Even when we know that something is good for us, it is sometimes tempting to do things that get in the way of our good health. Throughout my life one positive health habit that has been the hardest for me to consistently maintain, is getting a good night’s sleep. It is undervalued and sometimes not even noticed when I do get enough sleep hours in, and greatly missed when I don’t. But there are so many things getting in the way of getting those beneficial Zzzz, what’s a person to do?
Different times in my life have presented different challenges when it has come to sleeping.
Some of the biggest culprits in my life have been wanting to stay out late doing things with my friends in my teens and early twenties. While later in my life it was pacing the floors with fussy babies, or just wanting to get something done after the children were in bed because it was the only time I had to get certain household tasks accomplished.
There have been many times when I have been willing to trade sleep for a bit of peace and quiet with a good book because it was so seldom that I got any quiet during those years when our children were young. As the children got older and I went back to work, trying to balance my need for sleep around my job and the needs of everyone else in my life became my biggest stumbling block. I need to be Super Mom, but I just don’t have what it takes.
Wow! I’m feeling overwhelmed just thinking about it.
The way we feel when we are awake is in large part dependent on our sleep habits. When we are sleeping, our bodies are working to ensure healthy brain function and physical health. Sleep improves our brains function so that we can process information, and improving our learning capacity. In addition to this, sleep allows our bodies to heal from the stresses of each day and strengthens our immune system, keeping it ready to fight off invaders that would make us sick or cause diseases to take root in us. During our childhood and teenage years, proper sleep also helps with growth and development, so getting a good night’s sleep is essential!
People who are sleep deficient may have difficulty coping with emotional situations. They might experience mood swings, lack motivation, or have feelings of depression. Problem solving skills are impaired, and they may have difficulty paying attention and retaining materials they have read or been given through verbal instructions.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, more than 40% of Americans experience daytime sleepiness that is severe enough to interfere with their routine activities a few days each month.
A sleep study done at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan gave sleepy, as well as fully, alert subjects a series of computer tasks to complete. They discovered in this study that people who had less sleep were not as good as their well-rested counterparts at making rational decisions and that they were more likely to take risks.
Being sleep deprived can also be a serious situation for people whose jobs involve using dangerous equipment, or who must drive long hours.
The Department of Transportation states that 1% to 4% of all highway crashes are due to sleepiness, especially in rural areas, and four percent of these crashes are fatal.
In its statistics, the Department of Transportation indicated that people at highest risk for drowsy driving crashes are:
- People who drive late at night or in the early morning
- Patients with untreated excessive sleepiness
- People who obtain six or fewer hours of sleep per day
- Young adult males
- Commercial truck drivers
- Night shift workers driving after their shift
- Medical residents driving after their shift
According to William Dement, M.D., Ph.D at the Stanford University Center of Excellence for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Sleep Disorders, 55% of all drowsy driving fatalities occur under the age of 25.
Why is this?
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Doctor Dement feels it is in great part a lack of education about sleep and dreams, the nature and consequences of sleep deprivation, and common sleep disorder symptoms, all of which is essentially absent from the nations school curriculum. In fact, it seems most teenagers and young adults feel that it is just part of the deal to be sleep deprived during the school year. Staying up late or pulling the occasional all-nighter is not seen by most as that big of a deal. In contrast, he says that nearly all students entering at the college level have received ample information about nutrition and physical fitness. So why this huge deficit in information about something as critical as sleep?
In my next article, we will delve deeper into sleep and its importance to our health and well-being, as well as some ideas on how to help us to get those much-needed hours of restful slumber.
Resources
http://www.apa.org/topics/sleep/why.aspx
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sdd/why
http://web.stanford.edu/~dement/sleepless.html
Denise is a Michigander turned Pennsylvanian, who has been writing stories since Elementary School. Denise won an award at the annual Lansing Youth Talent Show, when she was in 10th grade, for a short story entitled Procrastination is Fatal, but didn’t decide on writing as a career until she was 28 years old. While homeschooling her older children she spent 4 years working through a course from The Institute of Children’s Literature.
Through the years Denise’s children have had a variety of health issues, many of which have been linked to various sensitives; having spent more than 20 years researching and trying different things Denise has a boots on the ground view on healthier living.
Denise currently writes for 2 blogs and has several books in different stages of completion. She is planning to break ground in e publishing, and hopes to have her first Historical Fantasy book which is set during the renaissance, “Lisa, My Lisa?” ready by the first of the year.
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