Sleep Is An Increasing Health Issue/Borderline Health Crisis

Last week I lost a lot of sleep. I am in a new transition as a parent. The transition not all of us have to make. The one where we must show up to parent our aged parent. It is exhausting because development at this point, for my mother, is going backwards. And regression is not temporary this time. Regression leads to the inevitable.

As I protected my mother from being awakened too many times in the hospital for needless questions and check ins, I decided it was time to read this new book on sleep. I am floored at the new data Dr. Walker is presenting. I’ve been involved in this sleep business for over 16 years and there is still more to learn and share with my clients.

This is a MUST read. Click – Order.

This book holds latest research on just how important sleep is to us. If our sleep is dysregulated then regulating sleep is the starting point of what we must work on for our optimum health.

There is not one activity that an animal does (and we are animals) that affects so much of our wellbeing. Sleep is being linked to every illness, every organ and now linked to memory loss and alzheimer’s.

A few points worth mentioning.

Neuroscience has embraced meditation. Meditation is free and I recommend starting a practice now. By the time you most need it – you will want to be a regular practitioner.
Many people are walking through life underslept and the underslept person is the worst at determining our own sleep deficit. Given what I do you would think I could assess my own sleep deficit. Last night my partner followed me home after a class. Half way home I realized I was driving under the influence. The influence of exhaustion. When we got home he told me what my driving looked like. I will take this Dr.’s orders. I am not getting behind the wheel until I have had two full nights of sleep.
Short sleep over a lifetime predicts a shorter life.
Every disease has a correlation to – not enough sleep.
Once missed we can’t make up for the deficit of sleep. Sadly the sleep bank is not like Citibank. Once we overdraw the sleep account there is no amount of extra sleep we can deposit to make up for the lost sleep. We may sleep longer on weekends but we will never make up for the lost sleep of the previous week.
Circadian rhythms change over a lifetime. As we progress in age our rhythms regress. As we age we tend to want to go to sleep early and wake up early.
Teenagers want to go to bed late and sleep late. Do not wake your teen. Starting times of school are unhealthy for their sleep. Please let them sleep on weekends.
As we advance in age our sleep lessens both in quality and quantity. The issue is that we don’t need less sleep as we age but we do need to protect our sleep. Unfortunately the brain is not capable of maintaining the amount of sleep we need. For adult sleep I recommend this – Dr. Shane Sleep Easily Solution
If you think caffeine does not affect your sleep because you can fall asleep after a cup of coffee, sorry, your brain disagrees. Listen below.
Alcohol may help you fall asleep but it is not a naturalistic sleep. A night time toddy will wake you up later in the night and it will affect your REM sleep. But you won’t know it in the morning. Therefore, you cannot assess just how interruptive those two beers or one glass of wine is to your sleep.