtain a great night’s sleep for a better tomorrow.

Here are five golden rules of sleep:

1. Determine your personal sleep requirement

How many hours of sleep do you get per night? The majority of us are moderately to severely sleep deprived. In fact, 71 per cent do not meet the recommended 7.5 – 9.25 hours per night.

Determine and meet your sleep requirement every night. It’s hard-wired, not adaptable! There are individual differences that are genetically determined. For example, if both of your parents are short sleepers, you may be one of the lucky five per cent of the population who can perform satisfactorily on less than six hours of sleep per night.

An adequate night’s sleep should leave you feeling wide-awake and energetic all day long, with little to no need for an afternoon nap. If you experience daytime sleepiness, start by adding 15 minutes to your normal routine each night until you feel fully rested all day long. This is your set point for a great night’s sleep.

The majority of us are moderately to severely sleep deprived

To test your finding, you should subtract 15 minutes of sleep for a night to see if it affects your energy levels the next day. If you are a bit sleepy, you’ll know that you are not quite meeting your required amount of sleep. Most people will find they should add at least one more hour to their current sleeping time. If that’s you, you’ll quickly realise that you never really knew what it’s like to be fully alert and at your best physically, emotionally and cognitively. We need to value sleep. To be healthy and a peak performer, sleep is not a luxury; it’s a necessity.

2. Establish a normal sleep/wake schedule

While you may be tempted to make up for lost sleep during the week by sleeping longer on the weekends, this can be very disruptive to your circadian rhythm. Instead, try to go to bed and get up at, or near, the same time every day. We only have one biological clock that determines our wakefulness and sleepiness, not one for the weekday and one for the weekend.

We must synchronise the sleepy phase of our biological clock with the hours we spend in bed and the waking phase for the hours we are out of bed. If we vary our sleep/wake schedule, it has the same effect of eastbound jet lag. We will have daytime sleep inertia, feel drowsy and lack mental clarity throughout the day.

Take a hot bath, do some easy stretching, yoga, or meditation before sleeping to help you relax

3. Use these proven strategies for great sleep

Get plenty of exercise everyday, even if it’s just taking the dog for a 20-minute walk after dinner. Avoid heavy cardio workouts within an hour of bedtime. Eliminate caffeine after 2pm. Even decaffeinated coffee contains small amounts of caffeine, so avoid that too if possible. Refrain from drinking alcohol within three hours of bedtime. Alcohol in large amounts is a stimulant, not a sedative. Therefore, while you may feel that alcohol helps you fall asleep, it actually disturbs your sleep every 90 minutes thereafter.

Be sure to avoid the use of electronics within one hour of bedtime. Television, computer screens, and iPads contain blue daylight spectrum light that blocks the secretion of melatonin, thus making it more difficult to fall asleep when you turn off the lights. If you must watch these screens, be sure to use blue daylight spectrum blocking glasses. Make sure that your bedroom is quiet, dark, and cool. You can also take a hot bath, do some easy stretching, yoga, or meditation before sleeping to help you relax.

4. Get one block of continuous sleep

To give you adequate nocturnal sleep in one block of time, avoid naps and falling asleep in the reclining chair after dinner. Those with insomnia must avoid any napping. Continuous sleep does not mean totally uninterrupted sleep. It’s completely normal to wake up several times during the night. Don’t worry if you can fall back to sleep within 20 minutes. If you do find yourself awake for longer, you might remain awake for as long as 90 minutes. Get out of bed, keep the lights low and read a book or do some light housework rather than toss and turn in bed.

Sleep loss doesn’t disappear by itself—you have to pay it back

5. Make up for lost sleep

For every hour you are awake, you increase your sleep debt. It takes one hour of sleep to make up for every two hours of being awake. If you are up for 16 hours, you need to sleep eight hours that night to fully restore your energy.

