The Insomnia Blog - Sleep Doctor Michael Breus, PhD

Fighting family jet lag during the holidays

I love this story about how to combat “junior jet lag.” We’re in the thick of the holiday season, which is prime time for travel. School vacations and holiday visits to family make this a time of year when many people are packing up and heading across time zones. Travel can be disruptive to sleep for kids, especially travel that involves time zone changes. Long days in transit combined with time zone shifts can throw kids’ schedules quickly out of whack. Parents, you know what this means: tantrums in the airport, little ones wide awake at 3 a.m. in grandma’s spare bedroom, meltdowns at the dining room table, and generally difficult behavior all around. Vacationing with the whole family should be fun—and it can be. Sleep can make a critical difference.  Its worth it to plan ahead to make sure that everyone in the family, especially kids, are prepared to handle jet lag and adjust their sleep schedules.

 

What’s behind jet lag? When we ask our bodies to adapt to a different time schedule, we disrupt our circadian rhythm, our body’s powerful internal regulator, which governs our sleep-wake cycle, our ability to fall asleep and to wake feeling rested and ready to get out of bed. Our circadian clocks have a powerful effect on our mood and energy levels, and even our immune systems. This internal regulatory mechanism is finely tuned—even very slight disruptions can have an effect on how we feel and our ability to sleep. Moving across time zones, with changes of an hour or more to the “normal” schedule, can have a significant effect.

 

Let’s face it, as adults we don’t always weather these changes particularly well (or happily), so it’s no surprise that our kids don’t handle jet lag with ease and good humor. The good news is there are a number of things you can do to prepare your kids for travel that involves changes to their schedules. Taking the time to plan ahead can make a huge difference in how well your children handle the travel itself and adapt to time zone changes when you arrive. Smart preparation begins before your bags are packed:

 

Book reasonably. That off-hours, overnight flight to your destination may save you a bit of money, but it may not be worth it if your family is too tired and irritable to enjoy your time once you arrive. A good rule to go by when factoring jetlag into your planning is that it takes the body 1 day to adjust for every 1-2 time zones you cross. Designing a travel schedule that minimizes delays and avoids overnight flights can help reduce the impact of jetlag, especially with kids in tow.

 

Bank sleep. The best strategy starts a few weeks ahead of your actual travel. Of course, making sure your child is getting plenty of sleep should always be a top priority. But in the weeks leading up to a trip, it’s even more important that your kids get ample rest. Go back to basics: stick closely to schedules for meals and homework in the evenings, make sure bedtime and wake times are consistent, turn off the TV and electronics (and especially for older kids, the smartphones and computers) in the hour immediately before bed. I call it the electronic curfew!

 

Adjust bedtimes in advance. Use the week before you plan to travel to begin to shift your child’s schedule toward the time zone where you’ll be going. Now, I’m not talking about keeping kids up late into the night, or waking them before dawn! But adjusting bedtimes 15 or 30 minutes (earlier or later, depending on where you are traveling) can give your kids a head start on the adjustment they’ll need to make during the trip.

 

 

When its time to travel, take a deep breath and keep these tips in mind:

 

Limit naps. As tempting as it might be to let your child sleep for hours on the plane, both of you may pay for that peace and quiet at your destination, when your child is up in the middle of the night, or refuses to go to bed at all. When deciding whether to allow your child to nap, keep in mind your destination time zone. Early in the day naps will have pose fewer problems than naps closer to afternoon and evening of your destination. Keeping naps brief, no longer than 30 minutes, will help prevent this extra sleep from disrupting your kids’ bedtime.

 

Avoid medication. I hear often that parents are using over the counter sleep and cold medication to help their kids sleep during travel. It’s never a good idea to employ medication for treatment beyond its intended uses. And medicating a child to sleep through travel will only further disrupt his or her sleep-wake cycle, leaving your child even less able to adapt to sleeping in the new time zone.

 

Get out in the light. Sunlight and exercise are two of the very best ways to help speed your child’s adjustment to a different time zone. Exposure to light and physical activity will help re-set their circadian clocks. If you’ve arrived early in the day, getting your kids outside to play will help boost their energy and fall asleep more easily at the right time. If you arrive in the late afternoon or evening, close to bedtime, keeping kids quiet and away from bright light will help prepare them to wind down for bed.

