Part of an ongoing series dedicated to raising health and safety awareness across the Temple community.
Do you find yourself dozing after a heavy meal or while sitting and reading or watching TV? Do you fall asleep instantly at night and need an alarm clock to wake in the morning and then frequently hit the snooze button? Do you sleep in extra hours on the weekend? Most people are not aware that there is an ongoing epidemic, and that is the epidemic of sleep deprivation of adolescents and adults in the 21st century. Studies show that 70 percent of adults sleep 6 hours or less during the work week, and that 56 percent of adults fall asleep on the job, while 20 percent of adolescents fall asleep at school. Inadequate sleep causes decreased job productivity, and work and automobile accidents. Studies show that over 200,000 auto accidents per year are directly related to sleep deprivation resulting in 1500 deaths per year (more than the number who would be lost if five Boeing 747s crashed in a year). Driving drowsy is the same as driving drunk.
Sufficient sleep is as essential to good health as is a nutritious diet and regular exercise. The fact is is that most adults require 8, and most adolescents need 9 1/4 hours of sleep per night. There are medical causes of poor sleep such as sleep apnea and restless leg syndrome, as well as depression and anxiety disorders, that do require medical treatment, but many cases of sleep deprivation are self-induced. First of all, we don’t realize how important sleep is for maintenance of brain functions. The sleeping brain regulates immune and hormonal functions and replenishes neurotransmitters that stimulate and organize neural networks important for memory, learning, problem solving and creativity. Secondly, many of us just don’t go to bed on time. The stressors of everyday life with hectic schedules, shift work, two working parent households, TV and the Internet, and many other distractions crowd out the time we allot to sleep. And then, for many, when the time finally comes to sleep, we don’t sleep well, and have difficulty falling and/or staying asleep.
Lack of sufficient sleep has also been associated with increased incidences of stroke, heart attacks, hypertension, certain common cancers, and even obesity.
The answer for many is improving your “sleep hygiene.” Sleep hygiene is a variety of different practices that you can adopt that greatly improves your chances of having a better night’s sleep, and then feel refreshed, energetic and alert the next day. These are practices that need to become daily habits. Some components of sleep hygiene include:
- First, and the most obvious, but neglected item is that you need to go to bed on time and allow sufficient time to get a full night’s sleep before you need to get up in the morning. Studies also show that if you adopt regular bed and wake up times that don’t vary from day to day you will have better quality sleep. (Of course shift work or travel involving time zone changes makes this impossible for some people.) Equally important, you should aim to get up the same time each day, including weekends.
- Ensure your sleep environment is conducive to sleep. It should be quiet, dark, cool and comfortable. Try wearing earplugs if there is too much noise, put dark blinds on the windows, run an air conditioner or use a “white noise” machine.
- Limit the bed and surrounding area to sleep only, not also for watching TV, eating, writing, reading, etc.
- Set your alarm clock before going to bed and then don’t look at it if you wake up in the middle of the night. The less you know what time it is the better you’ll sleep.
- Avoid or limit caffeine, alcohol and nicotine. Caffeine interferes with sleep and can stay in your system for up to 14 hours so you should limit caffeine-containing beverages to before noon only. Also, don’t forget that chocolate, especially dark chocolate, contains caffeine. Alcohol may initially make you drowsy so that you fall asleep more easily; but it causes arousal later in the night as it is metabolized. Alcohol withdrawal causes awakenings and is associated with nightmares and sweats. Nicotine is also a stimulant that interferes with sleep.
- Check your medications. Many over the counter medications contain caffeine and other stimulants that interfere with sleep. Prescription medicines also, such as diuretics, steroids, asthma medications and others may affect sleep. Be sure to discuss these with your doctor.
- Limit or avoid napping altogether. If you must nap it should be for no longer than 25–30 minutes and never after 3 p.m.
- Don’t eat a heavy meal or drink a large amount of fluids before bed. A light carbohydrate-containing snack is, though, for some, helpful for sleep. Milk contains L-tryptophan that can enhance drowsiness. Too many fluids before bed, though, can cause nighttime awakenings due to a full bladder.
- Aerobic exercise 5–6 hours before bedtime promotes better sleep. For some, exercise right before bedtime may be more activating, so it is recommended that people with sleep difficulties exercise earlier in the day.
- Try to develop a relaxing routine before bed. A warm bath or light reading before bed is helpful for some. Avoid using bedtime as a time to worry. Some people find it helpful to set aside a time once or twice during the day as “worry time.” During this time you give yourself permission to review all the frustrations, irritations and problems of the day and develop strategies and solutions. It may be helpful to do this in writing. Then, when worries arise other times of the day, such as bedtime you can postpone them to your next worry time.
- Make sure painful conditions that interfere with sleep are properly treated.
- Keep pets out of your bed.
Good sleep hygiene can have a tremendous impact on getting better sleep. The goal is to wake up feeling refreshed and alert, so you can avoid accidents and be productive and creative during the day.
~Written by Dorrit H. Sterner, M.D.
For further informations on getting a good night sleep, please contact Student and Employee Health Services at 215-204-7391. If you have other health and safety questions, concerns and/or suggestions, please contact the Health and Safety Committee at healthandsafety@temple.edu.