A Good Night’s Sleep
Does Mr. Sandman Affect Your Health?
Presented by Lee Ann Harry, RN, BSN
Patient Educator
This presentation is for educational purposes only & is not meant to substitute for or replace the advice of your personal physician who may know the details of your individual health
Why Is Sleep Important To Health?
-Sleep is not the passive, dormant state that it was thought to be prior to the 1950’s
-Sleep is a highly complex activity
-Much research conducted since then by sleep experts, psychologists, Longevity Institutes.
Sleep affects daily functioning, physical health, mental health, & the rate of aging
The Way You Feel
-How do you feel when you get a good night’s sleep?
-How do you feel when you:
--have not allowed yourself enough “pillow time
--have not been able to fall asleep easily
--have been awakened by someone or something many times
--have tossed & turned
--have awakened & not been able to get back to sleep?
That Tired Feeling…..
-Is your body’s way of telling you that it is not able to keep up with the rebuilding & repairing of body tissues, & manufacturing hormones & bio-chemicals that occurs only during sleep.
How Much Sleep Do We Need?
The research indicates that:
-School age children (5 to 12) need 10-11 hours
-Teens (13 to 17) need 8.5 to 9.25 hours
-All adults need 7 to 9 hours daily, including the elderly
How Much Are We Now Sleeping?
-60% women fall short of 7-9 hours/daily
-Almost half (46%) of older adults receive fewer than 7 hours of sleep each night
-A 2001 National Sleep Foundation poll reported that 7 in 10 people said they have frequent sleep problems
What Aspects of Health Are Affected By Our Sleep Deprivation?
-Daily Functioning
-Mental Health
-Physical Health
-Rate of Aging
Lack of Sleep Affects Daily Function & Performance
-Can make it hard to concentrate & reason
-Can increase your risk of falling
-Can increase your risk of having an accident, especially a car accident
The Mind
-Brain remains very active during sleep
-REM – dreaming sleep restores the mind, reboots it, & clears out irrelevant information
-Consolidates the memory, improves judgment, promotes learning & concentration, boosts mood, speeds reaction time, sharpens problem- solving & accuracy – all leading to better performance in whatever you are doing!
Brain
-Sleep loss impairs thinking & memory
-Too little sleep can prompt personality changes as well as depression.
-It is linked to higher rates of hostility
Alcohol
-A lack of sleep magnifies alcohol’s effects on the body. A sleep deprived person will become much more impaired than a well-rested one after imbibing.
The Body
-It is deep sleep that restores the body
Cardiovascular
-Poor sleep in women is linked to higher levels of fibrinogen, C-reactive protein, interleukin-6
-Insufficient sleep increases your chance of strokes, irregular heartbeat, heart attack, congestive heart failure
-Studies show that adults who sleep 5 or fewer hours per night are about 40% more likely to have a heart attack than those who sleep 8 hours…sleeping 6 hours can cut the rate in half
-Specific mechanisms remain unclear
Stroke
-700,000 people suffer a stroke yearly
-158,000 result in death
-Most of the rest are left with some varying degree of disability affecting their quality of life
-Estimated direct & indirect cost in 2004 was $53.6 billion
-Sleep apnea is associated with a three-fold increase in stroke risk
Blood Pressure
-Blood pressure levels drop when you sleep, so the less you rest, the higher your blood pressure will be over the course of the day
-Research shows that 24% of middle aged adults who slept less than five hours per night developed high blood pressure, compared with 12% of their peers who slept seven to eight hours a night
-Treating sleep apnea is associated with a reduction in blood pressure
Obesity
-Women who slept 5 or fewer hours a night were 32% more prone to major weight gain (33 or more pounds) & 15% likelier to become obese over 16 years than those who got 7 hours a night – even though the 7-hour sleepers ate more calories
-Women who slept no more than 6 hours faced a 12% higher likelihood (Nurses Health Study)
-How much one sleeps profoundly affects hormones (grehlin & leptin) that regulate hunger. Sleep loss has been linked to bigger appetite, which can lead to extra pounds, putting the chronically sleep deprived at greater risk of obesity
-When we are tired our bodies are stressed & we make more of the chronic stress hormone cortisol which is linked to weight gain especially around the middle
Diabetes
-Sleep deprivation may impair your body’s ability to metabolize blood sugar and put you at risk for developing type 2 diabetes. Research has shown that among young healthy men, only four hours of sleep for six nights in a row was enough to create a temporary prediabetic state.