 

My last tip? Parents, take care of your own sleep! If you are rested, you’ll be that much better able to handle the ups and downs of travel—and your kids’ unpredictable moods—with patience and good humor.

 

Happy holidays and happy, well-rested travel!

 

Sweet Dreams,

 

Michael J. Breus, PhD 
The Sleep Doctor™ 
www.thesleepdoctor.com

The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan:  Lose Weight Through Better Sleep

 

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep™ 
twitter: @thesleepdoctor 
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Sleep more, weigh less over the long term

The link between sleep and weight loss recently received a big boost: a long-term, large-scale study has confirmed that both too little sleep and too much sleep leads to weight gain.

Researchers at Harvard University examined how various lifestyle habits affected weight over an extended period of time. The study included more than 120,000 participants, both men and women, all of whom began in basic good health: none were suffering from any chronic diseases, and none were obese. Researchers monitored their weight in 4-year intervals over a total period of 20 years. Their findings provide more evidence to support the weight-control benefits of a full 6-8 hours of nightly sleep: Adults who slept fewer than 6 hours per night or more than 8 hours per night gained more weight than those whose nightly sleep fell within the recommended 6-8 hour range.

In addition to sleep, researchers also evaluated the effects of diet, exercise, alcohol consumption, smoking, and television watching habits on weight. The most significant weight gain occurred for people whose diet was filled with high-fat, high-sugar foods (no surprise, there). In particular, potato chips and other potato products and well as sugary beverages such as soda were associated with the most weight gain. As you might expect, diets rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts helped people keep their weight under control. Physical activity also helped people to keep from gaining weight.

We already know that sleep has an effect on our eating habits—on what we consume, how much we consume, and how well we burn it off.  Studies have shown that when we’re sleep deprived, we’re more likely to:

• Feel hungry, and consume more calories throughout a day
• Eat higher fat and calorie foods
• Burn calories less effectively

When we’re sleep deprived, we’re also just more likely to give in to temptation. We’ve simply got more time to choose to eat, and our judgment and willpower will be weaker when we’re tired—meaning we’re more likely to reach for the cookie jar than the fruit bowl.

The good news is that a solid sleep routine can help you keep your weight in a healthy place, over the long term. Here are some basic strategies:

Set yourself up for sleep. Create a bedroom environment that supports and enhances good sleep habits. A quiet, dark, laptop, text -free space will help you sleep better, and longer.

Choose a bedtime. We schedule so many things in our daily lives—there’s no reason we can’t do the same with bedtime. Working backward from your necessary wake-up time, find the right bedtime to allow you 6-8 hours of sleep.

Prepare yourself. Kids aren’t the only ones who need to wind down before bed. To prepare yourself for sleep, follow these general “power-down” guidelines:

• Schedule exercise no closer than 4 hours before bedtime
• Forgo alcohol within 3 hours of bedtime
• Turn off electronics 1 hour before bedtime

Find time for a nap. There’s increasing evidence to support that napping is healthy for both body and mind.

Establishing good sleep habits can really help you reach and maintain a healthy weight over the long term -  giving you that waistline you want, and protecting your overall health.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD 
The Sleep Doctor™ 
www.thesleepdoctor.com

The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan:  Lose Weight Through Better Sleep

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep™ 
twitter: @thesleepdoctor 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor

Marriage Problems for Parents, Sleep Problems for Baby

Here’s some sobering, if unsurprising, news: A recent study indicates that strength of your marriage can have an effect on your baby’s sleep. Researchers studied 350 families looking for a possible link between parents’ marital problems and sleep problems in their children. They followed the families over a nine-month period, beginning when the children were 9 months old. Here’s an important note: the researchers chose to study only adoptive families, in order to rule out the possibility of a genetic link between parents’ behaviors and their young children’s sleep habits, and to focus on the stress level in the family.   What did they find?

Marital instability among couples when their children were 9 months old predicted sleep problems in children 18 months of age.  The sleep difficulties for these toddlers included both falling asleep and staying asleep.