Sleep loss doesn’t disappear by itself—you have to pay it back. Compare your sleep to a bank account; if you make a withdrawal, the balance is reduced until you put money back into your account. Similarly, if you have a sleep debt, your loss accumulates. Therefore, make up for lost sleep as soon as possible. You can’t do it all at once, but after a week of adequate sleep you should be back on track.

Lauren Sietz is pursuing a Master’s degree in Physician Assistant Studies.
Emily Coolen is a certified personal trainer and sleep educator.

The post The five golden rules of sleep: Ignore them at your own risk appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Napping can be healthy. Research in Greece showed that napping lowers the risk of heart attack and stroke, while other studies have yielded similar findings for obesity and diabetes. Napping benefits the mind, too—enhancing creative thinking, boosting cognitive processing, improving memory recall, and clearing the cobwebs.

Even a few minutes of napping helps

Most napaphobes assume there’s no way they can relax, doze off and get any amount of sleep in just twenty minutes. But remember that a nap is not the same type of sleep you get at night. It’s something different, and it must be approached as such.

Think of it this way: Your body is hungry for sleep, but you can’t give it a full-course meal during the day. You can, however, serve up a pretty tasty snack—one that replenishes its energy store, takes the edge off its appetite, and allows it to continue functioning without distraction. Viewed this way, it’s easier to see how even a 20-minute nap can satisfy the body.

For the sleep-deprived, naps that are long enough to include some REM sleep have the ability to increase motor skill performance by 16 per cent.

Is a nap right for me?

If you’re one of the lucky few who gets adequate sleep every night, you may not need [or be able] to nap. However, for the rest of us, life happens. When sleep is curtailed at night, a nap can be a stop-gap measure to get through the day. Naps can also be part of a well-rested person’s normal routine, serving as a natural, mid-day pick-me-up.

Our bodies are programmed with a biphasic sleep pattern, which means they cycle through two periods of drowsiness every 24 hours. One is between 2 – 4pm, and the other is in the late evening before bed.

The corporate world’s answer to the mid-afternoon energy dip has traditionally been a coffee or a cola break. However, these caffeinated quick fixes often interfere with the night-time sleep cycle. A better remedy, when possible, is to get a short nap.

In Greece, southern Italy, and throughout Latin America, the siesta is used to counteract this dip and escape the hottest part of the day. Yet even in Spain, only 7 per cent of the population naps. Unlike every other mammal on the planet, we increasingly fight the urge because we’re too busy, too stubborn, or too ashamed to admit that we need rest. But it’s time we tuck that thinking away.

How long should I nap?

In theory, you have two options. Depending on how much time you have, a nap of 20 or 90 minutes will leave you feeling refreshed. Why these specific times? While sleeping, your body progresses through five distinct sleep cycles ranging from light [stages 1 and 2] through delta or slow-wave sleep [stages 3 and 4] to REM, the deepest of all [stage 5]. A successful nap is one that either takes you through just the first two stages [generally 20 minutes] or one that goes through one complete sleep cycle and awakens you during stage 2 of the next cycle [usually about 90 minutes].

The key is to wake up during a lighter sleep stage in order to feel rejuvenated. Otherwise, you’ll feel more groggy than before. That’s why a one hour nap is usually not a good idea.

Won’t napping make it harder for me to fall asleep at night?

Only if you break the rules we just outlined and wake up four hours later in a pool of drool. Be careful, however, if you have a history of insomnia. If so, napping may not be a good idea. Experiment with a 20-minute nap first to see if it has any effect. Some insomniacs actually find that napping reduces their sleep anxiety and allows them to doze off more easily at night. Incidentally, people who skip naps don’t sleep any better or longer at night than those who do nap.

Does napping help make up for lost sleep?

Yes, but it should be considered an alternative—not an antidote—for bad sleep habits. While it’s nourishing and even luxurious to nap, there are many times when we can’t turn off the world for even 20 minutes. That’s why consistent, night-time sleep is so important and the reason it should be your priority.

