Why we need sleep and plenty of it!

We're going to talk about one of the most fundamental things to our health ever. What is it? You're right. It's sleep!

Sleep is a biologic imperative. It isn't just about consolidating memories and that sort of thing. It is fundamental to life itself. Every living creature on this planet sleeps - from humans all the way down to cockroaches and to one cell yeasts!

We have to stop and rest every 24 hours. And if we don't, it impacts our energy, our brain health, our immune function, and our health in general.

All of us, all the animals and us, are vulnerable during sleep. We're vulnerable to predators and all kinds of things, but we do it anyway. So you can imagine the value and the importance of sleep in our lives.

Now, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 80 million American adults are chronically sleep deprived. What does that mean? It means they're getting less than seven hours of sleep on a regular basis. So what happens with sleep deprivation?

Well, first of all, when a person is sleep deprived, they really don't know they're sleep deprived, but they act differently, right?

With less sleep, we get angry.

We get triggered really easily.

We lose our sense of balance.

We can't concentrate on anything.

We can't get anything done.

We're angry and irritable.

And when people start getting less than six hours of sleep on a regular basis, it can really lead to some major problems, including psychosis.

One example of a problem with sleep deprivation is when you're working long, overnight shifts or driving long periods of time, your body is trying to force you into sleep. You've seen this, right? You've seen that a lot, probably even done it yourself. And what's happening is you're going into like three to thirty second 'micro sleeps'.

Now a lot can happen in 30 seconds. You can cross the white line. You can run off the road or something far worse. Why do we have all this sleep deprivation now?

A lot of it has to do with the light bulb. We have '24 hour, seven days a week' light on us - all the time. And it's very difficult for our circadian rhythm in our body to function in constant light.

So why is sleep important? Well, just to give you in a nutshell, we have four stages of sleep.

We have stage one, which is like falling asleep, just starting to fall asleep.

Stage two, you're falling into deeper sleep. And there's some brain activity there.

Then into stage three, which we're going to call deep sleep, there's not much going on there at all in terms of muscle movement or dreaming or anything like that.

And then we go into stage four - REM sleep. REM sleep is when we dream.

We go through all four of these stages between four and six times a night. And each one is very important. And you know, we're not just laying there asleep, doing nothing. There's so much going on in the body during that time.

There's a lot of cleanup work. There's cell turnover, there's replacing neurotransmitters and hormones and all kinds of things. Our immune system is out there fighting bugs and taking care of business, cleaning things up.

One of the most important things that happens is during deep sleep, that's when the cells in our brain sort of move apart and make some space. And our brain flushes cerebral spinal fluid through the brain to clean it out. And it cleans out debris and other things - especially amyloid.

Now what's amyloid? Amyloid is one of the proteins that builds up in the brain in Alzheimer's. So when we don't get good sleep, we have compromised brain function anyway, it's hard to remember and hard to focus and concentrate. We don't get the benefit of all of the cleanup that our bodies do, and we have a compromised immune function.

So here's the thing. The ideal, if there is an ideal, and there really isn't, but for infants, infants sleep 14 to 17 hours every day. Children need a little bit less. Teenagers need a little bit less, but not that much. And as we get older between seven and nine hours, so probably about eight hours is good.

As we get older, there's a myth that says, well, you're older now, so you don't need as much sleep. And you start getting four or five hours and maybe take a nap during the day. But that really isn't true either. We need sleep.

I, for one, am a very good sleeper. I can get eight hours regularly, and sometimes nine. I know that's a lot of time sleeping, but wow, do I feel great in the morning! I have a lot of energy. I don't drink coffee. I do have some tea, but I don't need anything to wake me up because I'm awake and I have energy and I'm ready to go.

So how do we get good sleep? Just some tips here:

First, sleep in a cold dark room. Light is not your friend when you're trying to sleep, primarily that's because we have a hormone that our brain releases when we go to sleep at night and that's melatonin. Melatonin is great! It keeps us asleep and it's a great antioxidant. And it really helps with some of the health and the cleanup stuff that happens. But as soon as we have light strike our pineal gland through our eyes, melatonin says, okay, it must be time to get up, so it stops secreting it. Then we wake up and it's very hard to get back to sleep. So cold, dark room, number one.

Number two, all electronics out of the bedroom. So I know you're going to say, no, no, no. We watch TV at night before we go to bed. I have my computer in there, but everything's off. But let me tell you, even though those, those things are all off, they all have very tiny little lights on them. And at night in a dark room, my God, it's like a circus in there. So if you can't or won't take them out of your room, just think about covering them. So at least it's dark.

Next, number three, go to bed and get up at the same time every day, even on the weekends. And I know, Friday night, you want to stay up late, because you don't have to get up the next morning. And you want to watch movies or go party or whatever. And then you sleep in late on Saturday. Now you're sort of up later Saturday night, then you're asleep longer Sunday morning. You're not quite ready to go to bed Sunday night. And then the week is kind of thrown off for a bit. Our bodies love routine. Eating meals at the same time, going to bed and waking up at the same time, are really important.

The last thing I'll say, number four, (and there are many, many other sleep tips out there) but the last thing is you should try to have at least two hours, if not three or four hours, between the time of your last meal and the time you go to bed. Because remember, we don't want to use all of our energy digesting food when we have all this other important work to do.

So happy, sleeping! If you would like more information on Self-Empowered Aging, you can click on the link below and download my free report.

Thank you so much for listening and have a great night's sleep!

Thank you!

Dr Stewart

This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the medical advice of your doctor or healthcare provider. Please consult your healthcare provider for advice about a specific medical condition.