Most People Choose Sleep Over Sex
We have become so sleep deprived that most people would rather get a good night’s sleep than have sex. In a new survey of 12,500 travelers from a dozen countries, 51% chose sleep over sex. In a similar survey a decade ago, only 31% preferred sleep. Conducted for Westin Hotels & Resorts, the survey echoes numerous scientific studies showing that Americans are running short on sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, 30% of Americans report trouble sleeping. Prescriptions for sleep medications have risen 7% over the past two years. According to data from pharmaceutical consultant IMS Health, 56,287,000 prescriptions for sleep aids were dispensed last year.
Chronic insomnia can drive people to take extreme measures in search of relief. Michael Jackson’s death catapulted insomnia into the headlines when investigators discovered he had been using the powerful sedative Diprivan and other drugs to combat sleeplessness. Diprivan may have contributed to Jackson’s death. Drugs alone won’t cure insomnia, experts say.
“Everyone’s instinct is to think this is something I can manage on my own,” sleep researcher Michael Perlis, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, told USA Today in an online article. “The problem is, insomnia is a little bit like a fire. Initially, it’s just a few sparks. Next thing you know, it jumps the fire pit and it’s burning the forest.”
Most people wait too long to treat insomnia. Most adults need 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night to stay physically and mentally healthy. While the occasional sleepless night is normal, sleep experts recommend seeing your doctor if insomnia lasts more than 2 to 3 days. Self-medicating with alcohol or over-the-counter sleeping pills can make the problem worse and can cause dangerous side effects that increase your health risk.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy, sometimes augmented by medication, provides the most successful treatment for insomnia, according to a study published in the May issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. Cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia should be conducted by a board certified psychiatrist like Dr. Tracey Marks who has expertise in treating insomnia and other sleep disorders. If you are having trouble sleeping, take control of the problem and contact Dr. Marks today.
Working Night Shift Increases Health Risk
With jobs in short supply and bills to pay, more people are working when they used to be sleeping. Some are working a series of part-time jobs that keep them up past their normal bedtimes or working the night shift and struggling to readjust their body clocks. It’s not easy. Shifting your sleep cycle causes metabolic confusion that can lead to serious sleep disorders and increase your risk for certain health problems.
Every creature has a natural circadian rhythm, the natural ebb and flow of the body’s biological functions over a 24-hour cycle. Humans are programmed to wake when it’s light and sleep when it’s dark. Second and third shift jobs demand that we reprogram our body clocks to work at night and sleep during the day. Unfortunately, grabbing some shuteye when you’re out of synch with the rest of the world can be a challenge. Family demands, caring for young children, doctor appointments and a host of other necessary activities must be dealt with during the hours you now need to sleep. Daylight and noise make falling asleep during the day even more challenging.
What often happens is that instead of getting 8 hours of uninterrupted restful sleep, night workers start losing sleep. They sleep fewer hours overall and get fewer hours of consecutive sleep, decreasing their opportunity to enter crucial REM sleep. It’s not unusual for night shift workers to develop shift work sleep disorder (SWSD). Characterized by continual or recurring sleep interruption, SWSD can result in chronic insomnia or excessive sleepiness. Headaches, lack of energy and difficulty concentrating may also occur.
Individuals who suffer from SWSD are at greater risk for on-the-job accidents, are more vulnerable to illness, may experience increased irritability or moodiness, and are more apt to make errors on the job. Chronic sleep deprivation can contribute to heart disease, diabetes, obesity and certain cancers.
To reset their body clocks, late shift workers — and their families — must make sleep a priority. Set and follow a regular sleep schedule, even on weekends and days off. Try to sleep soon after your shift ends. Minimize exposure to light by sleeping in a room with light-blocking curtains or shades. Establish and follow soothing bedtime rituals. Take a warm bath or shower, read or listen to soft music. Strive for 7 to 8 hours of sleep.
Couch Time Causes Insomnia in Children
Many school-age children experience trouble falling asleep. As many as 16% of parents report having problems getting their children to fall sleep at night. Researchers say the solution could be as simple as getting more physical exercise during the day.
The amount of physical activity children receive during the day plays an important role in childhood sleep patterns, according to a study recently published in Archives of Disease in Childhood. Researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand found that inactivity can lead to insomnia in children. Too many hours on the couch playing video games, watching television shows or movies, even reading made it harder for children to fall asleep and stay asleep. Researchers found that it took children three extra minutes to fall asleep at night for every hour they spent engaged in sedentary activities during the day.
In the largest study of its kind, researchers compared the activity and sleep patterns of over 500 seven-year-olds. It took children from 13 to 42 minutes to fall asleep with 26 minutes being the average. Children who engaged in sedentary pursuits like TV watching and video games during the day took the longest to fall sleep. As physical activity increased, the amount of time it took for children to enter dreamland shortened. Those who were the most physically active during the day fell asleep the fastest and also slept the longest.
