Natural Effects On Your Sleep Patterns

There are two other factors that need to be considered when understanding your sleep patterns. Both are entirely natural and exert a profound influence on the way that we sleep.

Ageing

As well as the circadian rhythm and our lark or owl status (see below), we are ruled by the basic cycle of life. Ageing greatly influences our sleep patterns; six-month-old babies sleep for up to 16 hours a day, teenagers need about nine, adults need about eight, and from middle age the length and quality of sleep often gradually decreases. Older people report more instances of night-time awakenings, insomnia and unwanted early waking. They can often find sleep affected by illness or other problems, such as snoring and also have less REM sleep, but, due to more frequent night-time awakenings, they remember more dreams.

Larks and Owls

We are all either ‘larks’ (or ‘early birds’), which means we prefer to rise early and go to bed early, or ‘owls’, which makes us prone to late nights and later rising times. This can change during our lifetime – most of us will remember being owls when we were teenagers! Your lifestyle pattern, such as taking children to school or shift work, may force you into a set regime, but your natural inclination will decide whether or not you will be at your best when you wake up. Larks are often breezy and perky in the mornings, but fade fast in the evenings. Owls, on the other hand, will loathe an early-morning start but find that they are full of energy at night. In an ideal world, we would start work at the time best suited to our disposition.

Understanding your own natural sleep disposition will help you to find a pattern that optimizes the effectiveness of both your waking and dreaming hours.

SLEEP AND YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM

In our hectic everyday lives, it is easy to sacrifice sleep in order to meet the many demands of chaotic schedules. We need to realize, however, that in doing this we are depleting our natural resources that fight infection and help us to cope with daily demands. The immune system is our defense against illness and it filters out the damaged and defective body cells. A well-operating system can seek out a virus and minimize it to a snuffle, rather than create a sledgehammer that wipes us out for weeks. The lymph nodes produce the cells that attack invaders. They are located in your neck, armpits and groin, which is why they feel swollen when you are ill – it means they are doing their job properly. A healthy immune system needs vitamins and nutrients to maintain it, and most importantly it needs sleep. A lack of sleep suppresses your immune system and prevents it from being able to fight infection effectively.

HOW MUCH SLEEP IS ENOUGH?

The standard figure that has been recommended by most healthcare professionals over the years is eight hours per night, although older people may need less sleep and children need a lot more, as they are growing. Everyone’s needs vary, but research carried out at Stanford University, California, under the’ eye of William Dement, a highly respected expert in the field of sleep research, showed that most people had a sleep deficit of around 25-30 hours. Once people had recovered from their sleep deficit, they generally settled into a natural pattern of around eight hours a night, with women sleeping 20 minutes more a night than men. When you consider the fact that scientist Paul Martin (in his book Counting Sheep) estimated that most adults average 6.7 hours before a working day and 7.1 hours before a day off, you can see how easy it is to create a sleep deficit that leaves You Yawning.

So how do you work out your needs? The time that it takes us to fall asleep from lying down to attempting sleep is called the Sleep Latency Period’ and this can be used to measure how tired you are. You lie in a darkened room in the middle of the day, ready to take a nap. Everything is normal except that you have your arm hanging off the edge of the bed and with it you hold a spoon, over a metal tray, or something else that will make a clattering noise when the spoon is dropped. You write down the time you lay down and the time you are awoken by the clatter when the spoon slips out of your hand and onto the tray’ lf it takes you between 15 and 20 minutes, you are pretty normal; around ten minutes and you may have accumulated a sleep deficit; less than five minutes and you are suffering from a problematic lack of sleep.

If this method seems unscientific, try the Epworth Scale that has been developed by Murray Johns at the Sleep Disorders Unit, Epworth Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, and first published in 1991. Answer the questions in the box at the top of the page using the Points system.

Here is a simple questionnaire for you… Please answer it honestly… How likely are you to doze off in the following situations?

• Never – 0
• Occasionally – 2
• Often – 3
• Most of the time – 4

• Sitting and reading
• Watching television
• Sitting in a public place, such as a theatre or at a meeting
• As a passenger in a car for an hour without a break
• Lying down in the afternoon
• Sitting talking to someone
• Sitting quietly after an alcohol free lunch
• In a car, stopped for a few minutes in a traffic jam

If you score more than ten, you are probably not getting enough sleep or getting poor-quality sleep.

NAPPING – A OUICK RESTORATIVE

There was a time when only cats and grandparents could get away with napping, but as the restorative power of sleep becomes better understood, health professionals have now begun to advocate its advantages. Far from being the habit of a sloth, a well-timed nap can improve your state of mind and your energy levels. In many cultures, napping is an accepted and promoted way of living, the Spanish siesta being a prime example.

The optimum length for napping is still open to debate, but if you find that groggy feeling after a nap disruptive or unpleasant, limits your nap to between ’10 and 20 minutes. For a proper break, nap for between 60 and 90 minutes. Everyone has slightly different needs, so experiment, but also make sure you don’t overdo it. If you nap too much during the day, you won’t sleep well at night, so you shouldn’t be using napping in order to catch up on the sleep you missed by being awake the night before.

Napping is no longer seen as a sign of laziness. A quick snooze can help boost your brain power and resilience, so curl up and doze.

THE ROLE OF EXERCISE IN GOOD SLEEP

While most people would agree with the idea that physical exhaustion promotes sleep, it isn’t, however, quite as simple as it would first seem. Studies have shown that muscles can remain healthy if given periods of rest, but that does not have to be sleep. The growth hormone repairs and maintains the body, and in men (not women) is mainly made during sleep. After exercise, the amount of slow wave sleep when this hormone is released is shown to increase – although some scientists argue that the change is modest.

So why do people feel that exercise so greatly improves their sleep if it is not wholly reflected in research? Well, exercise is wonderful for the body and our state of mind. Many conditions, from depression to premenstrual tension, are improved by taking exercise. As well as weight loss (which can help eliminate snoring), it can also reduce tension in our muscles, which can contribute to RSL (Restless Leg Syndrome), and boost the brain chemical serotonin, which makes us feel good and pacifies all those little anxieties that can keep us awake. Repetitive physical activities, such as mountain walking or kayaking, also help the brain enter the alpha stage. This is when your conscious mind is focused on the activity, allowing it to connect with your subconscious mind, where solutions and ideas begin to make themselves apparent. This kind of activity may help you to solve that work crisis, which in turn will help you to then get better rest. Doing some physical exercise three times a week, even only 20 minutes at a time, will help your frame of mind and your physical frame.

GETTING BACK ON TRACK

Whatever the reason for losing your natural balance, there are many ways in which you can regain control. Losing sleep can often result in a nasty feeling of being overtired, and unable to sleep no matter how desperate you are. This situation can bring on insomnia, a condition all the more frustrating in that worrying about it seems only to exacerbate it. Feeling tired magnifies the helpless feeling that accompanies insomnia – spotting a pattern yet?

The great news is that, far from being helpless, there are many ways in which you can improve the quality of your slumber. In the following chapters we will look at some of these ways, such as techniques to combat negative stress and lifestyle pressures, how to eliminate aggravating dietary factors and integrate sleep-friendly foods, and how to create a sleep-inducing haven, including pleasurable pre-sleep rituals. In addition, all-natural alternative and holistic therapies and re-training techniques can replace or supplement orthodox medicine.

Seeking out ways to relieve stress and worry – such as yoga, self-massage or simply indulging in peaceful bedtime rituals; can restore natural balance and improve sleep quality.