If you are looking for stress relief- look no further than you bed and your pillow! You must have the proper amount and type of sleep if you really want to manage your stress!
A poll taken in the year 2000 by the National Sleep Foundation found that sleep debt is a problem for more than half of America's workforce. Their data suggests that in the last century we've reduced the average amount of time we sleep by 20 percent.
Of course, I suppose that most of us recognize that if we don't get adequate sleep for a night or two, we may not function as well the next day. If we work a job where accuracy is super important, or if we are driving a long distance, we sure don't want to be sleepy. And we may even realize that adequate sleep affects our immune system. With a lack of sleep, we may be more likely to get sick. But tying the optimum amount of sleep into various diseases and even our longevity...well, maybe that is food for thought!
In reality, sleep deprivation is taking a serious toll on our overall health! In Super Foods Healthstyle by Steven G Pratt, he reports that a sleep debt of merely 3 or 4 hours in a week may have a direct bearing on the following:
• Obesity
• Coronary heart disease
• Hypertension
• Diabetes
• Immune function
• Cognitive performance
• Longevity
Sleep deprivation is a stressor and when you don't get enough sleep, your glucocorticoids go up which are the main hormone groups that cause the stress response in your body. The group of stress hormones that is released during the stress response are called glucocorticols and include norepinephrine, adrenaline, and a variety of other hormones designed to make you very alert.
If these glucocorticol levels go up they can actually inhibit your ability to sleep. In other words, not getting enough sleep triggers the hormones that will make it difficult for you to sleep! The good news is that if you are exhausted enough, you will sleep anyway- but even then, the quality of your sleep will be effected by these hormones.
Lose sleep- Die Young!
You do not have to lose huge amounts of sleep before it takes a toll. One study found that sleeping less than 4 hours per night was associated with a 2.8 times higher rate of mortality for men and a 1.5 times higher rate for women. The author of this study also found that length of sleep time was a better predictor of mortality than smoking, cardiac disease, or hypertension.
Another study found that people who slept six hours or less a night had a 70 per cent higher mortality rate over a nine-year period than those who slept seven to eight hours a night!
More important than how much sleep we get, is the type of sleep that we get. Although there are several different stages of sleep, the most important is call REM or Rapid Eye Movement sleep. During this stage of sleep the secondary sensory cortex becomes active- which is a major processing center of the brain. This is where we process information without having a visual or auditory stimulation. We call this dreaming.
What Really Happens When I'm Dreaming?
In the 1970's there were extensive sleep studies at Berkeley University in California. It was through these studies and subsequent studies that we discovered the stages of sleep, what they all do, and what happens when you don't get them!
During dreaming, many different parts of our brain including the limbic system, the emotional part of our brains, is highly active and seems to be processing emotions from the day.
As a Master Rapid Eye Therapist, I certainly understand the importance of this process. In fact, Rapid Eye Therapy harnesses the power REM to by putting a person into the same brain wave patterns found in the brain during REM so that we can quickly and easily process both conscious and unconscious emotions! (See the Managing Your Emotions section for more information.)
We could say, that when you are missing sleep, you are missing the chance to literally process the emotions of your day- it's like having your own therapy session every night! In fact, during REM stage of sleep, the eyes blink rapidly, but the eyeballs actually move around in various positions that cause certain parts of the brain to fire in the following sequence:
o As you look off to the right or left, the auditory part of the brain fires- processing everything you might have HEARD,
o The eyes move up to the left- and the Memory centers of the brain fire processing MEMORIES
o The eyes look straight up causing the visual cortex to fire, processing everything you have SEEN.
o The eyes then look up and to the right, firing the area of the brain that runs your habitual PATTERNS.
o Then the eyes look straight down, which fires the limbic areas of the brain-processing all the emotions-- everything you FELT.
This process is what I call a "body google" -- searching for all the stressful events that are overloading your body and brain! This process keeps repeating for about 20 minutes, all the while you are dreaming. It would appear that the body is literally designed to process the stress of the day, especially when you see what happens next!
