amount of sleep

When sleep makes you ill – part 2

5. May 2020 von Schlafexperte Prof. Dr. med. h.c. Günther W. Amann-Jennson Leave a Comment

How can sleep disorders be treated?
What you yourself can do for a healthy sleep
What you should watch out for if you wish to achieve a healthy night’s rest?

What are the therapeutic options for sleep disorders?

Generally, there are three different options:

psychotherapeutic measures (sleep hygiene)
somatic approaches (e.g. snore guard)
medication

Depending on the type and degree of sleep disorder, the best therapeutic option is determined together with the attending doctor. However, it is also clear that regardless of the therapeutic option, the bed and the bedroom furnishings should play a decisive role. In particular, the quality of sleep can demonstrably be improved by a healthy bed.

How do you sleep healthy?

For a regenerative sleep, an interaction of various criteria must be met. On the one hand, bedding is required which has a positive effect on health. Here you should focus on the avoidance of pollutants in the sleeping area, or the use of natural materials. Orthopaedic bedding also has a positive impact on the nightly regeneration effect. The spine can relax overnight; fill the intervertebral discs with new fluid, and stretch itself. A mattress or slatted frame that does not provide sufficient support is of no use to anyone. On the contrary, you not only sleep badly, but the likelihood of back pain and tension increases.

On the other hand, you should also maintain regular sleep hygiene yourself. This includes regular times for going to bed. This also applies to weekends and vacations. Blinds and shutters are often overlooked or simply not considered relevant, but they play an important role. For blinds that clatter at night are more likely to prevent sleep than to be beneficial. This also applies to blinds that do not completely block out the light.

What can I do myself?

Affected people can contribute to better sleep in different ways. Overweight is sometimes the cause of sleep apnoea. Sensitive sleepers should try to avoid caffeinated and stimulating drinks from midday on. Heavy, high-fat meals in the evening can also prevent restful sleep. This also applies to alcohol. Experts advise you to exercise regularly, to get out into the fresh air every day and to maintain personal sleep hygiene. Even looking at the clock at night can subconsciously turn into stress and prevent you from sleeping.

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When sleep makes you ill – part 1

28. April 2020 von Schlafexperte Prof. Dr. med. h.c. Günther W. Amann-Jennson Leave a Comment

Why sleep is considered to make you ill
What has already been the subject of research in sleep science
How sleep disorders become apparent

Almost 35% of the Austrian population suffers from sleep disorders – roughly one in four Austrians. The range is wide and stretches from falling asleep to sleep apnoea.

What we already know about sleep disorders

Around 100 different forms of sleep disorders are known in sleep science. There are many reasons for night-time sleep problems. Sleep disorders usually occur in connection with physical illnesses, stress or due to direct sleeping illnesses, for example sleep apnoea or snoring. It is also known that women are mostly twice as likely to experience emotionally induced problems with falling and staying asleep as men. This also applies to restless legs disease, which can also lead to sleep disorders. Men, however, are more likely to suffer from sleep apnoea. While only 2% of those affected are female, almost 10% of men suffer from breathing interruptions at night. Also, twice as many men as women snore. Sleep-related breathing disorders often occur from the age of 60.

What are the causes and symptoms?

The causes can be physical as well as psychological. Direct sleeping disorders such as sleep apnoea, narcolepsy or snoring have a physical origin. Changes in brain processes and weak muscles in the throat are responsible for this. Physical diseases such as asthma, cardiovascular diseases, but also rheumatism can have a negative impact on sleep quality and lead to sleep problems. Anxiety disorders, depression, burnout and other mental illnesses are also triggers for sleep disorders. Just as jet lag, shift work, but also addiction problems (drugs, alcohol, medication) can cause sleep disorders.

What are the effects of sleep disorders?

Even just one night with less sleep can affect the next day. Anyone who has been confronted with poor sleep for a longer period of time knows about the physical and psychological effects. Increased daytime tiredness, reduced performance or an irritated mood can be the consequence. Even the brain, which uses the nightly sleep phases to process collected information, is no longer fully functional due to disturbed sleep. Not only the brain, but the whole body suffers from the lack of sleep. Important body functions, but also the immune system, are impaired. The risk of serious illnesses, for example cardiovascular complaints, increases.

However, too much sleep (narcolepsy) can also be dangerous. Sudden sleep attacks in everyday life can have a serious impact on those affected, and their environment. It is recommended to clarify this as quickly as possible in the sleep laboratory. Among other things, brain waves, muscle activity, eye movements, but also heart activity, pulse, respiratory movements and respiratory flow are measured. This objective data collection is supplemented by a subjective survey using questionnaires.

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Shift work: The danger of constantly changing the clocks

26. March 2020 von Schlafexperte Prof. Dr. med. h.c. Günther W. Amann-Jennson Leave a Comment

Changing the clocks strains the human biorhythm
Shift work endangers health and social life
Nurses often suffer from lack of sleep
A new system could protect nursing staff and patients

Daylight saving time comes into effect again this Sunday, the clock is put forward by one hour. Although it was decided in March 2019 with a vote by the EU Parliament to abolish this time change by 2021, a specific and uniform implementation has not yet been determined. For people who work shifts it is clear: playing with their biorhythm will not end yet.