I tried, but I just can’t nap…

Nobel Prize winners, presidents, distinguished scientists, and athletes all nap: John Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Thomas Edison, Lance Armstrong—there’s no reason you can’t, too. If you’re having trouble napping, you might be too caffeinated, there may be too much light or noise in the room, or you may harbour subconscious fears of getting caught. Or, more positively, you may be sufficiently rested and not need a nap.

Close the door, turn down the lights, and put in some earplugs. If you don’t have the luxury of privacy, consider a bathroom stall, your car, a corporate nap room [if you’re so lucky]. Whenever you nap, you should set a small alarm in order to wake up at the prescribed time.

Most important, try to forget about the to-do list in your head. Write everything down if it’ll help clear it, and tell yourself that although you may feel overwhelmed now, when you wake up you’ll be better prepared to start crossing things off.

What ingredients are necessary for a perfect nap?

Time: If you don’t make time to nap, you won’t have time to nap. Don’t blame your lifestyle, job, or the number of hours in the day. If you have time to run to the coffee shop for a latte, you have time to nap. Just as with anything else, it’s a matter of prioritising.

Clear mind: Sweep your head of ‘nap blockers.’ Put your cell phone on silent, set an alarm that you can trust, and put your computer into sleep mode. If you have to, make a list of things you need to handle as soon as you wake up.

Darkness: Do everything you can to block the light in your napping place, or simply use an eye mask.

Quiet: Noise, unless it’s white noise, will ruin your chances of taking a quality nap. Use earplugs or noise-cancelling headphones; turn on a fan, an air conditioner, or something else that generates ambient noise.

Comfort: You may not be able to get into your PJs and hop into bed, but get as close [and as comfortable] to that scenario as you can. Lie down. Otherwise, use a mat or just sit back in your chair. Support your head and limbs so you won’t jerk yourself awake once you get past Stage 1 sleep [which lasts two to five minutes]. Your body associates certain positions with sleep, so anything you can do to trick it into thinking it’s bedtime will help.

Cool temperature: Sleep researchers recommend a chilly 18 – 20 degrees Celsius for optimal night-time sleeping. This is because good nocturnal sleep is triggered by low body temperature. Naps, however, usually occur at a time of the day when our core body temperature is at its highest, so try to cool down a bit. You should be comfortable—not too hot or too cold.

Guiltlessness: Feel safe. Feel peaceful. Feel entitled to take this small amount of time for yourself.

Adapted from the book Sleep for Success by James Maas and Rebecca Robbins

This was first published in the July 2012 issue of Complete Wellbeing.

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Why we sleep

We sleep for two reasons: First, our bodies run in cycles called circadian rhythms, of which the sleep cycle is one. Many of these cycles, such as heartbeat, blood pressure, respiration, metabolism and temperature, drop or slow down during the sleep cycle. Mission control for all these processes is a part of the midbrain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus. This is where your master body clock is located. If this nucleus is damaged or removed, you end up taking lots of short naps instead of one long sleep period.

Your circadian rhythms are set by various time cues called zeitgebers. Light is the most powerful zeitgeber that affects sleep. Daylight wakes you up and darkness triggers the release of the hormone melatonin that brings on sleep. Noise and temperature also play key roles in the regulation of your sleep schedule.

The second reason we sleep is because the longer we’re awake, the greater our need for mental and physical restoration. It takes one hour of sleep to pay for every two hours of wakefulness. So we start to tire after being up for about 16 hours. Sleep debt is cumulative, which means the longer you deprive yourself of rest, the more you’ll need it to feel rested. How drowsy or alert you are depends on both your circadian rhythms and your sleep debt.

While you are sleeping…

Given that we spend [or should] spend one-third of our lives sleeping, it’s alarming how little we know about our down time. Does it surprise you that 40 per cent of laypersons and physicians think the brain shuts down and takes rest when we fall asleep? Many people believe that soon after going to bed they drift into deep sleep, remain there for some time, have an occasional dream, and then awaken for the new day. Actually, there are several stages of sleep, each marked by significant physiological changes.

