Waking up to 2009

Zzzzzzzzzz … oh, hello! Happy New Year 🙂

Looks like I’ve been caught napping. I rarely get a full night’s sleep, so I need those few extra zees. The only way to be fully alive, after all, is to avail of deep, refreshing sleep. Preferably every night of the year.

So I’ve decided to beat my insomnia. Some people find it hard to fall asleep; others drop off easily but wake up in the wee hours, unable to return to the Land of Nod. The unlucky among us are familiar with both scenarios.

What can we do about it? And why should we bother? After all, Mrs Thatcher got by on four hours’ sleep a night, didn’t she? (Is that what happened…?)

Sleep is a repair shop. You go there to restore body, mind and spirit. It boosts your immune system, is anti-ageing, promotes bodily repair, knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care, and gives you the energy you need to get through the day. Even if you are doing everything else right, lack of sleep can cancel out your efforts.

Suffer only one night of inadequate sleep and you are likely to feel the effects: grogginess (relieved only by the espresso pot), lack of focus and decision-making ability, clumsiness, stress, daytime dozing (or struggling not to) and impaired driving. And that’s just for starters. Lack of sleep can also lead to moodiness, irritability and depression. According to Dr Mercola (http://www.mercola.com), a recent study showed that just one night of rotten sleep reduces your ability to function the next day by over 30 per cent. Multiply that by the number of nights you can’t sleep and you could end up with the following: ongoing difficulties at work, college or school; unintentional strife in personal and professional relationships; increasingly compromised health; accelerated ageing; and chronic depression, the cause of which you may attribute incorrectly. I know that for me, a particularly bad night’s sleep renders me tearful the next day, while consecutive nights of moderately bad sleep merely turn me into a rat bag.

Insomnia has many causes. They include emotional stress of all kinds (grief, fear, worry, anger, etc.); consistent lack of exercise; too much light at night and not enough sunlight during the day; caffeine; poor diet; lack of bedtime routine; electromagnetic pollution from TVs and computers; adrenal stress; hormonal imbalances; eating too much or too little in the evening; a bedroom that is too hot or too cold; and – the perennial – needing to go to the loo in the night but being unable to nod off again.

Dr Mercola has some excellent shut-eye tips (1). I’ve also been experimenting. Sleeping in total darkness (no night lights, open shutters, or alarms with glowing hands) really helps. The body needs darkness to produce the sleep hormone melatonin. It’s a potent antioxidant that repairs your body while you sleep but, unlike many antioxidants, it is not recycled, so you need a new dose every night. Even small shots of light shut off its production, so I’ve created a path to the loo so I can stumble there safely in the dark. I sometimes take a food supplement called Zenbev (please ask the nice people in The Hopsack for more information – they’ll be only too happy to advise you). It contains a source of tryptophan, which the brain converts to melatonin. As a corollary to dark nights, it’s important to soak up the sun’s rays during the day to ensure adequate hormone production. We evolved to enjoy bright days and black nights. Keeping warm on these cold winter nights is also vital, so do whatever it takes (a hot water bottle, blankets, an extra dog or two…).

Exercising early in the day also helps by oxygenating the body and relaxing your muscles. A 30-minute walk is ideal. Don’t exercise too near bedtime, though, or you may be too wired to sleep. Switching off computers and televisions well before retiring is also important, as their electromagnetic waves and stimulating content can render sleep elusive. Eating a big meal too close to bedtime can lead to indigestion and insomnia during the night but going to bed hungry can also keep you awake. A protein-rich snack (e.g. a piece of turkey) and a small piece of fruit can help stimulate melatonin production. I’ve often found a small bowl of raw oat flakes with whole milk helps. Oats are calming and milk aids serotonin production, which converts to melatonin in the dark. Taking relaxing tinctures before bed can also aid sleep, e.g. Bioforce’s Valerian-Hops. Chamomile tea is renowned for its calming properties, too. I tend to go for a chamomile-containing blend called Sleepytime, by Celestial Seasonings. It’s delicious and soporific (2). Avoid anything containing caffeine though (e.g. coffee, tea, cocoa, Coke, etc.); caffeine damages sleep quantity and quality for many people. If you’re addicted to caffeine, wean yourself off it very slowly. It’s an addictive drug and withdrawal symptoms (migraine-like headaches, nausea, vomiting, etc.) can be intense if you try to quit too quickly (3).

Finally, I find free-associating when I’m on the edge of sleep often tips me over. I reasoned one night that if dreams meld from one topic into another, doing so consciously might induce sleep by mimicking the dream state. I let my mind wander to the sea outside, to birds flying, to a bird’s-eye view of the city and before I knew it, I had floated to Slumber Land. I awoke the following morning ready to face the year.

1.http://www.mercola.com/article/sleep.htm
2.Zenbev, Bioforce tinctures and herbal teas are all available from The Hopsack.
3.Check out http://www.teeccino.com/quitting.aspx for caffeine-quitting tips

NB If you are taking any medication it is imperative that you consult your doctor before taking Zenbev, herbal tinctures, or any other form of natural sleep-aid, as they may clash with your medicines. Also, if you are suffering from any of the conditions mentioned above, please consult with your doctor to rule out other causes.

Rhoda-Mary

Posts: 33
Joined: Tue Feb 12, 2008 2:29 pm

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Re: Waking up to 2009

Postby Rhoda-Mary on Fri Jan 23, 2009 12:38 am
Check out the following You Tube presentation on sleep:

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=asbyEWIyezU&NR=1