Transcript FOCUS ON IMPROVING YOUR SLEEP

Chapter 3A Lecture
Health: The Basics
Tenth Edition
Focus On:
Improving Your
Sleep
Do You Need More Sleep?
• The American College Health Association
(ACHA) recently reported that nearly 42%
of students had only gotten enough sleep
to feel rested on 2 of the previous 7 days.
• Sixty-one percent said they do not feel
rested most days of the week.
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Why Do You Need Sleep?
• Sleep serves at least two biological
purposes.
– It conserves body energy.
– It restores you both physically and mentally.
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Certain reparative chemicals are released.
The brain is cleared of daily minutiae.
Learning is synthesized.
Memories are consolidated.
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Sleep Maintains Your Physical Health
• Sleep helps maintain your immune
system.
• Sleep helps reduce your risk for
cardiovascular disease.
• Sleep contributes to healthy metabolism.
• Sleep contributes to neurological
functioning.
• Sleep improves motor tasks.
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Sleep Promotes Psychosocial Health
• Some parts of the brain, including the
cerebral cortex, can only rest during sleep.
• You are more likely to feel stressed-out,
worried, or sad when you are sleep
deprived.
• Reduced or poor-quality sleep can trigger
depression and anxiety disorders.
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What Goes on When You Sleep?
• The circadian rhythm is the 24-hour
cycle that controls when you sleep, when
you wake, and other habitual behaviors.
• It is regulated by melatonin, a hormone
that induces drowsiness.
• Sleep is clinically defined as a readily
reversible state of reduced
responsiveness to, and interaction with,
the environment.
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The Nightly Sleep Cycle
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Two Primary Sleep States
• Non-REM sleep
– A state in which you do not have rapid eye
movement
– Passes through four different stages
• REM sleep
– A state in which you do experience rapid eye
movement
• Non-REM sleep diminishes and REM
sleep increases during the night.
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Non-REM Sleep Is Restorative
• Stage 1
– In this stage you are drifting off to sleep.
• Stage 2
– This stage has slower brain waves than stage
1 and you are in a deeper state.
• Stage 3
– Delta waves slow down, blood pressure and
heart rate drop.
• Stage 4
– This is the deepest stage of sleep.
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REM Sleep Is Energizing
• Dreaming takes place during REM sleep.
• Brain wave activity is similar to a wakeful
state but your muscles are paralyzed.
• Your brain processes the experiences you
have had and consolidates the information
learned that day.
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How Much Sleep Do You Need?
• Sleep need includes baseline plus debt
but on average you need about 7-8 hours
each night.
• Sleep debt is the total number of hours of
missed sleep.
• Naps cannot cancel out sleep debt, but
can help improve mood, alertness, and
performance.
– Sleep inertia, characterized by cognitive
impairment, grogginess, and a disoriented
feeling, occurs after 30 minutes of napping.
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How Can You Get a Good Night’s Sleep?
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Spend time in the sunlight.
Stay active.
Sleep tight.
Create a sleep cave.
Condition yourself into better sleep.
Make your bedroom a mental escape.
Breathe deeply.
Do not toss and turn.
Get rid of technology in the bedroom.
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To Prevent Sleep Problems, Avoid These
Behaviors
• Do not nap in late afternoon, and never
nap for longer than 30 minutes.
• Do not engage in strenuous activity within
several hours of bedtime.
• Do not read, study, watch TV, use the
laptop or phone, eat, or smoke in bed.
• Do not try to sleep if you are starving or
stuffed.
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To Prevent Sleep Problems, Avoid These
Behaviors (cont.)
• Do not drink caffeinated beverages within
several hours of bedtime.
• Do not drink alcohol within several hours
of bedtime.
• Do not consume large amounts of any
liquids before bed.
• Do not take sleeping pills or nighttime pain
medications unless prescribed for you.
• Avoid triggers.
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Sample Sleep Diary
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What If You’re Not Sleeping Well?
• Fewer than 5% of college students are
diagnosed and in treatment for sleep
disorders, but if this information has not
helped you, you may have a clinical sleep
disorder and need to see a health care
provider.
• During a sleep study, sensors and
electrodes record brain activity to
determine the nature of the sleep problem.
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Insomnia
• Insomnia is difficulty falling asleep,
frequent arousals during sleep, or early
morning awakening and is the most
common sleep complaint.
• About 50% of Americans experience
insomnia a few nights a week, and about
3% of college students are being treated
for insomnia.
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Insomnia Symptoms
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Difficulty falling asleep
Waking up frequently during the night
Difficulty returning to sleep
Waking up too early in the morning
Unrefreshing sleep
Daytime sleepiness
Irritability
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Causes of Insomnia
• Insomnia is sometimes related to stress
and worry.
• It may be related to disruptions in the
circadian rhythms caused by time zone
changes or major schedule changes.
• Certain medications may cause insomnia.
• Untreated, insomnia is associated with
increased illness or morbidity.
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ABC News Video: Fatal Insomnia
Discussion Questions
1. In the video, footage is shown of Silvano, a
man who suffered from fatal familial insomnia
(FFI). What happens to someone who has
FFI? How can FFI eventually lead to death?
2. How does insomnia affect someone after just a
single night without sleep? Have you ever
experienced sleep deprivation? If so, describe
the ways in which it affected you both
physically and mentally.
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Treatment for Insomnia
• A cognitive behavioral therapist can assist
a patient in identifying thought and
behavioral patterns that contribute to the
inability to fall asleep.
• Hypnotic or sedative medication may be
prescribed.
• Relaxation techniques, such as yoga and
meditation, may help.
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Sleep Apnea
• Sleep apnea is a disorder in which
breathing is briefly and repeatedly
interrupted during sleep.
• Central sleep apnea occurs when the
brain fails to tell the respiratory system to
initiate breathing.
• Obstructive sleep apnea, which is more
common, occurs when air cannot move in
and out of a person’s nose or mouth when
they try to breathe.
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Restless Leg Syndrome
• Restless leg syndrome (RLS), a neurological
disorder, is characterized by unpleasant
sensations in the legs when at rest, combined
with an uncontrollable urge to move to relieve
these feelings.
• Symptoms range from uncomfortable to painful
and the cause of RLS is unknown.
• Treatment includes medications, decreasing
tobacco and alcohol use, applying heat to legs,
and stretching exercises.
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Narcolepsy
• Narcolepsy is excessive, intrusive
sleepiness affecting as many as 200,000
Americans.
• Narcoleptics have a dramatic reduction in
nerve cells that contain hypocretin, which
plays a part in sleep regulation.
• There appears to be a genetic basis for
the disorder.
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