lack of sleep

21st of June – Day of sleeping – The secret of healthy sleep

20. June 2016 von Schlafexperte Prof. Dr. med. h.c. Günther W. Amann-Jennson Leave a Comment

On 21^st of June it’s time again for the next day of sleeping – exactly at the longest day of the year. Sleeping expert and sleep psychologist Prof. Dr. med. h.c. Guenther W. Amann-Jennson takes this event to talk about restful sleep, health and why the snooze button makes getting up unpleasant: “The one who is able to react fit, balanced, awake, flexible and innovative on the manifold demands of everyday life – at work as well as in private life – has a restful sleep.” Read more about the “the secret of healthy sleep”:

Sleep is no state of “doing nothing”, on the contrary. Only during the night while we are sleeping essential processes can take place: detoxification of the body, strengthening of the immune system, regulation of the hormonal balance, recreation and relief of body, mind and soul, processing of daily impressions and saving of learned stuff as well as making the learned things available and many more.

The secret of healthy sleep

Especially for women healthy, restful and sufficient sleep is the most important key-factor for well-being, health, performance and beauty. But, for women it also became a real skill to wake up in the morning, feeling rested and being able to start fit into the new day. The reasons are manifold (job, children, care) – only when everyone is doing his or her individual necessary share they will succeed. The influence of each season on waking up and morning time, too, is huge. During winter it is significantly darker – this leads to an increased sleeping need and makes waking and getting up even more difficult.

Phenomenon “chronical lack of sleep”

Already more than 80 percent of all adults have too few sleep and accumulated a sleep debt over the years. During just one year, a mother with a baby accumulates a sleep debt of about 600 hours. A lack of sleep makes waking and getting up in the morning harder and is a health hazard on long term. It also favors exhaustion, depression, burnout.

Sleeping quality is decisive

Besides sleep duration, sleeping quality is a further important factor. Sleeping quality is decisive whether you are able to start good and relaxed into the new day or not. Here, the quality of the day (nutrition, exercise, sunlight, breaks, free time etc.) as well as the “sleep-healthy-trio” bed – sleeping place – bedroom are the essential key. As a complement there are quite clear rules for sleep hygiene. Beginning from a regular sleeping rhythm, the personal lifestyle up to avoidance of too much caffeine, nicotine and alcohol.

Snooze-button – a “killjoy” for a good start into a new day

All tips and hints for getting up easier are useless and come to nothing as long the actual causes for not being able to get up remain unremedied. Many “psychological tricks” are available – up to the famous snooze-button which clearly spoils the start into the day. Now, when it is hard for you wake up well rested at the right time, there are decisive ways:

Reduce your sleep debt.
Check your bed, your sleeping place and your bedroom.
Check your sleep efficiency.

Sleep disturbances – a “worn out” topic?

There are reasons, why this topic is omnipresent: more than 50 percent of all people in the civilized world suffer under sleep disturbances and further 30 percent complain about a sleep that “no longer is restful”. This makes the question “how did I sleep last night” to a major question. One speaks of a sleep disturbance when problems to fall asleep or to sleep through occur for one month at least three times a week.

The reasons are manifold. Longer lasting sleeping problems need a comprehensive diagnosis (in a sleep laboratory, for example). In sleep medicine, there are more than 100 different forms of sleep disturbances. Most of them are not organically caused but have psycho-social reasons or are due to illness or surrounding dependent.

There is a rule of thumb that says, if someone is able to go through the day with sufficient power and without much fatigue the sleep normally is not too bad. But, it has to be considered how many “drugs” (caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, energy drinks) are needed to come through the day.

Only by considering the effects of lack of sleep – which are inevitable when suffering under sleep disturbances – the question of “overload” is answered.

image source: @istock

Pavor nocturnus with children

14. June 2016 von Redaktion Leave a Comment

All of a sudden, your child sits in an upright position during night. Nothing will sooth it, it mumbles or even screams with eyes wide open – but it is not completely awake. The so-called pavor nocturnus is a sleep disturbance. Your child is in some kind of grey area and is stuck between sleep and wakefulness. It is not perceiving your presence and often won’t react.

With children, pavor nocturnus is happening very frequent, but don’t worry, as frightening as it might look it still is harmless. Nonetheless it might lead to sleeping problems. Especially concerned are children at the age from two to six years. Attacks of pavor nocturnus occur in the first third of the night, most of the time one to four hours after falling asleep. The duration of an attack varies between two minutes and about 40 minutes. When the attack passed your child will go back to sleep without remembering the attack.

Symptoms

Most of the time, pavor nocturnus is starting with whimpering or wheezing, often accompanied by heavy crying and screaming. A pronounced restlessness, intensive sweating and disorientation follow. The child shows all signs of intense fear. Children concerned often suffer under enuresis (bed-wetting). During this phase, most children don’t allow anyone to touch them nor do parents succeed in calming them down. The pavor nocturnus stops as abruptly as it started. The child relaxes and falls asleep again. Your child won’t remember it the next morning. The frequency of the attacks differs – a couple of times per week, greater intervals or just once at all, everything is possible.

