The Common Ground ~ Sleep

A full third of our lives is spent sleeping. So we must be pretty good at it, eh?

Feeling Sleepy?

But as global tensions widen, many of us accustomed to sleeping soundly are slipping into insomnia. Sales of sleep aids are on the rise. We've understandably become more sensitive, alert, and worried about what might happen next.

Consequently, our brains are more apt to forfeit a good night's sleep on account of feeling pressure to keep around the clock watch. To many of us, this pressure has long been ingrained as a self-induced risk of our productive lifestyle.

When we're over-stimulated, the brain is flooded with neurochemicals that keep us awake, such as epinephrine and adrenaline, making it difficult to wind down at the end of the day. If it just made us cranky, slow-witted, and sallow, sleep loss might not be so bad. However, sleep deprivation has far more compelling consequences: studies by the National Sleep Foundation find that some of our more famous catastrophes including the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the Challenger shuttle explosion, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, for instance, occurred in large part due to sleep deprivation. As a matter of a fact, folks with sleeping disorders are 10 times more likely to be involved in auto accident fatalities. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 100,000 car crashes in the US each year are attributed to drowsy drivers at the wheel.

Furthermore, research at the University of Chicago shows adults who get fewer than seven hours of sleep are more prone to diabetes, high blood pressure, endocrine dysfunction, premature aging, memory loss, and weight gain. Lack of restorative sleep stresses and impairs the immune system and can lead to many potentially serious illnesses.

Most of us know from experience that when we don't get enough sleep we have trouble concentrating, we can't learn efficiently, and we make a lot of careless mistakes. If sleeping trouble persists we may suffer from fatigue, depression, and a sullen disinterest in the world around us. Simply put, when we don't get the sleep we need our family suffers, our work suffers, and our health suffers.

Whether we're early birds or night owls, we're all slaves to internal clocks that govern both the total hours of sleep we need, and when we want to get those zzz's. Adult sleep needs range from 4 - 10 hours, with the average around eight (Albert Einstein is said to have slept half the day, while Thomas Edison slumbered a mere four hours a night). At the turn of the last century, Americans slept on average between 9 and 10 hours a night while today Americans average less than seven.

Of course sleep is the best medicine for sleep loss... so how can we catch more zzz's?

Limit caffeine, alcohol, refined sugar and nicotine.
Avoid heavy meals and excess fluids less than three hours before bedtime.
Exercise regularly, but do so well before sleep.
Make the bedroom inviting. We sleep best in rooms that are quiet, dark, and cool. Relocate items that provoke stimulation like a television, computer, paperwork, exercise equipment, etc. Resist napping during the day.
Relaxation exercises, yoga, meditation, and soaking in a hot bath are very good ways to help us relax and dramatically improve sleep.
Don't bring worries to bed. Try setting a scheduled time well before bedtime to deal with problem solving, list making, and addressing concerns. (Let the news wait until morning.)
Set and expect reasonable goals for ourselves, our children, and co-workers.
Respect the healing power of deep, restful sleep. We must let ourselves rest when we're tired.
Diets based on whole grains (wheat, rice, oats, etc.) calm nerves and encourage deep sleep.
Vitamin B6 found in nutritional yeast and brown rice, magnesium found in green leafy vegetables, almonds, and kelp, and the amino acid tryptophan found in dried fruits, bananas, nuts and seeds, poultry, and fish, all encourage a better night's sleep.
Beneficial herbs include valerian, kava kava, hops, chamomile, skullcap, catnip, lemon balm, and passionflower in teas, capsules, or extracts. The supplement 5-HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan), the substance from which the body makes serotonin, also promotes deeper sleep.
Lavender is a natural sleep-inducing plant that works through the sense of smell. Soak in a warm bath with a few drops of lavender oil or place a lavender sachet under your pillow to ease into a restful sleep.

...Sweet dreams...