Sleep:
Tips for Getting the Best Rest of Your Life
by Dr. Robert Goldman and Dr. Ronald Klatz
Getting to sleep, staying asleep, and waking
refreshed can be highly elusive to many
of us. We spend one-third of our lives
under the covers, but sleeping well is one
of the most underestimated factors in
feeling well and performing at our best.
Fortunately, there are techniques you can
implement tonight to achieve restful,
rejuvenative sleep.
Sleep deprivation can be life threatening
to you and those around you. The
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
reports that more than 100,000
car accidents per year (1,500 fatal) are
the direct result of people driving while
sleepy. The nuclear reactor explosion
at Chernobyl, poisoning thousands of
square miles with radioactive particles,
was found to be the result of human
error by shift workers who had been on
duty for more than 18 hours. Some have
suggested that the explosion of the space
shuttle Challenger was caused in part by
engineers and supervisors who had been
awake for 50 hours continuously prior
to launch and who overlooked warnings
about possible mechanical failure. Errors
in judgment caused by sleepiness were
also cited as contributing factors in the
Exxon Valdez tanker accident.
The quality and quantity of sleep is
directly linked to the quality and quantity
of life. Daniel F. Kripke, M.D. of the University
of California-San Diego, School
of Medicine has found that most people
need at least 6 to 7 hours of sleep in
order to perform at their physical and
mental best. The same study also found
that taking prescription sleeping medication
every day increases the risk of death
by 25 percent.
Over time, insufficient sleep accumulates.
Slowly but surely, a sleep debt deteriorates
our physical and cognitive acuity
until we are overwhelmed by sleepiness.
The nationwide sleep debt has been
reported to cost the American economy
about $120 million annually in health
expenditures, lost worker productivity, and property destruction. The personal
costs of sleep debt can include:
- Mood changes—irritability, depression, and anxiety are common mood disturbances caused by lack of sleep
- Impaired nervous system function manifesting as decreased cognitive and motor performance, such as inattention, memory difficulties, and delayed reaction time
- Weight gain—not only due to hormones that relate to both sleep andweight, but to the tendency for us toreach for a sugary, carbohydrate-laden snack to keep us awake when we are drowsy
- Impaired immune function—a lack of sleep undermines the immune system’s capacity to ward off invasion.
Difficulties achieving a refreshing sleep,
along with sleep dysfunction, play a key
role in a wide variety of human disorders.
Stroke and asthma attacks tend to occur
more frequently during the night and early
morning, which some experts suggest is
due to changes in hormones, heart rate,
and other characteristics associated with
sleep. Dream-state sleep also has been
found to be critical in preventing seizures
and other neurological disorders. Sleeping
problems occur in almost all people
afflicted with mental conditions such as
depression and schizophrenia, and are
common in age-related diseases, including
Alzheimer’s, stroke, and cancer.
To achieve restorative sleep, it is critical
to create a sleep haven. Establishing
good habits for sleep and creating
an inviting environment appropriate for
sleep will form good “sleep hygiene,” a
personalized regimen that is your gateway
to refreshing sleep.
Sleep-Friendly Habits
Establish how much sleep you really
need: approximate the amount of time
your body considers requisite to enable
your best daytime functioning by going to
sleep and arising without the help of an
alarm clock. Once you know how many
hours of sleep you need, modify your daily
routine so that you take care of personal
and professional responsibilities three to
four hours prior to bedtime, then start a
pre-sleep routine of quiet relaxation.
Set a regular schedule, particularly for
the time at which you get up every day.
An inconsistent sleep-wake schedule sets
the biological stage for poor sleep. Avoid
caffeine and nicotine for at least six hours
before bedtime, including chocolate and
some over-the-counter pain and cold
remedies. Avoid alcohol after dinnertime—while it may help you fall asleep, it
will probably cause you to awaken in the middle of the night.
Get regular exercise. Exercise promotes
faster time to sleep and improves
progress through the stages of sleep.
Moderate aerobic exercise three days a
week has been found to promote sound
sleep. Strength training exercise (including
weightlifting) prompts the release of
Human Growth Hormone (HGH), rising
levels of which at night coincide with
sleep. Exercise also strengthens bones
and joints, thereby helping to alleviate
pain that can inhibit falling or staying
asleep. It is best to avoid exercising within
the 2–4 hours before bedtime because of
the hormone-releasing (and thus possibly
stimulating) effect.
Eat for sleep. For dinner or a light
nighttime snack, choose foods containing
the amino acid tryptophan, from
which the body makes serotonin and
melatonin, key biochemicals that trigger
sleep. Dairy products, beans, poultry, and
green leafy vegetables are good sources
of tryptophan.