The night is divided into non-REM [non-rapid eye movement] and REM [rapid eye movement] sleep. REM sleep is the period in which most dreams take place. Non-REM is also referred to as ‘slow-wave’ sleep and is subdivided into several stages, earmarked by different brainwaves and purposes.

Non-REM sleep

As you close your eyes, your brainwaves become slower and more regular. This stage is akin to meditation. Next is the Stage 1 period, which lasts for about five minutes as your breathing slows and your large muscles begin to relax.

The transition to Stage 2 is sometimes marked by a fleeting sensation of falling, causing you to wake momentarily with a jerk [not referring to your spouse]. During this period, you disengage from the environment and become blissfully unaware of any outside stimuli. Researchers believe Stage 2 is the beginning of actual sleep. It’s marked by spikes in brainwave activity called sleep spindles and K-complexes, which interrupt those previously regular waves. Stage 2 lasts 10 ­– 25 minutes, but you’ll return to it several times before daybreak, accounting for half of your night’s slumber.

Next comes Stage 3 sleep, which is characterised by slow brainwaves called theta waves. These are interspersed by even slower delta waves. You’ll spend just a half-hour here, but eventually it will comprise up to 20 per cent of your total night’s sleep.

When the theta waves disappear, you enter stage 4. This is the deepest sleep stage, which consists totally of delta waves. On your initial visit it lasts for 30 – 40 minutes. If aroused during Stage 4, you’ll feel groggy and disoriented. During this stage, blood pressure drops, respiration slows and blood flow to your muscles decreases. The secretion of growth hormone by the pituitary gland also peaks, stimulating body development and tissue repair. That’s why uninterrupted deep sleep of significant duration is especially critical for children and adolescents. And it’s also why we sleep more when we’re sick. So in Stage 4, you’re completely unaware of your surroundings and at your most vulnerable. It’s the closest humans get to hibernation.

REM sleep

After 30 – 40 minutes of Stage 4 sleep, you re-trace your steps through Stages 3 and 2. You’ve now been asleep for about 90 – 100 minutes. Then something astonishing happens: Instead of going back into Stage 1 or ‘twilight’ sleep, your sympathetic nervous system becomes more active than it is in slow-wave sleep or even when awake. Blood flow to the brain, respiration, pulse rate, blood pressure and body temperature all increase. Your eyes dart back and forth under their lids, and you enter the highly active stage of REM sleep.

Here, messages from the brain’s motor cortex are blocked at the brainstem. As a result, muscles relax, and you’re unable to move. That’s why REM sleepers are described as having “an active brain in a paralysed body.” It’s during the first part of REM that you experience your first dream of the night. Just like clockwork [because, in fact, this entire system is run by your biological clock], you enter REM sleep every 90 minutes throughout the night. When you’re sleeping adequately, you visit it 4 – 5 times, with each REM period being twice as long as the last. This is why your final few hours of rest are so important; they’re almost entirely REM sleep. If you’re asleep for eight hours, you’ll have spent between one-and-a-half to two hours of the night in REM.

Although dreaming can occur in all stages, about 85 per cent takes place here. REM dreams are usually the most vivid and emotional. But REM just isn’t about dreaming. The previous day’s events are solidified into permanent memory traces, and sequences of learned skills [like a new golf swing] become muscle memories in this stage.

To be wide awake, energetic, psychologically, emotionally and physiologically at your best, you must play every movement of the symphony of the night. The problem is many of us never get beyond Stage 2 sleep, due to stress, ageing or medications taken for other medical problems such as rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension or type-2 diabetes.

If you don’t sleep…

Adequate sleep is essential for performance and general health. There’s no escaping the debilitating effects of insidious sleepiness, no matter how motivated, responsible or strong you are.

