In Pursuit of Sleep...

What does it take to get great sleep?  It takes comfort, a chilled room, a calm mind, no sugar and consistency.  Let's talk about that last factor.

Consistency is the best friend of every Great Sleeper.  You need to be going to bed at the same time, getting up at the same time, eating at the same time.  You have to commit to yourself that sleep is important to your health and that your health is vital to your happiness.

At some point in your life, you left home and started eating ice cream for dinner every night.  Many of us had that first taste of freedom in college.  The joy in that experience lasted for about one week, maybe two if we really liked ice cream and weren't smart enough to notice the effects on how our bodies felt.  But the point is, it's over now.

The rest isn't a lot different.  When you go read and apply "The Great Sleep Checklist,"  you are looking to eliminate the other "ice cream factors" in your life.  If you're going to start sleeping better, it'll take about that level of discipline.  You'll try to get to bed at the same time every night.  You'll endeavor to be home in your own bed, with the room temperature suitably lowered to the 68-70 degree zone.  You'll have avoided exercise and eating for a few hours prior.

You'll also want to stop pecking at your computer screens 90 minutes before you go to bed.  Yes, even the smartphone.  That one gets harder every day, doesn't it?

But you'll notice it all works together.  It all helps you get better sleep.  It's a chain of events that, when combined, will help you move toward a better night's sleep.  Then one night, it'll all fall into place, and voila! Great Sleep Achieved!

Sleepless Night Equals Dying Brain Cells

How're you holding up in the Polar Vortex this week?  Has it made your nights into a sleep vortex?  Painful hours disappearing in your pillow as you struggle to get enough sleep?  I hope not.  Colder temperatures are generally better for sleeping, so maybe this has all meant a better night's sleep for you.

New study to talk about.  Remember those all-night study sessions you did to graduate college?  The coffee, the pizza, the books, the loud music?  Yeah, well, according to a new study, losing a night's sleep kills brain cells.

That's right, researchers at Sweden's Uppsala University looked into the minds of people staying up all night and found chemicals in their blood that indicated brain damage.  Ew!  That's not what you wanted to read, was it?  

To get the findings, the researchers kept 15 healthy young men up all night, then looked for signs of neuron damage, impaired blood brain barrier function, or both.   And yes, they found it, according to the report published in the journal, "Sleep."

Levels of the chemicals NSA and S-100B in the subjects brains rose.  The findings are considered a sign that lack of sleep could mean loss of brain tissue, according to Uppsala Professor Christian Benedict, quoted in the Daily Mail.

Hey... it was just a one-nighter!

When you think about all the times you've gotten home a little too late, had a cup (or three) to many, or procrastinated a project until the last day and then gone 24/7 after it, you start to feel an uncomfortable little tingle... at the base of your brain.

Don't do it.  Get home on time.  Stop the caffeine early.  Tune out the tech.  Head for bed.  And say your prayers you haven't already killed too many brain cells.  There's more here.  Time to get on it!

Happy New Year! How'd You Sleep?

It is January 1st, 2014 and the World is MY Pearl.  Statement of fact.

Why?  Because I got a good night''s sleep, straight through, without waking.  I feel like a million bucks and ready to take on anything.  The best, most important thing for an insomniac like me to do after a good night's sleep is to take note of everything that was done differently in the lead-up to increase the chances of repeating it in the year ahead.

Last night, I was careful to get utterly no sugar in the 5 or 6 hours before bed.  Half the world was celebrating the outgoing old year and incoming first moments of the new year, and I celebrated with some low-carbohydrate broccoli and cheese patties.  Think what you'd like, but I'd eat them four nights a week to insure sleep like that.  Fortunately, I'm pretty sure I won't need to do that, but avoiding sugar always seems to help.

I cut back Melatonin use.  I've been trying to eliminate regular use and dependence on any sleep aid from my regimen, after reading reports that "too much of a good thing" can easily become bad.  In keeping with that goal, I cut back Melatonin by one-third starting a month ago and it's had a negative effect on my sleep.  It seems I'm getting somewhere on that effort.

