A Good Night’s Sleep is One of My Anti-Aging Secrets

I’m amazed at the amount of information I receive about people who cannot seem to get a good night’s sleep, or who cannot sleep long enough to feel refreshed in the morning.  Going without proper sleep over time will drain your LONG RANGE health, beauty . . . and life.  If you or a loved one are among those unfortunates who just can’t seem to get proper sleep, there are some sleep habits that can be learned that can help now and forever.  Good sleep gives the body time to repair itself at night and slows the aging process.

How Much Sleep Do We Really Need?

The amount of sleep we require depends on a number of factors, such as:

• Our genes
• Our daily activities, like drinking coffee or alcohol and smoking and exercise
• How well we actually sleep
• Our 24-hour daily cycle (known as the circadian rhythm)

While these factors influence the amount of sleep we need, most adults say they sleep about seven and a half hours on weekdays and eight and a half hours on weekends.  But individual needs vary greatly.  The range lies between five and a half hours to as much as nine and a half hours.

Smoking, drinking and exercise can affect our sleep dramatically.  What we actually do in bed before falling asleep—like reading or watching TV—and how much exposure to light we have (looking at that bright computer screen until very late) will also significantly alter both the quality and quantity of our sleep.  These things interact to determine how long we must sleep in order to wake up feeling refreshed and remain alert throughout the day, which affects our long range health and beauty.

An Old Adage:  You Need a Solid Eight Hours Sleep Each Night

How did we arrive at this number?  In a classic study, a volunteer was placed in a windowless, light-controlled room for 30 days.  The light was on for 16 hours and off for eight hours, but the subject had control over the light switch.

Prior to the experiment, this particular volunteer typically got about six and a half hours of sleep per night.  During the first night of the experiment he slept eight hours, the second night 10 hours, the third night 12 hours, and the fourth night 14 hours.  Over the next several days, he began to reduce the number of hours slept, eventually declining to a steady eight hours and 13 minutes.

This experiment was performed repeatedly with all types of people, with similar results, so this is where the recommended eight hours of sleep comes from.

So, How Much Sleep do YOU Need?

OK, so how do you determine how much sleep YOU really need?

How much sleep do you get?  Do you have a sleep deficiency?  Try this simple test:  Starting on a Sunday, do not drink alcohol or caffeine; do not smoke; go to sleep about the same time every night; and try to get an uninterrupted seven to eight hours of sleep for the next six nights.  Then, on Saturday morning, sleep in.  See how long your body will let you sleep.  If you sleep longer than you did during the week, then you have a sleep deficiency.  So you should consider getting more sleep each night to replenish it.

Why Establishing Your Personal Sleep Requirement Is Important

Not getting the proper amount of and the best quality sleep can have serious consequences.  Many studies have shown that sleep deprivation adversely affects performance and alertness. Reducing sleep by as little as one and a half hours for just one night reduces daytime alertness by about one-third.  Excessive daytime sleepiness impairs memory and the ability to think and process information, and substantially increases the risk of an accident.  A lack of proper sleep produces a sluggishness that can affect the health of all our organs, and a raggedness that robs us of a youthful look.    

The bottom line is you should wake up feeling relatively refreshed, and you should generally not feel sleepy during the day.  The amount of sleep you need is that optimum amount which allows you to function throughout the day without feeling drowsy when you sit quietly and try to pay attention to something.

Here’s How to Do It

• Stick to a regular schedule of going to bed and getting up at the same time every day.
• Be consistent about taking naps.  Take one every afternoon for no more than 20 minutes or none at all.  People who take a nap only once in a while usually find they do not sleep well that night.
• Exercise regularly in the morning or early afternoon, but do not engage in strenuous physical activity just before bedtime.
• Stay away from caffeine-containing drinks after about 4 PM.
• Avoid alcohol after the dinner hour.  Instead of promoting sleep, a nightcap actually disturbs sleep patterns and can cause early morning awakenings.
• Be careful about sleeping pills.  These medications should not be taken for more than four weeks.  Longer use leads to increased insomnia.
• If you feel you need a pill to help you sleep, try a natural one.
• Find the right room temperature for you and maintain it throughout the night.
• Try to relax before going to bed.  Take a warm bath, read a light novel, listen to music, avoid stressful thoughts.
• Do not eat heavily just before going to bed.
• If you cannot sleep at night, do your best to preserve your usual 24-hour cycle of activity-rest and exposure to light and dark.  For example, do not get up, turn on bright lights and read or exercise.  It is best to remain reclining in the dark and listen to music or an audio book.
• If you smoke cigarettes, quit.  Studies have shown that people who smoke cigarettes have more difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep.  Cigarettes can raise blood pressure, increase the heart rate and stimulate brain-wave activity.

Common Myths

We need less sleep as we get older.

The best research available indicates that healthy elderly people sleep about as much as they did when they were young adults.  The idea that the elderly sleep less comes from those who have medical conditions that interfere with their sleep.

You can’t make up for lost sleep.

You can make up for lost sleep, but only to a certain extent.  After significant sleep loss, we will probably have more slow-wave sleep for the next couple of nights, but we most likely will not sleep more than 2 – 4 hours longer than usual.  This is because our wakefulness-sleep cycle depends on both our sleep need and our internal timing mechanisms.

Pleasant dreams,

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