-Poor sleep in women is linked to higher levels of fasting insulin, glucose
Sensitivity To Pain
-Link between REM sleep (a stage of sleep that occurs periodically throughout the night & produces vivid dreams) and sensitivity to pain
-Threshold for pain is higher when research participants allowed to sleep 8 hours uninterrupted or when slept for 9.5 hours and were woken up for brief periods during non-REM stages of sleep
Immune System
-Lack of sleep can weaken your immune system
Your Body Is Rebuilding During Sleep
-HGH – Human growth hormone is produced & released during our deepest stages of sleep. It helps heal tiny muscle tears that occur naturally during the day. As we age HGH declines, along with amount of time we spend in deep sleep. Chicken/egg?
Why Are We Not Sleeping?
The Sleep Thieves!
Medical Illness
-Sleep apnea
-Pain, ie injury, chronic, fibromyalgia – chicken/egg?
-Hormonal fluctuations & imbalances, ie PMS, pregnancy, menopause, andropause
-Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)
-Allergies, Asthma, COPD
-Heart Disease
-GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease)
-RLS (Restless Leg Syndrome) or muscle spasms
-ADHD
-Hyperthyroidism & Hypothyroidism
-Incontinence
-BHP (Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia)
-Weak adrenal function
-Snoring
See your healthcare practitioner to treat underlying cause
Psychiatric illness
-Anxiety, depression
-Bipolar
See your healthcare practitioner to treat underlying cause
Substances
-Caffeine
-Nicotine
-Alcohol – Excess use of alcohol tends to fragment sleep & result in wakefulness a few hours after intake, also increases the risk for sleep apnea & RLS (restless leg syndrome)
-Some nutrients such as carnitine, B vitamins, certain herbs
-Cocaine, amphetamines, sedatives
Medications
-Certain anti-depressants; ie fluoxetine (Prozac), bupropion (Wellbutron)
-Steroids
-Diuretics
-Thyroid hormones
-Beta-blockers, Beta-agonists
-Theophylline
-Many others
Major Life Changes
-Having a baby
-Separation or divorce,
-Retiring, moving in with a child,
-Loss & grief
-Moving
-Seek help from a counselor if you are not able to settle down after a little time
-Most common is……..the strain & stress of modern life
Which Of These Statements Are True For You?
There aren’t enough hours in the day to get done what I need to do, so I will give up some hours of sleep.
OR
You are doing too much if you can’t find the time to sleep!
I don’t have time for more sleep; my job is very demanding & important.
OR
Please put your health before your career or it will happen anyway when you crash from your poor sleeping habits
I do not want to sleep more because I feel like I am missing out on life.
OR
If you do not get enough sleep, you will shorten your life span & quality of life by ending up with a chronic degenerative disease of aging
I feel better when I don’t sleep too much; I feel more tired if I sleep longer than 6 hours.
OR
Not letting your body shut down & rest at night indicates that you may be staying awake to squeeze your adrenal glands for stress hormones that may feel good for the moment, but not long run. Feeling more tired after sleeping more than 6 hours indicates you are already sleep-deprived
I catch up on sleep during the weekend & on my vacation.
OR
It is better to get the right amount of sleep each night than try to play “catch-up” & you cannot make up a year of sleep deprivation in one vacation.
I have health conditions that keep me from needed sleep
-Seek medical attention and treat the root of the cause
-Avoid sleep medications
--Side effects
--Don’t allow the deeper stages of sleep
--Complications
--Potential for dependence
--Rely on prescription medications only when all else fails.
I really try to sleep more but can’t fall asleep easily or wake up & can’t go back to sleep.
-May require medical attention
-First, check out suggestions for sleep hygiene
Sleep Hygiene-See Handout! (coming soon…)
-Good sleep hygiene depends on good sleep habits
-Don’t deprive yourself of the sleep you need – remember:
“Everything seems a little brighter after a good night’s rest!”
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