I slept in my own bed, with my favorite sheets, in a cold room under light but warm covers.  Over the years, I've given my bedding a lot of thought and effort.  I don't like heavy covers.  An eider-down in East Europe would make me scream.  Or sweat.  I also don't like polyester; it pills.  I like a nice, light down comforter, dressed in cotton and linen duvet with plenty of feather pillows on the side.  I currently sleep with five pillows.

I eliminated tech and gadgets.  I did watch TV in my bedroom, but I shut down the computer a full 90 minutes early.  I put the phone on the side and tried to limit exposure to any bluish, insomnia-inducing tech-light.  I mostly succeeded.

2014 ushered its own noisy self in.  Since I worked early this morning, I didn't go out.  But I didn't go to bed "early," either.  A double feature of my favorite British sit-com was on and I treated myself to both episodes.  I got to sleep a full hour later than I should have.

But with in spite of less pillow-time, I had more quality shut-eye than I have had in weeks.  I woke up ready to take on the world.  I made New Years' Resolutions, career and workout goals and greeted everyone I met with a smile.  It's amazing what a good night's sleep can do for attitude.

And if this was any indication of what 2014 will bring, we're in for a wild, amazing, exciting, GREAT ride!

One more thing, if you didn't sleep as well as I did and you don't sleep well on a regular basis, you can change that.  It may be any of a hundred different things.  Check out The Great Sleep Checklist to see if it will help you.  It's never too late to start sleeping well.

Insomnia by Race

Here's one you may have thought you knew, but now it's been confirmed: African American adults are more likely than whites to miss sleep, according to a new study, with the gap especially wide for black professionals.

The study, from the Harvard School of Public Health, focused on "short sleepers."  Those are adults who routinely get less than seven hours of sleep per night.  Short sleepers make up 29% of the population as a whole, but the practice is more common (37%) among blacks than whites (28%) in a nationally representative survey of 136,815 men and women, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Researchers don't know why the gap exists, but they are concerned.  Sleeping less than seven hours per night is linked with higher risk of early death and problems with obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes.  Since African Americans also suffer higher mortality rates in all these health concerns, it's a "chicken and egg" question that could keep one up at night.

2014: A Year in Great Sleep Research

2013 was a great year for learning about sleep, our brains and how sleep affects our well-being.  Many of us already think we know the answer: "Ugh.  My life sucks without enough sleep and I feel terrible.  I wander around in a funk and am completely unproductive."

Yes, all true, but let's take a quick review of what researchers learned as it pertains to sleep and see if there's anything new there to benefit us.

First and foremost of the sleep and brain studies was data showing our brains use sleep to eliminate garbage.  That's right.  During sleep, the brain rids itself of waste.  

Here's the thing: scientists have known for years that the brain doesn't directly use the lymphatic system (the body's main filter and waste dumping system) to eliminate its toxic waste.  Instead, our sleeping mind uses cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to flush out neurotoxins via pathways separate from the lymphatic system.  And by the way, we may find out this is important to avoiding the plague of our seniors, because among the toxins flushed is beta amyloid, which is a protein identified as related to Alzheimer's Disease.

Added to this information in 2013, the discovery by researchers (led by University of Rochester neurosurgeon Maiken Nedergaard) of "hidden caves" that open in the brain while we sleep, allowing the cerebrospinal fluid to flush neurotoxins out through the spinal column.

This research may mean failing to get enough sleep isn't just annoying, doesn't just make you grumpy; it also may be a factor in developing neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer's Disease, which of course, we are all desperate to avoid.  If you want to stay in your right mind, give your mind the chance to right itself by flushing out toxins with regular sleep.

Stress is also a huge factor in a healthy night's rest and health in general, as we all know, but in 2013, it was confirmed as a factor in cancer growth and recovery.

