How much sleep are you getting?

You’re suddenly woken up having barely slept for 5 hours. Not knowing how you’ll get through the day you reach over to your iPhone and give yourself another 9 minutes. But there’s no hope of falling back asleep.

Soon you start thinking about everything you have to do today. Wake the kids up, pack lunches, send them off to school, get yourself ready for work, run errands, take the kids to sports practice and dance recitals, pull dinner together, help with homework, and finally put the kids to bed. If you’re lucky find a few minutes for yourself late into the evening.

You pull yourself out of bed and almost immediately you feel your lack of energy hit you like an oncoming train. Stumbling into the kitchen you begin to make yourself a cup of coffee and you start wondering, “how much longer can I go on like this? There has to be something that I can do!”

The fact of the matter is that today, nearly 30% of American adults report having slept less than 6 hours on average each night. This number drastically rises when looking at those who have slept less than 8 hours- the ideal amount of sleep that is recommended for the average adult.

Why Sleep Matters

Getting a good night’s sleep is one of the most important steps you can do to improve your health, it’s why it’s our second article written for 2020. Sleep is when your body relaxes and repairs itself from the daily assaults we encounter as we live our lives.

Sleep deprivation causes harm to all of our bodily systems. However, it’s the nervous system that suffers the most from lack of sleep.

According to the Journal of Sleep Medicine, “Sleep deprivation causes a range of neurological and behavior issues. Things such as Lapses of attention, slowed working memory, reduced cognitive output, depressed mood and disrupted patterns of thought”.

As a result, studies have shown that GPA among students who routinely are sleep deprived perform at a lower level than those who obtain more sleep. Obviously, this also translates to poor job performance to working adults in the professional world.

Sleep Disorders

Blocking off enough hours in the day for a full 7-8 hours of sleep is hard enough. Compound the problem with how many Americans have sleep disorders and you begin to understand that we have a sleep deprivation endemic on our hands. The wide-ranging effects this has on society can’t easily be figured, but one can imagine it can’t be a small impact.

A study done by the American Sleep Association states that approximately 50-70 million Americans have a sleep disorder of some kind. Mainly insomnia with around 40% of the people in this figure suffering from it. Other kinds of sleep disorders include narcolepsy, restless leg syndrome and sleep apnea.

The study goes on to list some more disturbing statistics with 4.7% reported nodding off or falling asleep while driving. This translates to approximately 100,000 car accidents each year causing 1,550 fatalities and 40,000 nonfatal injuries annually in the United States.

Something needs to be done, people need to become more educated about their own health and well-being. Sleep isn’t something that can be ignored, it has to be given more weight. Lives are at stake, and these figures don’t include all of other indirect ways that lack of sleep kills.

Sleep Aids- The Silent Killer

In an attempt to find some relief, an increasing number of people are turning to sleep aids to try and catch a few more zzz’s. According to the CDC, about 4% of U.S. adults aged 20 and over used prescription sleep aids in the past month. The percentage of adults using a prescription sleep aid increased with age and education. More adult women (5.0%) used prescription sleep aids than adult men (3.1%).

While this figure may seem small, sleep aid use and consequently, emergency visits have been on the rise over the past several years which leaves room for concern as to how much this number will continue to increase given the vast amount of people who suffer from sleep deprivation.

Like most medications, sleep aids do have side effects that many may not be aware of. Things like allergic reaction or anaphylaxis, burning or tingling in the hands, arms, feet, or legs, changes in appetite, constipation and/or diarrhea, difficulty keeping balance, dizziness and daytime drowsiness. Yes! Sleep aids may be contributing to the very thing you’re trying to prevent - daytime drowsiness.

What’s more concerning are the findings from a study that was conducted in 2012 published in the BMJ Journal which states that “sleeping pills use may be associated with up to 500,000 deaths per year.” I was shocked to hear this number. I’ve always heard of people passing from overdosing on sleeping medication, but I had no idea the number was this high.

Natural Ways to Improve your sleep

There are alternative ways to help improve your sleep. These methods don’t include taking any dangerous or addictive drugs, and they won’t make you feel drowsy throughout your day. What you will find is that a good night's sleep has more to do with lifestyle choices rather than “taking something”.

Regulate your consumption before bed. Both hunger and excessive fullness can affect your body’s ability to have good night’s sleep. Nicotine, caffeine and sugar are stimulants and should be avoided before bed. Alcohol on the other hand is a depressant, but it will still disrupt sleep patterns and should also be avoided.

Create a restful environment. The key here is that you want a sleeping environment that promotes a good night’s sleep. This means that the room should be dark, quiet and cool. It’s also important to develop a bedtime routine. This helps to train your body that you’re about to go to sleep and that it should begin to wind down.

Manage worry and stress. This is one of the most important things you can do to help ensure a good night’s sleep. It’s impossible to feel well rested when you’re in bed lying awake worrying about the day's events or what’s to come tomorrow. Find something to do before bed that will bring you calm and peace. Gratitude journaling, reading, meditation, these are just some ideas that you can employ to help de-stress yourself before bedtime.