Sex may help to promote sleep by
releasing neurochemicals that are sedating.
If you are on any prescription or over-the-counter medications, ask your doctor
if they could be contributing to poor sleep.
Upon awakening, open the curtains and
greet the sunlight; morning bright light
promotes sleep onset later in the day. For
older folks, exposure to bright light at the
low point of core body temperature can
delay the sleep-wake cycle so that they
start feeling sleepy later.
The Sleep Environment
Keep the sleeping room cool and dark.
Lowering the temperature helps your
body cool down, assisting the onset of
sleep. Light is the most powerful time cue
for humans; even low ambient light alters
the sleep-wake cycle by way of the pineal,
a light-sensitive organ that detects light
even if the eyes are closed. Also, keep the
sleeping room quiet. If you cannot keep
sound to an absolute minimum, use a
fan, air cleaner, or other source of “white
noise” to drown out discernible noise.
Limit the bed for engaging in two activities
only—sleep and sex. If you cannot
get to sleep after quietly lying in bed for
30 minutes, get out of bed and engage
in a quiet activity like reading or listening
to soothing music. Avoid television, it is
more of a stimulus than a relaxing activity.
Once you start feeling tired, return to
the bed and try to fall asleep again.
The bed is not merely a home furnishing,
it is an integral part of your sleep
environment. If you share a bed,
both of you may sleep best in a
king-sized bed, particularly if your
bed partner is prone to tossing
and turning or has restless leg
syndrome. Your mattress should
be a smooth, intact, comfortable surface. It should not
feel bumpy or have protruding coils. A
properly selected and maintained mattress
provides positive resistance to the
sleeper’s body weight. A mattress that is
too firm will not provide even body support,
since it will tend to support only
the body’s heaviest parts, thus causing
increased pressure and reduced blood
circulation which will result in tossing
and turning. A mattress that is too soft
will not keep the spine in proper alignment;
muscles will work throughout the
night to straighten the spine, leading to
aches and pains in the morning. Sags or
imprints in the mattress indicate that it is
not right for you. The foundation or box
spring extends the life of the mattress by
absorbing a major portion of the stress
and weight placed on the sleep surface.
A worn-out foundation can shorten the
life of a mattress by 50 percent and thus
compromise your sleep.
De-technologize your sleeping room.
Reduce sources of electromagnetic fields
(EMFs) that are produced by electronic
and electrical equipment. Scientists have
found that EMFs can affect brain waves
so as to alter mental acuity and change
mood and sleep patterns. EMFs are produced
by electric clocks, televisions,
computers, cellular and cordless phones,
lamps, and ionization–type smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
Reduce chemical irritants that may
cause breathing difficulties and interfere
with sleep. Remove home furnishings
made with synthetics or that are
chemically treated (carpeting, furniture,
draperies). Freshly dry cleaned
clothes contain vapors from the solvents
used in the cleaning process. Do
not bring them into the sleeping room
until airing them out in a separate
room for several days, and close the
closet door before sleeping. Use natural,
non-treated cotton or silk sheets
and avoid “permanent press” sheets
(these are treated with chemicals such
as formaldehyde). If you have pets, do
not allow them into the sleeping room.
A study by Dr. John Shepard of the
Mayo Clinic Sleep Disorders Center
reported that 53 percent of pet owners
permitting the animal in the sleeping
room had disrupted sleep every night.
Address sources of allergies—pets,
plants, and knickknacks are best left
out of the sleeping room.
A few drops of jasmine or lavender
essential oil on a tissue placed near
the bed can promote relaxation upon
inhalation. Dr. Bryan Raudenbush and
colleagues from Wheeling Jesuit University
found that people who slept
in rooms infused with jasmine slept
more peacefully and reported higher
afternoon alertness than those in a
room with no added smell. Similar
results were demonstrated with lavender,
but Dr. Raudenbush’s team found
the benefits to be less pronounced as
those seen with jasmine.
With a modest investment of effort
to improve your sleep hygiene, you can
reap significant improvements in how
well, and how long, you sleep. Get the
best rest of your life so you can get the
best out of your life.
Dr. Robert Goldman and Dr. Ronald Klatz are the physician cofounders of the antiaging
medical movement and of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M;Chicago, IL USA; www.worldhealth.net), a
nonprofit medical organization dedicated to the advancement of technology to detect, prevent, and treat aging related disease and to promote research into methods to retard and optimize the human aging process. For more tips on achieving restful, rejuvenative sleep, read The New Anti-Aging Revolution, by Drs. Klatz and Goldman, available from A4M (to order, call 773.528.4333 or visit The World Health Network Bookstore at www.worldhealth.net).
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