This study reinforces just how important it is to tend to our relationships with our partners. The health of your marriage can affect your children no matter how young they are. To me, this is also a perfect example of how sleep is at the very crux of our lives, as individuals and as families. Think about it:

• Marital difficulties affect children’s sleep, even at a young age.
• Parents of young children are often sleep-deprived--this is often especially true for moms--which can directly affect the quality of their relationship.
• Moreover, studies have shown a strong correlation between sleep habits of parents and their infant children.

At every turn, sleep matters! Before you start feeling overwhelmed, keep this in mind: creating strong sleep habits—for you and for your child—is not just an important goal, it’s an achievable one. There are several simple, practical steps you can take to help your entire family get the nightly good rest they need.

As all of us who’ve been through it can attest, new parenthood is both wonderful and stressful. The demands of having a young child can put pressure on a marriage. Sleep deprivation, so common among parents of young children, can make things worse. To be sure, sleep isn’t the only issue in marital problems among parents of young children: financial pressures, work issues and grueling daily schedules are issues for many of us. But being sleep deprived can make all of these problems seem worse. Lack of sleep is also a critical factor in one’s individual health and well being, and therefore has an impact on the version of ourselves that we’re able to present to our partners.

Keep in mind these basic new-parent strategies for protecting your sleep, and your relationship.

Share the workload: Rotating feedings at night, trading off chores—when both partners are involved in family work, everyone gets a break.

Know yourselves: Pay attention to your own natural inclinations, when it comes to sleep. The night-owl of the two of you is probably better suited for the midnight feeding than the early bird.

One-on-one time: It can be tempting to put every moment of attention to your baby, especially new moms. Nurturing your marriage is important too. Find time every day to connect with your spouse.

To help your child develop strong sleep skills, start early with these basic habits:

Slow things down: As bedtime approaches, quiet the activity level in the house. Television, music, and high-octane running around can be replaced with reading and quiet play as you prepare for your child’s bedtime ritual.

Bath, bed, repeat: Create a bedtime routine that you can follow nightly. Maybe it’s bath, then PJs, followed by a book and a back rub. Your child’s routine should be quiet, soothing, and enjoyable for you both.

Set that bedtime: Once you’ve picked a bedtime for your child, stick with it. Toddlers ages 1-3 should be sleeping from 12-14 hours a night. (The National Sleep Foundation has recommendations for sleep amounts for children from infancy to adolescence.) Whatever time you pick, remember—consistency is the key.

Don’t skip the naps: Skimping on naps won’t make babies more apt to sleep. Also, it’s best to put your child when she’s sleepy, not exhausted or actually asleep. This way, she’s better able to develop self-soothing techniques that will help her fall asleep on her own.

Protecting health of your marriage, as this study indicates, is another way to help pass along good health—and strong sleep habits—to your child.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD 
The Sleep Doctor™ 
www.thesleepdoctor.com

The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan:  Lose Weight Through Better Sleep

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep™ 
twitter: @thesleepdoctor 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor

Rock On For Better Sleep

It’s the simplest of soothing, sleep-inducing remedies, something we all naturally do: rocking a baby gently to sleep.

Long after we’ve left childhood, we all can be deeply affected by this relaxing rocking motion. Think of the peaceful glide of a porch swing, sleeping on a boat, or the calming sway of a hammock nap. There’s a new fascinating study that suggests rocking does indeed have an effect on our ability to fall asleep as well as on the quality of the sleep itself.

Researchers at the University of Geneva, Switzerland tested the effects of rocking on sleep in a dozen adult men between the ages of 22-38. All the men involved were good sleepers—none were suffering from any sleep or anxiety disorders, and they were well rested at the time of the experiment. Researchers created a special bed that mimicked the rocking of a hammock, and had the men take two 45-minute naps. During one nap the bed gently rocked, and during the other nap the bed remained still. While their subjects slept, researchers measured brain activity using an electroencephalogram (EEG). Here’s what they found:

• Every one of the participants fell asleep more quickly during their rocking nap.
• A majority (8 of 12) said they found the rocking nap “more pleasant” than the nap on the stationary bed.
• During the rocking nap, all of the sleepers moved more quickly from Stage 1 to t Stage 2 of their sleep cycle. Stage 2 is where we typically spend half of our sleep time over the course of a night.
• While rocking, sleepers showed significant increases in the types of brain-wave activity that are specifically associated with deeper, more restful, and more continuous sleep.

