Dreams of a Good Night's Sleep: For Good Health, Your Rest Habits May Be as Important as Exercise

Noel Peterson, ND

One of the questions I always ask my new clients, no matter what their chief complaint, is "How's your sleep"? If you need an alarm in the morning to wake up, if you feel tired or groggy and have difficulty concentrating, then you are probably not getting enough sleep.

At the turn of this century, Americans slept an average of 9 1/2 hours per night, and in rural communities where the majority of the population lived, Americans slept even more hours in the winter. By 1996, we sleep an average of 7 hours, and 30% of the population sleeps less than 6 hours per night.

"One thing is absolutely certain in America : the quantity and quality of sleep obtained is substantially less than what is needed," says Stanford's Dr. William Dement, chairman of the National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research. Their findings have been published in their report Wake Up America: A National Sleep Alert. "At this moment, sleepy individuals are operating millions of motor vehicles, some of them high tonnage trucks. They are operating trains, airplanes, and ships of all kinds", Dement says, "They are responsible for decision making in hospitals, nuclear power plants, space launches, air traffic, and strategic military installations."

40 million Americans have a chronic sleep disorder, including insomnia, narcolepsy, and sleep apnea.
20 to 30 million have intermittent sleep problems caused by rotating shift work, life stresses, and last minute preparations for exams, meetings, and vacations.
30% of Americans sleep less than 6 hours per night.
20% of high school kids fall asleep during classes at least once a week, and on any given day, 25% of people with no sleep problems did not get enough sleep the night before, and are not alert.
Sleep needs actually increase during adolescence to nine or more hours, but few teens are able to meet their school and social demands and still get enough sleep.
Night time secretion of the pineal hormone melatonin may have important anti-cancer benefits that are lost when sleep deprivation reduces melatonin output.
Sleep disruption can be a sign of endocrine hormone malfunction, nocturnal hypoglycemia, and circadian rythm disruption.

Here are my some tips for better sleep:

Go to bed and get up at the same time each day. Variations in your sleep-wake cycle can disrupt your circadian rhythms of hormone output.
Wind down gradually before bed, leaving plenty of time for quiet and subdued light.
Turn off that TV early.
Avoid eating late in the evening. Active digestion and sleep don't mix well.

Encourage your teenagers to get more rest. Many behavior problems may be nothing more than their response to chronic sleep deprivation. Japanese researchers found that adolecents who complained of poor attention at school had sleep-wake rythm disorders, and that all improved remarkably with high dose vitamin B 12 therapy, even though none of the subjects had low blood levels of vitamin B 12.

For more help with sleep and sleep disorders, the team at the Center can help with botanical medicines, hormone regulation, acupuncture, massage, and relaxation techniques. From all of us at the Center, sweet dreams.

Source: "Treatment of Persistent sleep-Wake Schedule disorders in Adolscents and Vitamine B 12". Otah, Tatsuro, et al, Japanese Journal of Psychiatry and Neurology , 1991; 45(1): 167-168.