The shifting of the internal clock is a great burden for the human organism. Many people experience this for work-related reasons because their employment is shift work. The effects can be doubly devastating, especially in the nursing industry: on the one hand, the health of the nurses themselves is adversely affected; on the other hand, the caring of the patients may suffer.

Is night shift carcinogenic?

Even if specific connections are difficult to verify, night shift work was classified in 2007 by the World Health Organization (WHO) as likely to be carcinogenic. In surveys, a striking number of shift workers for example confess to be smokers or to be on an unhealthy diet, so the direct cause of cancer cannot be clearly attributed to the unfavourable sleeping habits. However, it is clear that many have to give up shift work for health reasons after 15 to 20 years. Very common are sleep disorders, diseases of the cardiovascular system or headaches, all of which can become chronic. In particular, people who start shift work at a young age lose their health relatively early. Social life can also be massively affected by shift work. Those who cannot use the time after work and the weekend for activities with family and friends, like the majority of society, run the risk of being isolated in the long run and even developing depression.

You don’t get used to everything

It is not strictly true that you get used to night work – as humans, we are still active during the day, our nightly regeneration processes are controlled by daylight. If it disappears, this has consequences – after all, light helps to form serotonin, which in turn produces the sleep-regulating hormone melatonin. Furthermore, sleep is not as regenerative during the day as at night, which significantly affects the quality of relaxation.

For health reasons, it should not be more than two or three night shifts in a row, even if this is hardly respected in practice.

The German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) estimates that shift workers should not have to work 40 hours a week. Ideally, companies would show goodwill by compensating shift work by increasing wages and also staff. A system could be implemented in which an employee works two days early shift, the following two days late shift, then two days night shift, and then has four days off. This would correspond to working hours of approximately 33.5 hours a week.

Nursing staff suffer from lack of sleep

Night shift work is particularly common in the health and nursing professions. As a link between patient and doctor, they are not only in demand due to their medical expertise, but also in their function as a direct contact for the patient being cared for. A recent study by the Faculty of Nursing at the New York University found that nurses sleep an average of a little less than seven hours before a workday, and about 8 hours and 20 minutes before a day off, almost an hour and a half more. Other tests found a reduction in the quality of care and safety of the patient on days when the nurses had had little sleep. Those who have slept enough are less liable to make mistakes when dispensing medication and not performing tasks correctly under stress. Studies also show that test subjects who were interrupted while completing a complex series of tasks, doubled their error rate from 15% to 30% if they were deprived of sleep the night before.

Rethinking to protect employees

In order to protect the health of the employees working in shifts, a consistent rethinking of the industry and the healthcare system would probably be necessary. In the case of chronic sleep deprivation, it would actually take more than one night of sleep to return to basic functionality. In reality, however, this is hardly possible at the moment, since 12-hour shifts are often consecutive and with usually only a day or two of rest between shifts.
Surely it is in the interests of everyone, especially in the healthcare system, that specialists are well rested in order to be able to carry out their work reliably and thereby fully maintaining their competence and patient safety.

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Severe and even dangerous consequences of too few sleep

25. June 2018 von Redaktion Leave a Comment

Already the German Physician Hufeland (1762-1836) quoted in a saying: “A human being ages during the day and rejuvenates during the night.” A true fact, since only during sleep – namely during deep sleep – our body is able to completely recover and even rejuvenate. Because, during the course of one year 98 per cent of our body cells become renewed during sleep. Healthy, restful and especially bioenergetic sleep provides your body with new power, vitality and balance. If you don’t get enough quality sleep you are going to feel exhausted, tired and sluggish.

Permanent lack of sleep makes us look tired and old. Furthermore it might trigger serious diseases. Therefore, healthy sleep is essential for you and your plans. We are sleeping about one third of our lives for a good reason! Each time, when you are in a phase of deep sleep your body uses the resting for regeneration of the organism, repairs damaged tissues, activates healing processes, organs and cells are supplied with metabolic fuels and old or diseased cells are replaced by new and healthy ones. These processes also become visible in your skin: after a restful night your skin is rosy and smooth, your complexion is glowing. This is because, the moisture depots under the skin are refilled during sleep.

Production of hormones during sleep

Sleep regulating hormones circulate in our blood. Before sleep onset, for example melatonin is released. The so-called sleeping hormone makes us tired and is responsible for a lot of positive physical effects: it supports memory performance, has a life-prolonging effect and strengthens your immune-system. While sleeping, your body also enhances production of growth hormones which support growth of muscles, cartilage and bones. At the same time, they support reduction of fat reserves. Growth hormones are only released during deep sleep, thus increasingly from 11.00 p.m. to 03.00 a.m. In the early morning hour, the body prepares for waking up: the production of the stress hormone cortisol becomes increased.