These findings regarding brain-wave activity are really fascinating. In Stage 2 sleep, a couple of important things happen:

• Brain waves slow down from stage 1
• Sleep spindles occur- short bursts of electrical activity in the brain

Sleep spindles are a kind of noise barrier created by the brain: their presence seems to help us stay asleep when faced with noises and external stimulation that might otherwise wake us. People whose brains generate more sleep spindles seem better able to sleep through the kinds of noise and interruption that might otherwise wake us up, whether it’s a snoring bed partner or an ill-timed car alarm on the street.

Based on these results, the researchers suggest that the rocking motion has the effect of helping to synchronize the brain for sleep: both to fall asleep more quickly, and possibly to achieve longer periods of deeper, uninterrupted sleep.

There’s great potential in these results. I’d love to see the effects of rocking tested over longer sleep periods, and on subjects who suffer from sleep disorders, including insomnia. In many ways, of course, this study confirms what we all instinctively know about the power of this soothing, repetitive rocking motion. And you don’t need a custom hammock bed—or even the old-fashioned version in your backyard—to reap the benefits of rocking. Visualization is a powerful tool that requires no equipment, and you can try it tonight!

• When you close your eyes for the night, create a restful rocking scene: imagine yourself swaying in that hammock, or floating lazily on a raft under gentle waves.
• Use your senses: hear the waves beneath you, feel a light warm breeze, smell the salt water or freshly cut grass.
• Try adding soothing music, if you find this relaxes you and quiets your mind.

You may be surprised at how easily you can create the powerful sensation of rocking yourself to sleep.  And maybe you can sleep a little deeper and for a little longer, too.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD 
The Sleep Doctor™ 
www.thesleepdoctor.com

The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan:  Lose Weight Through Better Sleep

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep™ 
twitter: @thesleepdoctor 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor

The Night Shift, Nurses and Sleep Deprivation

There’s been a lot in the news lately about people who work the late shift and have trouble staying awake, in particular about air traffic controllers.  One group of people who seem to have developed a system to avoid the same problems of falling asleep on the job, even in the face of extreme sleep deprivation: nurses.

Their system, however, may be seriously confusing their bodies.  According to a recent article, many nurses go without sleep for 24-hours in order to adjust to their late-night shifts.  Not only is this ineffective, it’s also potentially harmful:

• When you don’t sleep for that long, your sleep/wake patterns end up out of sync with your biological clock
• This leads to a misalignment of your circadian rhythms
• This kind of circadian misalignment has been associated with increased risk of developing cardiovascular, metabolic and gastrointestinal disorders

We have a set of internal rhythms that repeat roughly every 24 hours: the sleep-wake cycle, hunger, the ebb and flow of hormones, the rise and fall of body temperature, and other subtle rhythms that mesh with the 24-hour solar day.   In fact, a lot of people’s sleep problems can be attributed to an internal clock that has become out of sync or mismatched with the day-night cycle. Sometimes your body’s clock just doesn’t quite match up with society’s 24-hour clock.

Many nurses work 12-hour shifts, and if a nurse works three night shifts in a row and then has a few days off, that means he or she is returning to a normal sleep schedule on days off and repeating the 24-hours of no sleep preparation a few times a week.

Jet lag is the most familiar and mild example of people’s sleep and biological clocks not lining up; going multiple 24-hour stretches without sleeping is much, much more risky. 

Nurses aren’t alone in the struggle to work odd-hour shifts.  According to U.S. labor statistics, about 20 percent of the workforce, or about 19.7 million U.S. workers, are early risers who begin work between 2:30 a.m. and 7 a.m.  If you’re one of those people, I’m very impressed—and I hope that you aren’t resorting to methods like the ones some nurses are using.  While it may help in the short term, the long term benefit of messing with your circadian rhythms is anything but helpful.  Instead, try napping if you can (and if it is safe to do so) and try to stick to as regular a sleep routine as possible.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep™
twitter: @thesleepdoctor
Facebook: 

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Cars That Drive Themselves?

I’ve blogged before about the dangers of driving while sleepy, and I can’t emphasize how dangerous and widespread it is. According to the National Sleep Foundation, over 60% of Americans admit to driving while feeling drowsy.  Even more shocking is that at least 37% of respondents said they had actually fallen asleep while driving.  People with sleep apnea are twice as likely to be involved in collisions caused by sleep deprivation.