“These findings emphasize the importance of physical activity for children, not only for fitness, cardiovascular health and weight control, but also for promoting good sleep,” the researchers concluded.
Researchers found that parents universally overestimated the amount of time their children spent falling asleep. On average it took children 15 minutes longer to fall asleep than parents indicated on study surveys. Television and video games can over-stimulate children, making it harder for them to fall asleep. Limiting such activities in the evening can promote better sleeping habits. But healthy, physical exercise during the day is the key to tiring out energetic youngsters so they can fall asleep at night. Children who get adequate sleep at night (8 to 10 hours) do better in school and are less likely to become obese.
Dreams Help Us Process Emotion
Some people remember their dreams vividly well after they wake up. For others, the tenuous memory of dreams begins to slip away with the first flicker of wakefulness. An inability to remember our dreams does not lessen their impact. New research indicates that a powerful connection exists between our nightly dreams and our ability to process human emotions during the day.
In research presented at the annual conference of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, researchers at the University of California-Berkeley found that people require adequate sleep to understand complex emotions.
“Sleep essentially is resetting the magnetic north of your emotional compass,” Matthew Walker, director of the University of California-Berkeley Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab, told Time in an online article.
In the study, adults who took a 60- to 90-minute nap and reached REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, the sleep stage where most dreaming occurs, were more likely to identify positive emotions like happiness when looking at photos of other people. Those who did not achieve REM sleep or did not nap more often identified negative emotions like fear and anger.
Our response may be rooted in evolution. In previous research at Harvard Medical School, Walker found that activity in the prefrontal lobe, the brain area that controls emotion, diminished when people were sleep deprived. “If you’re walking through the jungle and you’re tired, it might benefit you more to be hypersensitive to negative things,” he explained. When mental energy lags, self-preservation forces us to focus on immediate threats. When we’re rested, we’re more likely to tune in to positive emotions associated with long-term survival like personal relationships and food.
REM, or dream, sleep “tries to ameliorate the sharp emotional chips and dents that life gives you along the way,” Walker explains. “It’s not that you’ve forgotten. You haven’t. It’s a memory of an emotional episode, but it’s no longer emotional itself. If you don’t let go of the emotion, what results is a constant state of anxiety.”
People who experience insomnia or other sleep disorders that prevent them from entering REM sleep lose the restorative power of sleep necessary to good health. When sleep problems interfere with the mind’s opportunity to process emotions, chronic insomnia can lead to the development of psychiatric disorders.
Lack of Sleep Increases Risk of Dying
That sleepless night that makes you grouchy and tired the next day can be a killer — literally. New research shows that getting less than 5 hours of sleep a night increases your risk of death from cardiovascular disease. In a study of 4,600 men and women aged 35 to 55, researchers at University College London and the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom found that women who slept less than 8 hours per night had a higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than men. Differences in hormone levels may play a role.
According to data recently published in the journal Sleep, women who slept less than 5 hours per night had significantly higher levels of the inflammatory markers that are indicators for heart disease. Compared to women who were able to achieve a full 8 hours of sleep, risk levels increased dramatically with every hour of sleep lost. Even women who received 7 hours of sleep a night showed much higher levels of risk indicators than those who slept 8 hours.
A growing body of research indicates that sleep is a vital component to good physical and mental health. Chronic insomnia is also known to increase anxiety and contribute to depression, particularly in women. Another study reported in Sleep indicates a relationship between postpartum depression and the lack of sleep common to new mothers. In the Norwegian study, 60% of new mothers reported sleep problems with 16.5% showing symptoms of depression.
Researchers found that postpartum depression not only aggravated insomnia, but that complaints about sleep problems often interfered with the diagnosis of postpartum depression. Researchers found that many women who continued to report sleep problems two months after delivery were suffering from postpartum depression. However, because tiredness and lack of sleep are common complaints of new mothers, those suffering from postpartum depression often remained undiagnosed and untreated.
Researchers emphasized the importance of doctors discussing sleep problems with new mothers. Chronic lack of sleep that affects daytime functioning, results in a general lack of energy or that impacts other aspects of a new mother’s life could indicate postpartum depression. Depression screening is recommended to new mothers who continue to experience chronic insomnia. Treatment by a board certified psychiatrist can help women overcome postpartum depression, find solutions to chronic sleep problems, and enjoy their roles as new mothers.
TV Watching Interferes With Sleep
Preparing the body for sleep is one of our most important daily rituals, although few people realize the importance it plays in maintaining good health. Our bodies need from seven to eight hours of sleep per night to adequately recharge. Many Americans chronically receive less sleep than they need, unwittingly increasing their health risk. Getting less than the optimum amount of sleep not only decreases our level of alertness the next day, it has been shown to contribute to obesity and diabetes, decrease our ability to fight off disease and infection, exacerbate anxiety and depression, and increase mortality.