Severe consequences of sleep debt

The average amount of sleep needed ranges from seven to eight hours per night. Population surveys clearly show that we go to bed too late and have to get up too early. Inevitably, this leads to a chronic sleep debt. Amongst others, this is due to a lack of positive attitude towards the importance of sleep – ultimately, a question of personal life- and sleeping-culture. Sadly, this development leads to a more or less frequent lack of sleep. Many people underestimate the health risk of sleep debt. In a nutshell: lack of sleep is fattening, makes stupid and sick. US-studies prove, that the life expectancy of people with bad sleep is shorter.

Test series with test persons who had to learn vocabulary revealed that consistent lack of sleep makes stupid since memory performance becomes decreased. Just to remind you: learned things – hence knowledge – gets finally memorized during sleep! So, if you lack deep sleep you are going to forget much faster. During REM-sleep especially motoric skills like driving, playing piano, sports etc. are processed and solidified. Only when you have sufficient REM-sleep you will experience training progress.

Bad sleep might lead to overweight

You’d like to pay attention to your body weight and your shape? Better care for sufficient sleep! During nighttime, we easily do twelve or more hours without any food – something that is hard to achieve during daytime. Astonishingly, during the night our energy consumption is insignificantly lower than during the day. The reason why we still don’t need any food in the night is the hormone leptin which is inhibiting appetite. Once the sleep is interrupted, the sensation of hunger returns. Reason is the opponent of leptin – the hormone ghrelin which is taking over while we are awake. One reason why sleep disturbed people try to compensate their discomfort with a visit to the fridge. Furthermore, we tend to eat fat and unhealthy food when we have too few sleep.

Trends, visible in practice. Because, the modern, stressed human being tends to fewer sleep. During the last 25 years, we’ve lost about one hour of sleep. With catastrophic effects. A tiny example: more and more people suffer under diabetes type II. Unfortunately only the delivery of insulin is set, a change in lifestyle remains unconsidered. But, it is decisive that people concerned adept their lifestyle to their disease. Regarding this, the importance of sleep got proved in a study of the University of Chicago.

Too few sleep might be dangerous

161 participants suffering under diabetes type II had to write down their actual amount of sleep. And how much they subjectively would have needed. Furthermore, they had to evaluate their sleeping quality on the basis of 19 points. Subsequently, their HbA1c value was tested. This is a blood value stating the average blood sugar level of the last three months. A low value between four and six points reflects a healthy blood sugar balance. The result of the study: participants with too few sleep were not able to keep their blood sugar level permanently constant. So, diabetics not only should have sufficient sleep but should also improve their sleeping quality by sticking to a regular sleep-wake-rhythm.

Too few sleep might lead to a poor blood sugar value and a poor ability to react

Even three hours lack of sleep per week increases to blood sugar level by 1.1 points, as the study showed. This example reveals that the sleep duration has a big impact on our health. Especially risk groups – in our example diabetics – should care for sufficient sleep. Seven to eight hours are perfect.

But, not only is our health at risk. Too few or bad sleep also increases the risk of accidents in traffic and/or at work. Scientists found out that lack of sleep clearly reduces the reaction of drivers – it might be compared with the reaction of a driver with a blood-alcohol level of 1.0.

So, the decisive factor is and remains sleeping quality. A good sleeping quality only is achieved by sufficient and restful sleep.

Sources:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2845795/

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797616659930

https://www.dasgehirn.info/handeln/schlaf-und-traum/lernen-im-schlaf

https://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g6125

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3632337/

http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/07/071231.sleep.shtml

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1739867/

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A different country, a different bed

10. August 2016 von Redaktion Leave a Comment

Survey about the different sleeping places of various cultures:

Futon bed

Unlike to futon beds you will find in a European bedroom Japanese futon beds have no frame. In Japan, a futon bed simply is a cotton mat spread on the floor. Here, the spatial conditions often are limited and a room just for sleeping often is luxury. Out of this reason it is simple and practical to prepare your sleeping place right there where is room for it.

“Charpai” or hammock

A Charpai is a traditional woven bed used in Indian subcontinent. It is a four-footed wooden frame covered with fabric belts or ropes. The Charpai offers good ventilation; clearly an advantage in the climatic conditions of these countries. Due to the open covering no humidity accumulates and no heat accumulation arises. Often, the Charpai is used for sitting as well.

Other countries with tropical climates often use hammocks for sleeping. Besides its room-saving characteristics it also offers protection from dangerous animals.

Boxspring beds

A boxspring bed consists of a wooden base frame on top of which multiple spring systems are fixed. On top of this lies the actual mattress and – if desired – a further topping. A boxspring bed is higher than a common bed and offers a special comfort in getting into resp. out of bed. Most boxspring beds are used in the US, but more and more in some European countries, too.

Slatted frame and mattress

In Central Europe, most of the time a bed furnished with a slatted frame and a mattress serve as sleeping place. Here, there are several different models like sprung mattresses, foam mattresses, natural latex mattresses etc. But, there also are holistic and orthopedic sleeping systems that clearly differ from the “normal” products, as well from their structure and from the used material.

Receive further information in our sleep-healthy-guidebook “sleep yourself young, fit and successful”, free of cost.

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