2008 Woodie Awards
How to Sleep Soundly
Trouble getting to sleep at night? No worries: help and advice are on the way!
Lori Lipkin
Issue date: 10/14/05 Section: Life & Times
- Page 1 of 1
You've been borrowing from your sleep bank and it's time to pay up.
How can you tell? Some great indicators are fatigue, memory loss, irritability and reduced capacity to concentrate.
Scientists and researchers want to remind you how important those sleep deposits can be, especially as college students - at any age.
With our present life schedules, sleep is one of those time make-ups that should never be considered an available resource.
Sleep is one of the most important health necessities to include in your daily schedule.
It has been debated for decades now on how much sleep do we each need exactly?
It used to be eight hours, and then we evolved into massive technologies (and wonderful new coffee delights!), so seven was acceptable.
And then we believed if seven was good than six would be okay... before we knew it our health and psychological well being came under attack.
Recent studies indicate that failing to get enough sleep or sleeping at odd hours heightens the risk for a variety of major illnesses, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity.
Some research groups have found clues from sleep disruption affecting crucial hormones to proteins playing vital roles in these diseases.
"We're shifting to a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week society, and as a result we're increasingly not sleeping like we used to," said Najib T. Ayas of the University of British Columbia.
"We're really only now starting to understand how that is affecting health, and it appears to be significant."
Scientists are starting to piece together an important connection between sleep deficits and an array of health problems.
Other researchers acknowledge that much more research is needed to fully understand how sleep deprivation and sleep disruptions may affect our health.
Both sides argue that the case is rapidly getting stronger: sleep is an important factor in many of our biggest health killers.
If none of this research information seems to relate to you or even interest you remember this: a good night's sleep aids in memory consolidation, according to Robert J. Steinberg, author of "Cognitive Psychology."
Some researches who focus on studying the influences of sleep on memory have found that learning is influenced by the amount of REM sleep - a particular stage of sleep characterized by rapid-eye-movement, dreaming, and rapid brain waves - a person gets in the night following a learning session.
Disruptions in REM sleep patterns reduced the amount of improvement on a visual discrimination task that occurred with normal sleep from one day to the next.
"Lack of sleep disrupts every physiologic function in the body," said Eve Van Cauter of the University of Chicago.
"We have nothing in our biology that allows us to adapt to this behavior."
Experts believe that although the amount of sleep varies from person to person, most people need between about seven and nine hours, with studies indicating that an increased risk for disease starts to kick in when people get less than six or seven.
But you have trouble getting sleep? Well here are a few tips to keep your sleep bank earning interest:
Establish a bedtime that stays somewhat regular and ideally a consistent wake-up time too - including weekends. This aids in keeping your inner clock on some sort of regularity that our fast paced lives and gadgets often push to the side.
Avoid large meals before bedtime because the process of digesting the food can cause disturbances in bodily functions and disrupt REM time; try to dream about the food instead!
Turn off as much electricity as possible in the room where you sleep. According to theories in quantum physics, electrical charges fill the air and can disturb your sleep.
Try not to sleep on your stomach if possible. The best sleeping positions are on your back or lying on one side with knees slightly bent. These positions put the least stress on joints and organs and give the spine and body proper alignment.
Stop stimulants like coffee or over the counter products for colds, sinus, etc. at least a few hours before sleep, you don't want to confuse your entire system. Pretty much any kind of unregulated usage can affect sleep (if you know what I mean) including alcohol.
One great piece of advice I learned from a previous professor at the Hamilton Holt School was when you have finished studying for your exams don't do anything else before sleep that requires complex thought.
For example if you like to watch television or read don't engage in anything too complicated. For best results she said to sleep soon after you've finished going over your notes.
How can you tell? Some great indicators are fatigue, memory loss, irritability and reduced capacity to concentrate.
Scientists and researchers want to remind you how important those sleep deposits can be, especially as college students - at any age.
With our present life schedules, sleep is one of those time make-ups that should never be considered an available resource.
Sleep is one of the most important health necessities to include in your daily schedule.
It has been debated for decades now on how much sleep do we each need exactly?
It used to be eight hours, and then we evolved into massive technologies (and wonderful new coffee delights!), so seven was acceptable.
And then we believed if seven was good than six would be okay... before we knew it our health and psychological well being came under attack.
Recent studies indicate that failing to get enough sleep or sleeping at odd hours heightens the risk for a variety of major illnesses, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity.
Some research groups have found clues from sleep disruption affecting crucial hormones to proteins playing vital roles in these diseases.
"We're shifting to a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week society, and as a result we're increasingly not sleeping like we used to," said Najib T. Ayas of the University of British Columbia.
"We're really only now starting to understand how that is affecting health, and it appears to be significant."
Scientists are starting to piece together an important connection between sleep deficits and an array of health problems.
Other researchers acknowledge that much more research is needed to fully understand how sleep deprivation and sleep disruptions may affect our health.
Both sides argue that the case is rapidly getting stronger: sleep is an important factor in many of our biggest health killers.
If none of this research information seems to relate to you or even interest you remember this: a good night's sleep aids in memory consolidation, according to Robert J. Steinberg, author of "Cognitive Psychology."
Some researches who focus on studying the influences of sleep on memory have found that learning is influenced by the amount of REM sleep - a particular stage of sleep characterized by rapid-eye-movement, dreaming, and rapid brain waves - a person gets in the night following a learning session.
Disruptions in REM sleep patterns reduced the amount of improvement on a visual discrimination task that occurred with normal sleep from one day to the next.
"Lack of sleep disrupts every physiologic function in the body," said Eve Van Cauter of the University of Chicago.
"We have nothing in our biology that allows us to adapt to this behavior."
Experts believe that although the amount of sleep varies from person to person, most people need between about seven and nine hours, with studies indicating that an increased risk for disease starts to kick in when people get less than six or seven.
But you have trouble getting sleep? Well here are a few tips to keep your sleep bank earning interest:
One great piece of advice I learned from a previous professor at the Hamilton Holt School was when you have finished studying for your exams don't do anything else before sleep that requires complex thought.
For example if you like to watch television or read don't engage in anything too complicated. For best results she said to sleep soon after you've finished going over your notes.