The critical importance sleep plays in maintaining good health makes the rituals we practice to prepare our bodies for sleep vitally important. In a survey of 21,475 Americans aged 15 and older, more than 50% listed “watching television” as their most prevalent pre-sleep activity. Conducted by University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers Mathias Basner and David Dinges between 2003 and 2006, the American Time Use Survey provided insights into how Americans prepare for sleep. The results of their study are being presented today at SLEEP 2009, the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.
“Given the relationship of short sleep duration to health risks, there is concern than many Americans are chronically under-sleeping due to lifestyle choices,” said Dinges in an American Academy of Sleep Medicine press release. More than 50% of Americans surveyed watched late night television in the two hours preceding sleep to cue their bodies to begin the sleep cycle. Because television engages the brain and is built around half hour and one hour schedules, it actually encourages wakefulness.
Staying up to watch TV past the point of being tired, then using alarm clocks to wake up before the body has had enough sleep is creating a serious sleep deficit among Americans, study researchers warn. “While the timing of work may not be flexible,” said Dr. Basner, “giving up some TV viewing in the evening should be possible to promote adequate sleep.”
Up to 40% of Americans get less than the recommended amount of sleep per night. If you are among those who suffer from a sleep disorder, Atlanta psychiatrist Dr. Tracey Marks can help.
Talk Yourself to Sleep
Using talk therapy to help insomniacs fall asleep produced better results than commonly used sleep medications, according to a new study released this week. In a Canadian study of 160 chronic adult insomniacs, researchers at Laval University in Quebec, Canada compared talk therapy to the popular sleep aid zolpidem, which is sold both generically and under the brand name Ambien. Because long-term use of sleep medication carries the risk of dependency, researchers are searching for drug-free alternatives to help chronic insomniacs fall asleep and sleep longer.
Insomnia is a common sleep problem that can lead to depression and high blood pressure. Medications like Ambien are frequently prescribed to help people sleep, although they are generally recommended only for short-term use. Common side effects of zolpidem and Ambien can include morning drowsiness, hallucinations, sleepwalking, sleep driving, binge eating, talking during sleep, and drug dependence.
During the initial six weeks of the trial, weekly group therapy sessions and nightly medication achieved similar results, improving both the ability t0 sleep and the length of sleep periods for about 60% of study participants. However, during the six-month follow-up period, study participants who attended refresher talk therapy sessions slept better and longer than those who took drugs. Participants were instructed to only sleep in bed and to avoid reading, watching TV or worrying when they went to bed. They were also encouraged to get up at the same time every morning and to go to bed at the same time every night. If they were unable to fall asleep within 20 minutes, they were instructed to get up and return to bed only when they became sleepy again.
“The best long-term outcome was obtained with patients treated with combined therapy initially, followed by [talk therapy] alone,” wrote study researcher Charles Morin. “Although the present findings are promising, there is currently no treatment that works for every patient with insomnia.”
The study found that bimonthly individual therapy sessions provided the most effective talk therapy. Study participants who were able to discuss with a therapist the personal issues that were causing them to lose sleep were able to break the cycle of chronic insomnia and achieve the most productive and longest sleep.
Stress, Depression Plague Collegiates
College students are feeling the pressure, and they’re not just worrying about grades. Money and relationships are creating as much stress and depression on college campuses as schoolwork, according to a recent Associated Press-mtvU poll of college students on 40 campuses. Of the collegiates polled, 85% reported daily feelings of stress, the Associated Press reported. In addition, 42% said they had felt depressed or hopeless within the past two weeks, 13% showed signs of mild depression, and 11% said they’d had suicidal thoughts.
While 74% of the students were stressed about grades, concern over financial matters ran a close second, worrying 67% of the survey group. Half of the students (52%) were stressed about the economy, many saying that financial problems brought about by the recession could impact their ability to register for fall classes. Fifty-four percent of the students surveyed were stressed about family issues, and nearly half (47%) were worried about finding a job after graduation. Across the board, collegiates felt they were under more stress this year than last year. In all categories, collegiates surveyed in 2009 expressed a 3% to 6% increase in stress levels over their 2008 peers.
Students experiencing high levels of stress said they lacked energy, were having trouble sleeping and/or felt hopeless; but few said they had sought professional help. At the University of Maryland in College Park, two student suicides within two weeks shocked students last semester, but didn’t seem to change students’ views about seeking help.
“It was pretty scary,” admitted UM junior Aimee Mayer, a psychology major. While she said the university provides students with plenty of information and help with mental disorders, Mayer told the Associated Press, “there’s still a stigma associated with mental health issues and so a lot of people don’t want to go to those services. They feel like they’re less cool or something like that it they go. It’s like a sign of vulnerability.”
That’s an unfortunate attitude because depression can be successfully treated using a combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy, psychodynamic therapy and sometimes medications. When given the opportunity to intervene, psychiatrists can also identify potential suicide victims and help them before they act. Many mental health disorders begin early in life, so it is not unusual for symptoms to emerge under the stress of college life. Parents should talk to their children regularly to gauge their mental health.