The number of accidents caused by sleepy drivers may be about to decline.  Testing is already underway in Europe for something known as a “road train,” a train of cars that are wirelessly controlled by a lead vehicle.  Drivers of the individual cars are then free to take their eyes off the road and do many things a driver cannot usually do, like read, eat, work—even sleep.

This mode of transportation could be available as soon as 2021, and would certainly cut down on the number of collisions caused by human error, especially drowsy driving.  The individual cars would have to be specially engineered for advanced steering and wireless control of acceleration and speed; you could not use your current car in the occasional road train on particularly difficult Mondays.  Still, the idea is not only pretty cool but also pretty safe: the name for the European commission overseeing the project is SARTRE, which stands for the European Commission-backed Safe Road Trains for the Environment.  It is also exceptionally fuel-efficient.

 It’s practically human nature to underestimate the negative effects associated with fatigue and sleep deprivation and, conversely, overestimate our abilities to overcome them while driving. The National Sleep Foundation reports that very few parents speak to their children about the dangers of driving while drowsy; teen drivers are just as, if not more likely, than adults to drive while sleepy.   Remember:  if you are the least bit sleepy, don’t drive.  Do not put yourself or others in danger.  

Sweet Dreams,

 

Michael J. Breus, PhD

The Sleep Doctor™

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep™

www.thesleepdoctor.com

twitter: @thesleepdoctor

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesleepdoctor

Vitamin D: Daytime Energy the Old Fashioned Way.

Once again I love it when a mystery is revealed, or at least partially explained.

I was reading a case study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine and it helped confirm a hypothesis I have had for a while about the importance of vitamins to your sleep.

 

Look a the Busy B’s: Did you know that Vitamin B can help regulate the use of tryptophan?

• B3: Has been shown to increase REM sleep, help with depression in some cases and a decrease in nighttime awakenings.
• B6:  is essential in the production of serotonin, the “calming” hormone that helps calm the body before falling asleep.
• Folic Acid: deficiency in folic acid deficient can  be found in those with insomnia
• Important Minerals: Calcium and Magnesium, taken in a 2:1 ratio, can be helpful for sleep
• Calcium: is a natural relaxant which has a calming effect on the nervous system.  500 mg daily can be helpful (soda can actually strip away calcium).
• Magnesium: is a mineral that appears to help assist chronic sleep problems as well. It should be taken 250 mg daily with 500 mg. of calcium.
• But a recent case study has shown that a patient with severe sleepiness, and a vitamin D deficiency,  vitamin D supplementation improved daytime sleepiness dramatically:
• The patient was a 28 year old female.  She was suffering for about 4 months with excessive sleepiness. Her symptoms started slowly and continued to progress.
• She kept a standard bedtime between 10 and 11 pm, and she reported falling asleep within minutes.  She would wake at 7:30 am and reported that she did not think that she was sleeping poorly. She would get her kids ready for school and then be back in bed by 8am until noon. She would then nap from 4 pm to 7 pm. She reported about 14 hours of sleep per day.
• Her sleep study showed no signs of sleep apnea or other sleep disorder. During her clinic visit she showed no signs of narcolepsy, depression or anxiety. Her next day nap study was unremarkable.
• She reported muscle fatigue and pain, as well as headaches, her labwork showed a thyroid in the low but normal range and she had low levels of vitamin D.

She was started on a Vitamin D supplementation at 50,000 units once per week (IV) and within 2 weeks she started to see a decrease in her sleepiness and fatigue.

Vitamin D is actually considered a fat soluble hormone that can be received in foods (dietary sources and fish) or is self-manufactured by the skin after exposure to UVB light. A Vitamin D deficiency has been noticed as a global issue and recently found in underserved populations, patients in northern latitudes, people with darker skin tones, the elderly, obese and pregnant or lactating women. Also very common in areas with a high degree of sunshine (this seems counter-intuitive, but think about all that sunblock!). Recent studies have linked Vitamin D deficiency to metabolic syndrome, muscle pain, and even type 2 diabetes.

