Stop Sleep Sabotage!
4 Myths to Ditch for Better Sleep
by Brenna Liebold
Most of us pay little attention to sleep until we reach that point of lack where we would sacrifice nearly anything else for one night of solid sleep. During those days or weeks, you tell yourself, Ugh! I'm soooo tired I just can't…, for good reason. Sleep is connected to all functions in the body from memory to motor control and mood. The body runs according to perfectly-timed milestones that reset approximately every 24 hours. When a delay throws off your clock's timing, or circadian rhythm, it disrupts all events that follow. If allowed to continue, this dysfunction ushers in serious health consequences.
Rhythm dictates your sleep and many other critical aspects of life. It infuses excitement into many experiences. Think about how it drives you to move when you hear music with a strong beat. At the most basic level, though, rhythm is nothing more than a repeating pattern. By this definition, routines fall under rhythm. Unfortunately, some perceive routines as boring or monotonous. I encourage you to embrace both sides of rhythm. As easily as it fuels movement forward, it creates comfort in predictability. Rhythm fuels your breathing, heartbeat, walking, brain waves, speech, hormone release, and digestion. You need the dual function of rhythm to guide your sleep as well.
Accessing and recalibrating your biological cycles produce natural, long-term improvements in sleep. In the majority of insomnia sufferers, stress acts as a disrupting force with widespread health effects. By employing measures to reduce stress, especially around bedtime, sleep issues dissipate. Small tweaks to daily habits such as eating, exercising, and sunlight exposure affect your circadian rhythm, too.
For these methods to work, take care to avoid the following four habits. They quickly derail progress toward better sleep. Despite losing their credibility in the face of scientific scrutiny, these myths persist.
Accessing and recalibrating your biological cycles produce natural, long-term improvements in sleep. In the majority of insomnia sufferers, stress acts as a disrupting force with widespread health effects. By employing measures to reduce stress, especially around bedtime, sleep issues dissipate. Small tweaks to daily habits such as eating, exercising, and sunlight exposure affect your circadian rhythm, too.
For these methods to work, take care to avoid the following four habits. They quickly derail progress toward better sleep. Despite losing their credibility in the face of scientific scrutiny, these myths persist.
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Sleep Myth #1:
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Look at sleep issues from a global perspective. The Challenger space shuttle disaster in 1986, the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in 1979, the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in 1986, the Air France Flight 447 crash in 2009, and the Union Carbide India Limited gas leak in 1984 will all go down in history as consequences of sleep deprivation.
The offenses of fatigue don't end there. Running low on sleep increases your sensitivity to physical discomfort. Your threshold for pain lowers, and you feel pain when you normally would not. Chronic sleep deficiency also increases your chances of other physical ailments and diseases including:
The offenses of fatigue don't end there. Running low on sleep increases your sensitivity to physical discomfort. Your threshold for pain lowers, and you feel pain when you normally would not. Chronic sleep deficiency also increases your chances of other physical ailments and diseases including:
- Hypertension
- Diabetes
- Obesity
- Cardiovascular disease
- Heart attack
- Stroke
- Cold and flu
- Sexual dysfunction
- Infertility
- Reversible memory impairment
- Alzheimer's disease
Difficulty falling asleep within 30 minutes several nights in a row (or in a month) should signal cause for concern. The same goes for sleepiness that lingers or impairs basic cognitive abilities. These circumstances warrant an appointment with your doctor. You may have a health condition masked by, yet causing, your inability to sleep like:
- Anxiety disorder
- Sleep apnea
- Medication side effects
- Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)
- Diabetes
- Overactive thyroid
- Heart disease
- Asthma
- Restless legs syndrome (RLS)
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Sleep Myth #2:
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This myth also disregards the fragility and interdependence of the body's rhythms. Once disrupted, say by changing the amount of sleep you get, they take time to return to normal. The effects of losing one hour of sleep last up to four days. You appear to rack up extra hours by sleeping in on the weekend. By the time you try to resume your regular sleep schedule, though, the shift in your rhythm impedes your efforts. That will cost you at least one hour of sleep and close to the rest of the week to recover. Then, the cycle starts all over again the next weekend.
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Sleep Myth #3:
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The perfect amount of sleep for you, within the aforementioned range, depends on your unique body chemistry and circadian rhythm. Most adults find their sweet spot between seven and eight hours. Only 1% of the population, those with Short Sleeper Syndrome, get away with less sleep and no ill effects. In these cases, a genetic mutation causes accelerated sleep cycles.
Each sleep stage repairs and restores different parts of the brain and body. Skin and muscle repair, immune system reinforcement, and deep relaxation take place during stage III and IV non-REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. You spend more time in these non-REM stages during the first half of the night. If you fancy late nights or wake up during these stages, you miss out on the sleep that makes you feel well-rested.
Flushing out metabolic waste from the brain and sorting processing memories occur during the REM stage. The REM stage lasts longer in the wee hours of the morning than it does before midnight. Rise too early or interrupt this stage of sleep, and you won't get rid of the proteins believed to cause Alzheimer's disease. You also won't transfer memories into long-term storage to make room for new ones. This explains forgetfulness after a night of poor sleep.
Each sleep stage repairs and restores different parts of the brain and body. Skin and muscle repair, immune system reinforcement, and deep relaxation take place during stage III and IV non-REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. You spend more time in these non-REM stages during the first half of the night. If you fancy late nights or wake up during these stages, you miss out on the sleep that makes you feel well-rested.
Flushing out metabolic waste from the brain and sorting processing memories occur during the REM stage. The REM stage lasts longer in the wee hours of the morning than it does before midnight. Rise too early or interrupt this stage of sleep, and you won't get rid of the proteins believed to cause Alzheimer's disease. You also won't transfer memories into long-term storage to make room for new ones. This explains forgetfulness after a night of poor sleep.
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Sleep Myth #4:
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This myth also fails to take into account the way in which how sleep aids work. Many of these prescription and over-the-counter medications sedate you. You fall asleep more easily because they relax you. As a side effect, though, they inhibit REM sleep. Not to mention that the underlying problem causing the inability to sleep still exists.
Research connects the overuse of sleep medications with a host of serious diseases. At the top of the list, the threat of dementia increases by as much as 54%! A link between prescribed sleep medications and certain kinds of cancers such as lymphoma, lung, colon, and prostate appears likely as well.
Research connects the overuse of sleep medications with a host of serious diseases. At the top of the list, the threat of dementia increases by as much as 54%! A link between prescribed sleep medications and certain kinds of cancers such as lymphoma, lung, colon, and prostate appears likely as well.
Better Sleep by the End of the Week
Whew! Ditching these myths paves the way to tackling your sleep issues at their sources. No more temporary, surface-level fixes! Are you ready for the next step? Learn about the Love it. Live it. Music. sleep training program.
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