Physical effects

Not sleeping makes you prone to…

• Wrinkles: Sufficient sleep is required to maintain good skin texture and a healthy glow. The first area of skin to be effected by a lack of sleep is the eyelids. The skin is very thin here, so lack of sleep causes puffy eye bags, fine lines, and dark circles. In the long term, lack of sleep causes the skin to age faster leading to wrinkles, poor texture, and discoloration much earlier in life than in well-rested individuals. During sleep, the body metabolises free radicals that accelerate ageing and cancerous growths. Without sufficient sleep, more free radicals are present in the skin leading to poor skin quality and even skin cancer. Sustained sleep deprivation impairs host defence. So, if the skin is exposed to bacteria or is healing from a lesion, lack of sleep will increase the amount of healing time required and may result in more severe bacterial skin infections.
• Daytime drowsiness: This usually manifests itself as a temporary drop in energy and alertness around mid-afternoon. It’s accompanied by feelings of inattentiveness and grogginess, particularly when doing dull or repetitive tasks. It’s more likely to occur after a heavy meal or a low dose of alcohol, or while sitting in a warm room, listening to a boring lecture, or participating in a dull meeting. These factors do not cause sleepiness; they simply unmask the physiological fatigue that’s already present.
• Microsleeps: These are brief episodes of sleep that you’re unaware of and that occur during waking hours. Lasting only a few seconds, microsleeps can produce inattention, resulting in accidents and injury.
• Sleep seizures: These are unintended longer episodes of sleep that come on as rapidly as a seizure, occurring without warning in a severely sleep-deprived person.
• Colds and flu: Jan Born at the University of Luebeck in Germany found that people who sleep less than six hours per night have 50 per cent less resistance to viral infection than those getting eight hours of sleep. In addition, Sheldon Cohen of Carnegie Mellon University found that those sleeping less than seven hours per night are three times more likely to get a cold than those who sleep longer than that.
• Weight gain: Lack of sleep lowers leptin levels in the brain and raises ghrelin levels in the stomach. These hormones are responsible for regulating our appetite. When you’re sleep-deprived, you’re more likely to overeat—craving carbs, sugars and junk food.
  Researchers at Columbia University, USA as well as the University of Chicago, USA have found that people who sleep five hours per night have a 50 per cent higher chance of being obese, while those who sleep six hours have a 23 per cent greater risk.
  Professor Francesco Cappuccio at the Warwick Medical School found that less sleep is associated with an almost two-fold increase in obesity—a trend that he says is detectable in children as young as five. The research also linked short sleep with a higher body-mass index [BMI] and waist circumference over time.
• Diabetes: A study at the University of Chicago, USA involving healthy young men with no risk factor for diabetes found that after just one week of inadequate sleep, they were in a pre-diabetic state. Researchers attributed the result to overactive central nervous systems [caused by not sleeping], which affected the ability of the pancreas to produce enough insulin to adequately regulate glucose levels.
• Heart disease: Not sleeping often causes the body to produce more stress hormones. Such an imbalance can lead to arteriosclerosis, which can cause heart attacks and stroke, in addition to hypertension, muscle loss, increased fat storage, loss of bone mass, and lower production of growth hormone and testosterone.
  In addition, short-sleepers miss out on REM sleep [predominant between the seventh and eighth hours of the night], during which time the heart pumps more blood to the muscles. This helps it relax as blood pressure falls. By cutting back on sleep, we’re preventing this innate regulating system from doing its job. According to Diane Lauderdale of the University of Chicago, USA, just one extra hour of sleep per night decreases the risk of coronary artery calcification by 33 per cent. This is accompanied by a 17-mm drop in systolic blood pressure.
• Cancer: Women who exercise regularly and were generally healthy had a 47 per cent higher risk of cancer if they were sleeping fewer than seven hours. Research at the Stanford University also found that good sleep habits can be a valuable weapon in fighting cancers, citing melatonin [released during sleep] and cortisol production [involved in regulating immune system activity] as vital players in recovery.

Night-shift workers [both male and female] have a 35 per cent higher risk of colorectal cancer. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, shift-work is a “probable” carcinogen, due to too much light exposure and the consequent lack of melatonin secretion.