 

So why do we think it helped her sleepiness? It is really hard to say, but I have seen this in some of my patients. It could be linked to a decrease in sleep disturbing pain. Or Vitamin D may be something that will help decrease a person’s drive for sleep. Only more research in this exciting new area can tell us.

 

Check with your doctor about vitamin supplementation. We all work hard, and eating right isn’t always easy - and even when we do, we may not get what we need from the food we eat. Our bodies actually make vitamin D, but we have to get enough sunlight to make that happen effectively.

 

Have you started taking vitamin D and noticed an increase in your daytime energy? What about vitamin B? Share your stories – would love to hear your experiences with keeping healthy and getting better sleep.

 

Sweet Dreams,

 

Michael J. Breus, PhD

The Sleep Doctor™

Everything you do, you do better with a good night’s sleep.™

www.thesleepdoctor.com

twitter @thesleepdoctor

Facebook: The Sleep Doctor

Don’t Get Caught Drowsy Driving this Holiday Season

The statistics speak volumes:

• Approximately one in every six fatal crashes—or 16.5 percent—in the US involves a drowsy driver.
• Ten percent of drivers surveyed by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety admitted to falling asleep while driving their vehicle during the past 12 months.
• At least one-quarter of respondents said that they got behind the wheel during the previous four weeks even though it had been hard to keep their eyes open.
• And paradoxically, when asked how acceptable driving while finding it difficult to keep your eyes open was, a whopping 85 percent said it was unacceptable.

Translation: we don’t walk our talk. People who see drowsy driving as unacceptable have done it themselves. 

The authors of this latest study explain that some drivers may not understand the impact not getting enough sleep can have on an your alertness, reflexes, and degree of fatigue.

I couldn’t agree more. Drunk driving is such a strong societal taboo, and yet drowsy driving may arguably be more prevalent—and equally as dangerous. Similar to the effects of alcohol and other drugs, sleepiness decreases awareness, slows reaction time, and impairs judgment. Add that to an existing sleep disorder and you’re looking at a recipe for very serious disaster and harm to yourself and others. Consider these other stats:

• Drowsy drivers are involved in 1 in every 8 crashes in which somebody ends up in a hospital
• One in every 14 crashes in which the vehicle was towed away involves a driver who was drowsy.
• Sleepers with mild sleep apnea are twice as likely to crash their cars.

As we enter the holiday season, this latest survey makes for a good reminder. When you add the stress of family gatherings with copious food and beverage—not to mention sugar highs and sleep deprived lows—it’s enough to leave anyone exhausted at the end of the party. Yet we all need to get home somehow.  It’s practically human nature to underestimate the negative effects associated with fatigue and sleep deprivation and, conversely, overestimate our abilities to overcome them while driving.

This new data underscores the importance of recognizing the power of sleep deprivation and the perils that can await us when we don’t take measures to police our own habits, as well as our wellbeing. It is really very simple: If you are the least bit sleepy, do not put yourself or others in danger.   A designated, sober and well rested driver is something to consider this holiday season.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD

The Sleep Doctor™

www.thesleepdoctor.com

 

Power Napping to Win

Imagine being able to compete in a race to prove you’re a champion napper.

That is what’s going on in Spain this past week as contestants vie for a first prize of about $1,400 in credit to purchase goods at a shopping mall. The “grand siesta champ” will be chosen by October 23 by the public, and the voting includes the help of the Internet.

The event is quite a scene, with competitors lying down on blue sofas in the middle of a loud, bustling shopping mall as people gaze and the world goes on around them. Not even the surrounding stores close down like they usually do in the afternoon so employees can enjoy their afternoon nap.

Spanish media have given a lot of attention to the championship. And for good reason: the siesta, which has long been a Spanish tradition, is losing its luster. The realities of modern life coupled with a weak economy have conspired to eliminate the afternoon napping session, which can last more than hour. In this competition, sleep is limited to just a 20 minute power nap and people are hooked up to devices that can determine whether or not a person is truly sleeping. A doctor attaches pulse meters to contestants’ chests so the judge, sitting in a lifeguard-type chair overlooking the five sofas, can tell who is sleeping and who isn’t.

The complex rules award points based on how long a person sleeps during the 20-minute competition time. Extra points are awarded to those who sleep in unusual positions and those who don eye-catching pajamas. The kicker: lots of extra points are given to those who snore!

