Talking About Sleep

Good sleep does not happen by accident. We need to develop positive habits and routines to help us get through the night. Listen to some simple advice that we can all follow and apply without too much trouble. We can do a lot for our sleep during the daytime hours with movement, food and attitude. We can directly affect our sleeping patterns by paying attention to the smallest things in our lives.

Transcript

Sleeping poorly increases the risk of having poor mental health.

In the same way that healthy diet and exercise can help to improve our mental health,

So can sleep.

There is no universal answer to the question of how much sleep a person needs.

It varies from person to person.

What is important is that people find out how much sleep they need and ensure that they achieve this.

The consequences of poor sleep should be taken seriously in healthcare,

Education,

Family life and society at large.

Sleep is regenerative,

Restorative,

It heals and it affects our lifespan.

It can make you feel happier and less depressed.

It supports the immune system and prevents dementia and heart attacks.

It can even prevent weight gain by keeping hormones related to eating in balance.

Good sleep promotes good sleep.

Bad sleep can lead to a slippery slope and deteriorating mental health.

Sleep happens in cycles and within each cycle there are stages.

We spend a differing amount of time in each of those stages.

So we can repeat this cycle several times in the night.

We might wake at different points in that cycle.

Stages 1 and 2 are light stages of sleep where we can easily awaken.

Disruptive sleep stops at stage 3 and repeats.

Both hormones which are essential,

They are released at stage 4.

Deep sleep is where the healing is and dreaming tells us we've had some deep sleep and several dreams in the night may indicate the differing cycles that we've been through.

So those who constantly fail to get enough sleep face increased risk of a variety of health problems and we can forget to take sleep seriously and put our long term health at risk.

So some simple sleep hygiene ideas is that we can set the temperature in our room at 18 degrees centigrade,

That's the ideal temperature,

Open windows if we have to,

Have the heating set perhaps,

Some may like to take a hot shower or to walk out into a colder room.

The cold triggers our sleep responses and our bodies are hardwired to sleep and to get wrapped up at night.

Memory foam reflects the heat back because it is made from synthetic materials and a wool cover blanket can spread the heat out.

If you wake up with aches and pains your mattress might need changing and the right support is critical.

A tidy room is less distracting.

If possible try to avoid TV in your rooms.

Have positive photos of loved ones,

Plants and flowers.

Muted pastel colours are less distracting for the mind.

Mobile phones can distract some even when they are turned off.

So maybe listen with headphones,

Avoid looking at the screens,

Turn off that TV.

Blackout curtains,

Eye patches,

They are quite good for soft bedroom lights,

Creating a nice atmosphere,

Have your books and journals ready.

Set the alarm,

An old fashioned or battery operated one,

Avoid a mobile phone in the bedroom and try to keep a regular bedtime routine,

Even setting an alarm to go to bed.

So if we are not getting deep sleep we are not healing and repairing our bodies,

Our health will decline.

Sleep disruption is strongly linked to bowel,

Breast and prostate cancer.

Shift working is carcinogenic because it causes an increased disruption of the sleep wake rhythm.

Increased use of drugs and stimulants during the day as well as sleeping pills,

Alcohol at night,

It's all putting our bodies through ups and downs.

We become anxious and make bad decisions,

Missing appointments,

We make mistakes,

We cannot relate to people as well as we could and we fail to handle stresses and listen correctly.

If we can stick to the recommended units for drinking alcohol and avoid drinking alcohol at night,

Drinking late at night and too much can disrupt the sleep cycle.

We fail to go into deep sleep.

It stops at stage 3.

Smoking cannabis also limits the cycle and heavy smokers of cigarettes may wake in the middle of the night because the body is craving nicotine and so perhaps for smokers we can try nicotine replacements just before bed.

Eating late and heavy meals keeps the digestive system awake and active when it should be resting and creating healthy routines,

Drinking herb teas,

Caffeine free tea from 5pm,

Experimenting with different fragrances and oils,

So for example lavender and sandalwood may facilitate a better night's sleep.

The lack of deep sleep as we age contributes to our cognitive decline and memory decline.

Reducing and reduction in the quality of sleep are completely interrelated and is an important factor in the development of Alzheimer's disease.

In a recent study in the UK,

Researchers found that if you deprived subjects of sleep for four hours,

There was a 70% drop in immune cell activity.

Other interesting statistics are that the benefits of exercise are reduced when we don't get enough sleep.

Increased risk of HDL levels increase and 24% increase in heart attacks when the clocks go forward here in the UK and by contrast heart attacks drop by 21% when the clocks go back in the autumn.

Reduced immunity and cell activity enhance our chances of getting ill and not being able to fight off viruses and disease.

70% reduction in cancer fighting cells,

All from a poor night's sleep.

We feel more aches and pains as the body fails to reduce inflammation.

Lack of sleep plays with grailing and leptin hormones.

These help to regulate appetite and knowing when we are full.

When we are out of balance,

We crave food and we eat more than we need.

Serotonin is another chemical that affects sleep produced by the brain.

Recent levels of serotonin are also related to mental health problems such as depression and anxiety.

Levels of serotonin are highest in the brain when we are awake and active and the brain produces more serotonin when it is lighter and brighter outside.