Blind women have 50 per cent less risk of breast cancer than sighted women. Why? Active sighted women often stay up late, spending too much time in the light. Again, exposure to light and lack of sleep block the release of cancer fighting melatonin and raises oestrogen levels, which can cause breast cancer.

How sleep affects mental functions

New research shows that sleep and mental functioning are closely linked. But we didn’t need science to tell us that. Just look around at the successful, happy people you know. Are they the ones falling asleep at their desks, in meetings, or on the couch after dinner? To the contrary, those who are most productive and prosperous are the ones who are well rested [and can remember what they had for dinner the previous night]. Without a doubt, a good night’s rest is the best brain food.

Memory

No matter how intelligent you are, losing sleep means losing brain power. People who sleep less than six hours after learning new information show no improvement the next day, and those who don’t sleep at all perform only half as well on memory tests as their well-rested counterparts.

During REM sleep, the brain is able to remove irrelevant details, creatively process the information, and even restore temporarily misplaced info that you couldn’t recall during the day. This purging and purifying removes poor information that is competing with pertinent material, thereby enhancing memory.

Retention

Experiences that become memories are laid down in the first two hours of sleep in the hippocampus [a memory centre in the brain]. In the next four hours, if a memory is to be retained, it must be transferred from the hippocampus to a place where it will have physical permanence, the neocortex, the wrinkled outer layer of the brain where higher thinking takes place.

“Unlike the hippocampus, the neocortex is a master at weaving the old with the new. And partly because it keeps incoming information at bay, sleep is the best time for the ‘undistracted’ hippocampus to shuttle memories to the neocortex, and for the neocortex to link them to related memories,” report Harvard Medical School experts Robert Stickgold and Peter Wehrwein.

During the final two hours of REM sleep, the brain takes the information and repeatedly reruns it in a process called REM replay. So as you can see, any sleep longer than six hours helps in memory retention, but it takes eight hours to fully incorporate learned material. That’s why you should make an extra effort to get a full night’s sleep after studying for an exam, rehearsing a presentation, or learning a new set of skills.

In order to prepare information for retention, the brain filters out what’s unimportant and solidifies the essentials, cross-referencing it with what’s already on file. This process of making connections between the new information and what was previously known is called memory consolidation. With inadequate sleep, you may be able to form new memories, but you won’t be able to retain them.

Learning

There is a direct correlation between REM sleep and learning efficiency. In fact, it seems the brain knows when it needs more consolidation time. Researchers studying people in intensive language programmes have found that the amount of time they spend in REM sleep naturally increases the night after learning. As a result, they benefit from protein synthesis during REM sleep that increases the strength of the connections between brain cells and facilitates memory consolidation. Loss of REM sleep prior to learning can result in a 50 per cent reduction in the awareness of mental cues that help to establish memory.

Adequate sleep after learning, however, is most crucial. This is the only time that memory enhancement occurs. Research subjects who were deprived of sleep the first night after learning still showed no sign of improvement even after two subsequent nights of full sleep. In some cases, it has even been shown that people develop amnesia for the information learned. The simple truth is if you’re not sleeping after learning new information, you might as well spare yourself the trouble of learning in the first place. You need to remember to sleep, because you have to sleep to remember!

Behavioural effects

Not sleeping makes you prone to…

• Mood shifts, including depression and irritability: Mood is one of the first traits to be affected by sleep loss. Miss even one night of sound rest and your threshold for anger lowers. You can quickly lose friends, upset loved ones, foil negotiations and make enemies.
• Stress, anxiety and loss of coping skills: Sleep loss leads to amygdala, an area of your brain involved in rage and aggression getting activated. There’s also decreased activity in your limbic system that regulates anxiety.
  Feelings of not being able to cope, even with simple problems or moderate workloads, can become overwhelming and result in increased worry, frustration and nervousness. You can lose your perspective and be unable to relax under even moderate pressure. Stress produces sleep loss and sleep loss produces stress. While the sleep-deprived are shuffling through life and have less control over emotions, the well-rested are more alert and less stressed.
• Less socialising: In short, you’d rather stay home than go out. It’s not because you’re anti-social; it’s just that you’re too tired.
• Sub-par mental functioning/perception: Losing sleep makes you less efficient at just about every task. In general, it creates a dulled-down version of yourself, with a duller reaction to negative events, and even a drop in your taste sensitivity.
• Concentration problems: Since your mental faculties are not alert, sleep loss affects focus.

