Quality Sleep

Recent studies make it clear that having quality sleep and getting enough sleep are vital to a healthy, active, long lasting, and cognitively rich life. Losing an hour of sleep, such as during spring daylight savings time, results in 25% more heart attacks in adults the next day. Studies also show that simply getting one more hour of sleep contributes to better grades and more graduations from high school. For children, healthy sleep is also necessary for proper development of the heart.

How to improve sleep quality:

• Have a regular bedtime. 
• Have a regular bedtime routine.
• Avoid blue light, a.k.a. screen time on phones, computers and TV.  We evolved on fire light, so did our brains. 
• Stay away from mind-stimulating activities after dinner. News, social media, and video games prevent our bodies from preparing for sleep. 
• Don’t do financial things, like paying bills, after dinner.
• Make a prioritized, hand-written to-do list that includes handling worries, and get in the habit of following it. It has been found that during sleep, if the list is hand-written, our brains are sometimes able to solve or clarify problems. This may be because there is too much clutter in our minds when we are awake.
• Try meditation or mindfulness training. These methods have been proven to lower blood pressure. Could it be that lower blood pressure helps you sleep?  Body relaxation, yoga, and breathing techniques when combined with meditation can be profound.
• Avoid alcohol.  Yes, having a drink before bed, “a night cap,” can lull your mind into falling asleep, but it has a rebound effect that wakes you up at about 3 or 4 am.

Those of you addicted to “modern” pharmaceutical medicine may be more inclined take a pill like Ambien or Lunesta. While short term use is sometimes necessary with certain life events, it is important to avoid long term regular use as there are side effects. One very important side effect is that, even though you get to sleep, these medications can prevent the achievement or quantity of REM sleep. The areas of the brain that turn on during REM sleep seem to help learning, memory, and cognition. Dreams happen during the REM stage of sleep. The body becomes immobile during REM sleep which allows the Glial cells, whose duty is to pad and protect the neurons, to shrink to one tenth their size. In this state the brain is allowed to have a fluid exchange eliminating the waste that was accumulated since your last REM sleep. This phenomenon could explain why untreated OSA (obstructive sleep apnea) can result in an increased incidence of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, not to mention the cognitive interference that can be caused. No matter what, always avoid a drug dependence.

Melatonin is a hormone created by our brains once the sun goes down. It helps your body know when it is time to sleep or wake up. The amount of light you get each day, plus your own body clock, set how much your body makes. Taking melatonin can actually lessen the body’s ability to produce it, possibly because of the overdosing.  New melatonin sprays using very small amounts have been introduced to counteract this problem, but the results are not yet clear. I have seen short-term use of a small dosed, timed-release melatonin work quite well.

One problem that promotes poor sleep is that almost all of us are magnesium deficient.  Almost no farms replace minerals to the soil and magnesium (Mg) is one of the most important. Among many vital functions, magnesium has been proven to decrease anxiety and promote sleep.  I take “Magnesium L-Threonate” every night two hours before bed. I usually fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, and stay asleep all night. If you have trouble with sleep and are trying to stop taking prescribed sleep medications, I recommend that you consult an integrative practitioner about supplements that might help.

Even though you may have great lifestyle habits including diet, exercise, and mindfulness training, without enough sleep, optimal health is almost impossible to achieve. At my practice, the Advanced Oral Diagnosis and Treatment Center, we treat the patient, not just the symptoms, with no pharmaceuticals. For more information visit www.aodtc.com or call 925-837-8048.