Besides the lifestyle changes mentioned above, there are some things found in nature than can be taken as a sleep aid. But be warned, taking something for a chronic problem is no way to live. For chronic sleeplessness, your lifestyle must be addressed.

Three 3 natural things to help improve your sleeplessness

1) Tart Montmorency Cherries contain a high level of melatonin which is known to promote sleep. A study in 2012 was conducted and showed that,

“Tart cherry juice concentrate provides an increase in exogenous melatonin that is beneficial in improving sleep duration and quality in healthy men and women and might be of benefit in managing disturbed sleep.”

The study goes on to mention that is correlates with their findings that Melatonin levels were significantly higher in those who drank the cherry juice concentrate compared to the baseline and placebo trials.

2) Valerian Root has often been used to promote a better night's sleep. It’s also been used to relieve anxiety, stomach pain, headaches and depression. However, those who are pregnant or breastfeeding may want to avoid it. As with anything medication or herb always read the label on the side of the bottle before use.

3) Kava Kava is a root often used for anxiety, restlessness, sleeplessness, and stress-related symptoms such as muscle tension or spasm. A study done in 2005 concluded that indeed Kava Kava was useful as a sleep aid. However, this is not to be taken consecutively for many months, as it may cause liver damage.

Long term, it’s better to address sleeplessness with lifestyle changes- not just taking something for it. However, there is a place for taking a natural supplement to help aid in sleep in the short term. Society today has largely come to believe that if something is wrong with them it can be solved by “taking a pill for this and a pill for that”.

That mentality is shortsighted and dangerous. Sleeplessness, like any other health problems you may face are merely a symptom of a larger underlying issue. To achieve long lasting results, and a healthier life- go after the root cause of your problem and not just the symptom.

Sleep Cycles

You may have heard of sleep cycles, or even friends and family going in to have sleep study’s done. The body has three cycles when an individual is sleeping. A sleep study attempts to determine how long in each cycle that person is spending.

Stage 1: This is the transitional phase that the body undergoes when you first climb into bed. Typically lasting 10-15 minutes. During this stage it’s very easy to be woken up.

Stage 2: This next stage is a deeper sleep where the heart slows down, consequently lowering body temperature.

Stage 3: This final stage of sleep is considered “deep sleep”. In deep sleep the entire body relaxes and makes crucial repairs and regeneration to muscle, bones and tissues. In this stage it’s very difficult to wake a person. Sleepwalking and bedwetting occur in this stage as the body is completely detached from the external environment.

When not getting a restful sleep, this can usually be related back to the body not going through three sleep cycles properly. Caffeine, alcohol and stress as mentioned before can impact the sleep cycles of the body.

Circadian Rhythm

Balancing your Circadian Rhythm is critical for a good night’s sleep. Circadian Rhythms are light cycles that the body follows. For example, sleeping at night and being active during the day. Without following a Circadian Rhythm, it would be very difficult to get a consistent good nights sleep.

There are some things that can be done to help ensure that the body is following the correct rhythm.

Create a sleep schedule: Stick to a sleep schedule where the body gets 8 hours of sleep. It’s important that this schedule begins and ends at roughly the same time every day. Sleep only one hour longer on the weekends and go to bed when you're tired. Interestingly enough, many people stay up late hoping for their “second wind” to kick in. In fact, that late night burst of energy that you often times feel is meant for your body while it’s sleeping to repair and regenerate itself. If you feel a “second wind” at night, you’ve stayed up too late.

Reduce napping: Napping can throw off the body’s Circadian Rhythm by sleeping during the day. Thus making it harder to go to bed at night. Reduce naps or eliminate them completely if you can.

Avoid bright screens: This is a big one that I myself am often times guilty of. Bright screens from phones, computers and TV’s right before bed time can actually keep us up longer than say, reading a book before bed. That’s because these screens act as a stimulant and the blue light given off by the screens inhibit melatonin production.

Sleep Needs By Age Group

It may come as no surprise that people of different ages have different needs when it comes to sleep. Younger children have more growth and development which translates into needing more sleep. Conversely, the elderly as they slow down and their bodies don’t functioning like they used to need more sleep and time to regenerate. See below for reference...

Adult * 7-9 Hours

Teenager * 8-10 Hours

Child 6-12 Years * 9-12 Hours

Child 3-5 Years * 10-13 Hours

Child 1-2 Years * 11-14 Hours

Infants 4-12 Months * 12-16 Hours

Final Thoughts

As you now know, sleep is important for you to function at your best. A lack of sleep can affect nearly every aspect of how your body operates both physically and mentally. By skimping on sleep you’re really doing a disservice to yourself and those around you.

By getting to bed earlier, establishing a “bed time routine” and getting the proper number of hours in, your body will start to regenerate and be able to maintain itself to a much higher level.

If it’s by choice that you’re sleep deprived- then get to bed earlier! You must make time for yourself and get to bed on time.

However, if you suffer from a sleep disorder then it’s critical that you find the root cause of it and start to establish some healthy bed time routines that we laid out in this article.

I hope this article gave you some thought provoking ideas on how you can get a better night’s sleep and maximize those hours you spend every night in bed. If you have any tips on how to achieve a better night’s sleep- leave a comment in the section below!

-Greg Quante CNHP