Pavor nocturnus vs nightmare

Unlike with a pavor nocturnus your child will actually wake up when having a nightmare. Furthermore, it is able to remember the nightmare, it will talk about it and your presence will comfort your child. The easiest way to differ between a pavor nocturnus and a nightmare is to determine who is more disturbed the next morning. Is your child churned up inside it had a bad dream. When you are more disturbed than your child it probably suffered under a pavor nocturnus.

Causes

Actually, there are no real counter measures since the real cause of a pavor nocturnus is yet unknown. Possible reasons might be irregular sleeping routine or lack of sleep, a stress factor during daytime or fatigue. In case the attacks happen frequently it is advisable to seek medical advice.

Helpful to parents

Try to calm down your child even if it is not reacting resp. when you are rejected. It is important to know that the phenomena of this situation are harmless and nothing will happen to your child. Talk simpel sentences in a soothing voice and position yourself between your child and some eventual harmfully things. Often, children suffering under pavor nocturnus involuntarily stumble out of bed. As long as there is no risk of hurting itself don’t try to wake your child up. When you are trying to hold your child it will become wilder.

For your peace of mind: pavor nocturnus is affecting parents much longer than the child.

Image source: @fotolia

Inemuri – short yet powerful

13. June 2016 von Redaktion Leave a Comment

Different locations, same procedure: whether in the subway, at the supermarket checkout, during a meeting – in some Asian regions and here especially in Japan a short nap in public is completely normal. The so-called “Inemuri” – “I” for “being present” and “nemuri” for “sleep” – is a real power nap and fix component of the Japanese everyday life.

But, what leads Japanese people to sleep in public? According to a study of Olivia Walch – scientist at the University of Michigan – and her team people in Japan sleep 7 hours and 24 minutes, on an average. So, the inevitable lack of sleep causes that they take every chance for short regeneration. While in Western society already yawning is rather embarrassing, power napping in public is a tradition in Asia and socially recognized.

Japanologist Dr. Brigitte Steger studied this phenomenon for years. For her, the advantage of Inemuri clearly is its regeneration effect during the day – if necessary, even without a bed.

But, there are also sociological aspects to Inemuri. Is the rickshaw driver sleeping in his vehicle he is protecting his most important possession. For some people it is easier to sleep in a noisy surrounding than in a quiet room; they also feel more comfortable in a crowd. In case of poverty, people often have to share their sleeping places. This makes a public nap very advantageous.

But of course, Inemuri not only happens amongst poor people. In Japan, business men, too, take a nap in public. It is a known fact, that lack of sleep leads to reduced performance and a higher error rate – in traffic as well as at the working place. More and more Japanese employers recognize this problem and prescribe their employees a power nap on their working places.

But, in Japan more and more schools start to think about this social phenomenon. A poll in Chikuzen, a city in the prefecture Fukuoka, revealed that 63 % of all students feel tired during the lessons. Thereupon, the students were allowed to take a 10-minute-lunch-nap, accompanied by Mozart.

According to Brigitte Steger, the secret of Inemuri lies within the correct setting and the proper duration. To her opinion, the meaning of other people should not influence the own behavior – if you feel like sleeping, take a short nap. Furthermore, she advices to limit the napping time to 20 minutes. A longer nap would enhance tiredness since after this period one would reach a phase of deep sleep.

In one of her works Dr. Brigitte Steger writes that polyphasic sleeping is not only practiced in the Land of the Rising Sun. In China, India and many other Asian countries people sleep when- and wherever it suits them.

More and more people in the West discover the efficiency and restfulness of a correctly performed power nap.

The short sleep in between has also been investigated in several studies. The findings are very positive:

Positive influence on short memory
Enhances performance
Reduces weight. Tired people tend to eat more, especially fatty and sweet stuff.
Protects against heart diseases. Taking a power nap at lunch time for at least three times a week reduces risk of heart infarcts by 37%.
Creates good mood. Too few sleep irritates. A nap increases the concentration of serotonin in the blood and lifts the mood.
Prevents states of exhaustion.

Image source: @fotolia

Turn the night into the day

9. June 2016 von Redaktion Leave a Comment

The summer and its warm evenings are inviting to spend more time outdoors, preferably while barbecuing with friends. As important, nice and relaxing events like this are – one thing surely will come off badly: sufficient sleep. Consequences of lack of sleep are severe tiredness, bad mood, irritability, lack of concentration. But, if you constantly have too less sleep, it will have far-reaching consequences on your physical and mental health.

How is regular sleep deprivation affecting our body?

Weight Problems

Sleep deprivation is negatively affecting your body weight and might be a possible reason for having problems in losing weight. Lack of sleep disturbs the hormonal balance, for example of the appetite controlling hormones. And this leads to an enhanced appetite.