According to some reports, Spaniards are woefully sleep-deprived. The fact that Spain boasts an unemployment rate of 20 percent may just have something to do with this significant lack of sleep, along with the loss of the siesta.

But will a siesta competition change the growing movement away from the once coveted afternoon nap? Unfortunately, probably not.

In the United States, napping has never been a cultural fixture despite all the studies proving its health benefits. You shouldn’t need a sleeping competition to encourage you to nap. A nap can be the quickest way to reboot your tired brain in the afternoon, charge yourself up for the rest of the day, and help you refresh yourself down to the cellular level. And you don’t need a blue couch in a busy mall to do it. You can try this one at home (or maybe even the office):

• 8 and 30: Aim to take a nap 8 hours after your wake time, but no later than 3:30 p.m. (otherwise your nap could disrupt your ability to fall asleep that night, especially if you’re early to bed). Set aside 30 minutes, since it may take you 10 minutes to fall asleep (if you feel asleep much faster you are likely sleep deprived and you really need a nap), which leaves 20 minutes for the power nap. Use an alarm clock.
• Get comfortable: Shake off your shoes, recline on a couch or bed (if available), or in a chair. Turn off or dim the lights, or use an eye mask to block distracting light. Get a blanket to stay warm.
• Don’t get uncomfortable: The thought of taking a nap in the middle of the day, especially a busy work day, might sound crazy to some (like friends and co-workers). Get over it! Remember, some of the most celebrated and productive (and smart and creative and innovative) people in history were huge nappers.
• Nap safely: Only nap in a safe environment.

If anyone gives you a hard time catching a few winks in the afternoon, just tell them that you’re working on your brain power. And that they, too, could use the brain boost if they’re acting so misinformed. They need mental space for the facts about napping!

Sweet Dreams,

 

Michael J. Breus, PhD

The Sleep Doctor™

www.thesleepdoctor.com

America Isn’t the Only Place Sleep Deprived

Turns out we’re not the only ones saddled with sleeplessness and too much stress. And we’re not the only ones living in a perilous job market and economy that takes its toll on our sleep habits.

According to a new study looking at sleep problems in Luxembourg as compared to the rest of the world, insomnia, nightmares and restlessness are a global problem. And though this latest study was aimed at showing how well (or not) the people of Luxembourg sleep, its findings are telling:

• A whopping 75% of Luxembourgers claim to suffer from insomnia due to work anxiety. But the worldwide average? It’s 85%; that’s breathtaking!

• Monday morning anxiety prevents 78% of workers around the world from getting a decent sleep on a Sunday night. But again, Luxembourgers claim to have it better: only 49% of them complained of this problem.

• The pressure of finding a new job accounted for 34% of Luxembourg’s restless sleepers.

So should we move to Luxembourg? Maybe not. The Luxembourgers lose when compared to their peers around the world on handling day-to-day demands and pressures, which accounted for 32% of insomnia cases. On a global scale, the day-to-day job stress leaves, on average, 23% of workers struggling to sleep.

Other findings that the recruitment company Monster found in the past:

• Finland had the lowest rate of sleeplessness related to workplace stress, with 26% of workers saying they experienced no problems.

• Spanish workers appear to be the most anxious, with 96% of workers losing sleep because of work. Don’t they at least get permission to take a nap—siesta—in the afternoon?

• For 15% of people worldwide, work does not stop them from sleeping.

This last statistic is interesting. Does that factor out all the unemployed people? If you’re not working, technically “work” cannot affect your sleep, right? Okay, so I’m probably getting a little too nit-picky. Those folks are likely looking for work (and count that as work) instead of tossing and turning in their beds at night thinking about it.

The point is that our daily stresses have a profound affect on our sleep and whether or not we can achieve restful sleep on a nightly basis. Cultures, traditions, geography, and economic climates aside, we all need sleep. We all feel the pressure of our challenges and struggles in our bedrooms. We all suffer from sleeplessness when things don’t go our way.

And those collective experiences alone create a common denominator. A global village if you will.

Sweet Dreams,

 

Michael J. Breus, PhD

The Sleep Doctor™

www.thesleepdoctor.com