The research here didn't show that stress causes cancer, but according to the study by Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, once cancer has taken hold, stress biochemically feeds the growth of cancerous cells.   The study was done using prostate cancer in mice, but it has implications for all cancers in other organisms, such as you and me.

No studies on this, but pretty sure we all agree that if you get more sleep, you'll cope with your stress better. 

I saved the easiest-to-swallow information for last: coffee, chocolate and the caffeine link.

I'm not a coffee drinker myself, but let's look at the research.  And there's a plethora of it.  "Coffee is good for you!" "Coffee is bad for you."  "Two cups a day will stunt your growth."  "Anything more than two cups a day may be addictive."  Researchers seem to love to talk about the morning cup as much as some people like to drink it. 

But in 2013, Harvard School of Public Health did a meta-review.   You know what that is, right?  A review of the data collected during other studies that shows or leads to entirely other helpful or dark conclusions.  This particular meta-study was a look back at three extensive U.S. health studies that included 43,599 men and 164,825 women to find that coffee accounted for the 71% of caffeine consumed.

Then they looked at causes of death during the study period: 277 suicides.

The analysis found the risk of suicide among adults drinking 2-4 cups of coffee (400 mg of caffeine) was 50% lower than for adults drinking decaffeinated coffee, or one cup or less of caffeinated coffee.  Over-serving, drinking more than 4 cups of coffee, didn't further decrease the suicide risk.  The study didn't note whether the average 4+cup caffeine addicts would make one feel like a rat in a maze.

By the way, the caffeine makes sense, because it's mimicking a brain chemical called adenosine that acts as a "checks and balances" chemical made by neurons as they fire throughout the day.  Producing adenosime or drinking caffeine helps the nervous system to ratchet down activity, until we eventually fall asleep and then, about 8 hours later, we reboot.

Using the science to our own benefit can only be the smart thing to do, particularly as it relates to sleep and the brain.   And hopefully, we'll all sleep better in 2014.

Holiday Season Insomnia?

Fall and Winter usually help people to improve their sleep habits. The cooler temperatures, longer nights and shorter days are great for celebrating holidays, eating too much, exercising less and sleeping more.  Turkey served at several meals is always good for a few extra Zzz's. 

The holidays are also good for stories about subjects like sleep.  Here's an interview I did with Sandy Hausman of Virginia Public Radio:

Virginia Author hopes her book will "Put You to Sleep."

Happy Holidays and, now that they're almost over, get some rest!

Give Thanks for Great Sleep

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving: time to come together with family and friends, give thanks and express gratitude for what you have (and sometimes what you don't have), and eat an unusually ornate meal.



Since most of us make a tradition of overeating (and regretting it) on this holiday, what can you do to lower the chances that you'll over-indulge and feel uncomfortable, both physically and mentally?  Get a good night's sleep.

Why?  Because surveys show people who are under-tired, are more likely to overeat.   Maybe we overeat because we're so tired that we think we need a little comfort, or perhaps we do it because exhaustion doesn't help us make good decisions.  For whatever reason, we eat more when tired.  And very few of us are going to get exercise, beyond a light game of touch football (or hoisting feet on the ottoman for football on TV after the meal).

Sleep will help you get through the meal preparation, whether that's actual cooking or helping keep other guests out of the cook's way.  It helps keep people on an even keel, which is often tough to do on these big family occasions. It's important to everyone's well-being.  We all know that.

Even better news, it is the best time of the year to get a good night's sleep.  Summer's heat has gone.  The worst worries about "what am I waking up to" are yet to come.   The rain and, in some cases soggy snow, always seem to help me sleep in a way that bitter cold does not.

So remember the basics: go to bed at the same time every night.  Sleep in a cool, dark room.  Turn off the tech at least an hour (two is better) before you turn in.  Sleep on a good mattress.  Check those pillows to see if they need replacing.  Oh!  We'll talk about that next time!