Risk of cancer increases

Regular nights of partying result in an increased risk of cancer. According the American Academy of Sleep Medicine especially for breast- and prostate-cancer. Shift workers are especially concerned. Women and men who sleep seven hours per night on an average have the smallest risk to get cancer due to improper sleeping habits.

Heart problems

When you are regularly turning the night into the day you are having a higher risk to suffer under a coronary heart disease. This disease might arise due to a closure or narrowing of the coronary vessels. Furthermore, the risk of a heart attack increases.

Be more prone to illness

Already a small amount of sleep deprivation might negatively affect our body and weaken the immune system, as studies show. Sufficient sleep is essential for physical and mental health.

Less pleasurable sensations

The pleasurable sensation of young men who work or celebrate instead of sleep during the night is disturbed. A study of the University of Chicago proved that already a one-time sleep deprivation significantly decreases the level of sex hormones. 10 male test persons participating in the study furthermore reported that their mood clearly worsened after sleep deprivation.

Appearance worsens

Long nights often are recognizable in the face. When you have spent one night without sleeping you are not looking as fresh as after a night with sufficient sleep. An US-American study with test persons of 30-50 years of age showed that long term sleep deprivation leaves visible signs on the skin. Conclusion: sufficient and healthy sleep makes beautiful!

Sleep disturbances a wide spread disease

18. May 2016 von Redaktion Leave a Comment

Nowadays, every fourth person suffers under sleep disturbances. The international classification of sleep disturbances (ICSD-3), published by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), differentiates between 97 different sleep disturbances. For being able to regenerate, body and mind need regularly sufficient sleep. A lack of sleep has severe consequences. But, when do we talk about a sleep disturbance? Then, when over a period from one to three months the problem is occurring at least three times a week.

Causes of sleeplessness

The causes are manifold. The most common causes for falling asleep or sleeping through disturbances are stress or mental illnesses. Wrong handling of sleep might also be a trigger of sleeplessness as well as irregular sleeping times. Here, shift workers and nurses are especially concerned. A further reason for sleep disturbances also might be psychiatric disorders like depressions, anxiety or eating disorders.

Forms of sleeplessness

Sleep disturbances can be divided into six main groups:

Insomnias: disturbances to fall asleep or to sleep through
Sleep apnoea: a sleep related respiratory disorder. Here, slackening throat muscles cause a blockage of the upper airways during the night. This life-threatening sleep disorder has many consequences: increased blood pressure and hence increased stroke- and infarction-risk, risk of brain damages due to oxygen deficiency, daytime sleepiness due to several arousals (mostly unaware), etc.
Hypersomnia: their causes are in the central nervous system. Example: narcolepsy.
Parasomnia: night mares, sleep walking and nocturnal outcry
Disturbances in the circadian rhythm: a disturbance of the inner clock
Sleep related movement disorders: restless legs or nocturnal teeth grinding (bruxism)

Impacts and consequences

Sleepless nights and their consequences are not only affecting our health but also our everyday life. Side effects caused by sleeplessness are diminishing performance, state of exhaustion and extreme tiredness. Once sleep disturbances become chronic the consequences might be far worse.

Generally, seek medical advice when your sleeping problems are longer lasting. But, there are some simple things you can do to support your sleep. At any case, a regular sleep-wake-cycle or relaxation methods like autogenous training, for example, are to be preferred to medication.

Why women need more sleep than men

16. May 2016 von Redaktion Leave a Comment

During daytime, women use their brain more often than men – a conclusion of sleeping expert Prof. Jim Horne, sleep research center of the Loughborough University, Leicestershire.

Multitasking is demanding brain

According to Horne, women use multitasking more often, meaning they do different things at the same time. To be able to do so, their brain is more used than the male one. Out of this reason, women need 20 minutes more sleep.

Sufficient sleep allows brain and body to regenerate properly. On an average, the adult sleep need is from six to eight hours. But, besides sleeping quantity, sleeping quality is important as well. During the day you should feel rested and fit instead of tired and listless.

Female brain is aging slower

The different sleeping need of women and men could be a possible explanation why the female brain is aging slower than the male one, states Prof. Horne. Or – the other way round – it might be possible that the female brain is better rested because they give in in their enhanced sleeping need.

Women are sleepless more often

According to a study of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine women suffer from a lack of sleep more often than men. There are several reasons for this: first, women have a lighter sleep and hence get disturbed more easily. Due to the changing hormonal balance, pregnancy, menopause or menstruation-cycle their sleep might be negatively influenced. The effects of insufficient sleep are manifold: lack of concentration, weight gain, drop in performance, diseases, exhaustion and tiredness, just to mention some of them.

A study of the British University of Surrey tested the sleeping-through-behavior of women compared to the male one. Here, the scientists noted that women need more time to fall asleep after waking up in the night then men. Furthermore, 18 % of women reported about at least five nights of bad sleep. However, only 8 % of men reported the same.

But, one applies for all: to achieve a healthy restful sleep, an optimal sleep surrounding as well as a regular sleep-wake-cycle are essential.