• 

  Difficulties with memory: Functional magnetic resonance imagery [FMRI] scans of brain activity in sleep-deprived individuals trying to perform even simple tasks show momentary lapses of functioning in several important regions. During sleep, the brain moves short-term muscle memory into long-term muscle memory, where you can more easily retrieve it later. It also affects your ability to think logically and critically making it difficult to assimilate and analyse new information.
  When you’re sleepy, your brain works in a completely different way than when it’s well rested. In fact, some parts don’t work much at all. FMRI images show that sleep-deprived brains have much less activity in the right hippocampus. Thus, losing sleep means losing memory, and not just for tomorrow—but for months afterwards.

• Reduced ability to communicate: Speaking and writing skills deteriorate with sleep loss.
• Lower creativity: Lack of sleep severely disrupts many duties of the hippocampus, which means you’ll have less of an ability to conceptualise.
• Impaired motor skills and coordination: If you lose a full night’s sleep, your physical movements will be sluggish, focusing will be difficult, and you’ll tend to “zone out” more frequently. Sleep deprivation dampens your senses and impairs your perception, much like driving drunk or under the influence of drugs. One drink of alcohol on six hours of sleep is the equivalent of six drinks on eight hours of sleep, in terms of your ability to drive. Never get into a car with anyone who is the least bit sleep-deprived and has been drinking alcohol. Driving drowsy has the same effect as driving drunk.

People who sleep a full night show increased activity in the cerebellum, a region of the brain responsible for speed and accuracy.

If you think you’re in good shape but aren’t sleeping well, you’re cheating yourself out of an even better sense of well-being, little to no extra effort required.

With inputs from Rebecca S Robbins and Rebecca G. Fortgang, Cornell University. Rebecca S Robbins is a doctoral candidate in communication, health and psychology at Cornell and is the co-founder of Sleep for Success. Rebecca G. Fortgang is a BA with honors in linguistics and cognitive science from Cornell University.

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Do you know what it feels like to sleep well at night and be wide awake, creative and dynamic all day long? If you’re like most people, you probably don’t. Try these simple steps to improve your quality of sleep.

Determine your Personal Sleep Quotient [PSQ]

The the optimum amount of sleep your body needs to function at its best. Failing to reach your personal sleep requirement diminishes concentration, productivity and work quality. If we operated machinery the way we’re driving our bodies, we’d be guilty of reckless endangerment. After 17 – 19 hours without sleep, your brain activity is similar to someone with a blood alcohol content [BAC] of 0.05 [0.08 being the legal limit for intoxication in most countries].

Here’s how to determine your PSQ:

• Pick a bedtime when you’re likely to fall asleep quickly— that’s at least eight hours before you need to get up. Keep to this bedtime for the next week and note when you wake up each morning. You might rise early for a few days if you’re used to sleeping less, that habit will soon give way to longer rest.
• If you need an alarm to wake up, if it’s difficult to get out of bed, or if you’re tired during the day, eight hours isn’t enough for you. Move your bedtime up by 15 – 30 minutes the next week. Continue doing this each week until you awaken without an alarm and feel alert all day.
• When you determine what you think is your ideal bedtime, cut 15 minutes off it to see if you’re sleepy the next day. If so, then you’ve nailed your PSQ. Add those 15 minutes back, and you’re set. Most adults require 7.5 – 9 hours of sleep to be fully awake and energised all-day long. As a rule of thumb, you’ll probably have to add one more hour to your current sleep schedule.

Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day

Every day means seven days a week, 365 days a year—regularity is vital for setting and stabilising your body’s biological clock. It only takes a few weeks to fully sync the hours you spend in bed with the sleepy phase of your clock. When this happens, you won’t need an alarm clock to wake you up and the hours you spend awake will correspond to when you feel most alert and refreshed.

By sticking to a schedule, you’ll be significantly more alert than if you slept for the same total amount of time at varying hours during the week. And eventually, such regularity will reduce the total sleep time required for maximum daytime alertness. Yes, a regular sleep routine will enable you to do just as well on a little less sleep.

British sleep researchers and scientists at the Harvard Medical School found that by altering your sleep schedule by even a few hours, mood deteriorates. Shift-workers in particular experience more anxiety and depression partly because they’re out of sync with their biological clocks.

Sleep in one continuous block

Sometimes it’s impossible; any new parent or an older guy with prostate woes will tell you so. But so-called ‘fragmented sleep’—even for hours—is not physically or mentally restorative and causes daytime drowsiness. It also dramatically compromises learning, memory, productivity and creativity. In fact, six hours of continuous sleep is more restorative than eight hours of fragmented sleep.

Senior citizens anticipating a night of fragmented sleep often go to bed early hoping to manage eight hours of total sleep within a 10-hour period. But as we’ve seen, that’s a waste of time. So, don’t let yourself doze on and off for hours. Limiting your time in bed to your PSQ, and not a minute [or 20] more, will eventually bring greater benefits.

Many people use snooze bars thinking that they’ll get an extra hour of sleep after the first alarm goes off. Wrong! If you set the alarm to ring every 15 minutes for an hour, at best, you might get 18 – 20 minutes worth of fragmented sleep. It’s much better to go to bed one hour earlier and wake up naturally.

Make up for your lost sleep as soon as possible

Every hour that you’re awake you’re building sleep debt. Every two hours of wakefulness requires a repayment of one hour of sleep. It’s a 2:1 ratio. That’s why the general rule is that after 16 hours of being awake, you’ll need 8 hours of sleep. When you violate this rule, sleep debt accumulates quickly. Before long, you’ll crash [hopefully not on the road], get sick or perform poorly.

Here’s how to make up for lost sleep:

• Don’t try to replace it all at once. If you skipped a night, don’t try to sleep for 14 – 16 hours the next night. That’s just about impossible because your long-established biological clock is pre-programmed to put you to sleep and wake you up at a set time every day. Instead, apportion your sleep debt out over the next few days until you feel better.
• Catch up on lost sleep by going to bed earlier than usual, not by sleeping late. If you sleep late, you’ll find it harder call asleep the following night at the usual hour.
• Don’t try to make up for large sleep losses during the week by sleeping in on the weekend. This is like trying to get fit or lose weight by doing all your exercising or dieting on Saturdays and Sundays. Your brain doesn’t have a separate biological clock for weekends. Changing your sleep/wake times disturbs your body’s natural rhythm. If you sleep till noon on Sunday, for instance, you won’t be very tired, come your regular bedtime. Maybe you’ll doze off sometime after midnight, but just a few short hours later, your alarm will jerk you back to consciousness and you’ll have to crawl to work with the Monday morning blahs. You’ll have induced jet lag without leaving your zip code.
• Try napping to pay back your sleep debt. However, be careful not to nap too long or too late in the day, or you’ll further disturb your sleep cycle. Whenever your sleep is significantly disturbed, return to your regular schedule as soon as possible. For years of accumulated sleep debt, it may take as long as 4 – 6 weeks until you discipline your sleep. But the resulting alertness, mental and physical performance, and enjoyment of life will be more than worth the discipline it took to get there.

In sum, determine and meet your PSQ, establish a regular bedtime schedule, get one long block of continuous sleep, and be sure to make up for lost sleep. As you can see, the cure for sleep loss is painless and pleasurable. All it takes is just a little discipline.

Copyright C 2010, Dr James B Maas and Rebecca Robbins excerpted from the forthcoming book, “Sleep for Success“.

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