Exercise 2 promotes serotonin in the body and it regulates hormones for digestion,

Sleep and memory.

So don't overdo the exercise,

It can be counterproductive and lead to wakefulness and alertfulness when we try to sleep.

We can trigger natural circadian rhythms by taking in daylight when we can and also darkening our rooms at night.

We produce melatonin when it goes dark and slightly colder.

This promotes the sleep response.

Serotonin and melatonin work in harmony and if we lack serotonin we fail to produce melatonin and this slows our sleep response.

Gentle movement like yoga and qigong promote relaxation and the balancing of hormones too.

Sleeping poorly increases the risk of having poor mental health,

We've heard that before,

In the same way that healthy diet and exercise can improve our mental health,

So can sleep.

For example some of us,

After suffering several consecutive sleepless nights,

May become anxious that we may not have had enough sleep.

This type of thought process is likely to lead to thinking about the problems associated with not sleeping.

This can lead to anxious thoughts which can then lead a person to see themselves as failing to sleep well.

These thoughts perpetuate a negative cycle making it even more difficult for a person to sleep.

This pressure to perform makes it more difficult to sleep.

There's a close relationship between sleep and mental health and living with a mental health problem can affect how well you sleep.

It can be a vicious cycle of negativity which can easily spiral out of control into depression and other psychiatric problems,

Depending on personal history and personal mental strength.

Sleep deprivation makes people feel vulnerable,

Impressionable and willing to do things they would normally consider.

Cognitive behavioural therapy is commonly prescribed and is the most effective long term solution for insomniacs.

It helps you identify the negative attitudes and beliefs that hinder your sleep and replaces them with positive thoughts,

Eventually unlearning the negative beliefs.

Mindfulness meditation is well known for helping with sleep patterns.

It allows mental functions within the brain to rebalance hormones,

Trigger healing responses and calm intrusive thoughts and actions,

Reducing impulsivity and strong emotional reactions.

Practicing several minutes through the day and lasting before bed can help to set the scene for a calmer mind and easier entrance into the sleep cycle.

Meditation teaches the mind not to hold on to thoughts and let them go more easily.

Purposely sitting quietly in the day and making suggestions about sleeping and being awake,

Have fun creating your own suggestions,

Your own mantras.

Maybe something like,

Later this evening if I awake,

I will notice how easy it is to settle back down and drift away.

Making reflective notes in a journal is also a great way to shed light on your own thinking processes,

Always be honest about how you are and what is bothering you or what has gone well.

Sleep affects our ability to use language,

Sustain attention,

Understand what we are reading and summarise what we are hearing.

If we compromise on our sleep,

We compromise on our performance.

It is essential for maintaining cognitive skills such as communication,

Remembering key information and being creative and flexible in thought.

When we are tired,

Our prefrontal cortex does not function correctly.

Our amygdala,

The fight or flight,

Is 60% more active when we don't sleep well.

And rapid eye movement found after deep sleep promotes facial and body language recognition.

So when we are tired,

We can misread situations.

The links are broken and our natural networks may not recover as quickly.

An increased risk of Alzheimer's because our brains do not have the chance to flush away the neural plaque that builds up and clogs our neural networks.

When you wake in the night,

A technique to stop the worrying thoughts that cause your heart to race in the first place is to speak positive thoughts instead.

Speaking overrides thinking and will stop the negative thoughts in their track.

Caffeine is good for attention and staying awake.

One cup of coffee in the morning is recommended.

Drinking consistently through the day and the weeks will disrupt you and your sleep cycle and it will prevent deep sleep.

So perhaps stop drinking caffeine after 2pm as an experiment.

Never cut it out fully.

It will give you withdrawal symptoms and will discourage you from making changes.

Caffeine stays in your system for up to 6 hours.

Most fizzy drinks contain caffeine.

Lack of sleep has dramatic effects on the balance of hormones in the body.

And remember two hormones connected with that are leptin and ghrelin.

They regulate appetite and also when you are full.

These two hormones can be out of balance causing cravings and not knowing when to stop eating because we are full.

This then links with other problems such as weight gain and diabetes.

Our cells that manage sugar levels within the body become less responsive and we get a fluctuation in insulin levels.

Which again affects our weight gain and health.

Lack of sleep over several days puts the body in a pre-diabetic state.

Hyperlipidemia is low levels of HDL cholesterol which helps to balance and manage the bad cholesterol.

Too little and your bad cholesterol will flood the system.

Everything points to balance of food,

Exercise and workload.

This modern day society and the way of living is not conducive for naturally occurring health and wellbeing.

Looking at different foods and trying to incorporate tryptophan,

Rich foods,

Oats,

Dates,

Milk,

Yogurt,

Eggs,

Fish,

Poultry,

Chickpeas and pumpkin seeds.

These all trigger the hormone serotonin which makes the production of melatonin easier and helps you to fall asleep.

Always combine a protein food with a low,

Making slight changes to the diet and making it fish based or vegetarian in the evening.

Perhaps having a yogurt and honey for a sweet or dessert.

Hot chocolate with milk.

The lighter and easier the food is,

The easier it is to digest.

And remembering that too much sugar in a diet at night is a stimulant for the body and imbalances the body's hormones.

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