At the end of all the blinking and eye rolling, something very strange happens. The eyes roll back in the head, and there is a literal "gas "of negatively charged ions that come out of the eyes! WHAT THE???? It would appear that after all this "googling" that the "residue" of all that stress from the day comes out of your body in the form of negatively charged ions! That happens to you every night and it should happen three times a night --if you are getting enough sleep!
Who would have thought when you sleep you are really working on your "issues" and processing all the things that give you stress! The scary thing is that many sleeping pills, like the popular Ambien actually inhibit you from ever going into REM stage of sleep! You are missing out on a huge benefit of sleep!
In fact, in subsequent studies, it was found that conditions like post partum depression may be caused from the mother being awakened so many times with the baby during the night that they never get any REM stage sleep. This is thought to be a major cause of depression /anxiety in new mothers.
The glucocorticoid hormones that are released during stress can also make it not only difficult to go to sleep, but also interrupt the REM stage of sleep.
It is clear that all the stages of sleep have a purpose and that missing REM sleep stages, or not getting enough of them by not sleeping long enough can have dangerous consequences
How Much Sleep Do We Need?
In order to get experience REM three times a night, and all the stages of sleep you need to really have optimum performance and prevent the stress response in the body, the following guidelines are suggested:
• A six to twelve year old will need between 10 ? and 11 ? hours of sleep a night.
• A teenager will require a little less sleep, probably around 9 or 10 hours a night.
• An adult should be getting 7 to 8 hours sleep each night.
In addition, it is better for you to sleep at night than during the daytime. In fact, sleeping between the hours of 10 P.M. and 6 A.M. is considered to be optimal. This allows for your body to restore its needed melatonin levels in a natural way.
Create A Peaceful Environment
The environment around you absolutely has an effect on your ability to relax and go to sleep. Here are some suggestions for creating a peaceful environment, taken from my experience with Feng Shui:
• Don't put your bed directly under a window
Try to avoid this arrangement- as the energy from outside cascades down on you all night If you have to sleep under a window, put a heavy drape over the window and keep it closed at night.
• Get rid of the lights
Even a bright alarm clock can trigger your pineal gland that its time to wake up instead of go to sleep! Cover up all offending lights that won't turn off and notice how much better and LONGER you can sleep! Drape your windows if the sun comes in too early in the morning as well.
• NEVER put a TV /office equipment in your bedroom
The EMF's (Electric Magnetic Frequencies) from this equipment will disrupt your sleep (not to mention your love life!). Just because you cant see it does not mean it isn't real., and EMF's are real. Sometimes this is unavoidable-- but just realize that this will cause a sleep disruption and if you can, put the TV's and office's in other places than the bedroom.
• Don't sleep directly across from a mirror
Believe it or not, you can actually see with your eyes closed, and seeing an image of what could appear to be another uninvited person in the room can invoke anxiety-- even when you are asleep! Crazy but true!
• Make your bed-clean up the clutter!
Your mother was right! Getting into a clean fresh made bed can have a very calming effect on your body. Making the bed also keeps animals, and unwanted dust and energy off your sheets. Close your drawers, pick up your clothes and you will get an added measure of calm and peaceful rest.
Your Body's Natural Sleeping Pill
We have talked about how prescription Sleeping pills inhibit REM Sleep and may actually do more harm than good. So what can you do if you can't sleep? Get your body back in balance by turning to Mother Nature!
Melatonin is a natural hormone made by your body's pineal gland. During the day the pineal is inactive, but when darkness comes, the pineal is turned on and begins to actively produce melatonin. In order to get enough melatonin:
1. Get a full night sleep in complete darkness (Get some "Blinders" if you have a lot of bleed through light in your room
2. Take a Melatonin Producing supplement-
So, close your eyes at night to avoid diabetes, to lose weight, to strengthen your immune system, to feel better, and to live longer!
ACTION ITEM
• Make a commitment to get to bed by 10:00pm.
• Choose one thing that you could change about your sleeping environment from the list.
• Take An Amino Acid/supplement Based Sleep Aid like Take a Magnesium/Calcium Supplement like CALM
MY FAVORITE "FLAVORS" OF SLEEP HELPS:
Amino Booster Bedtime Cocktail: ? cup walnuts, 1 cup milk/yogurt, 1tsp honey. Mix it up and eat or drink it.
Finding true stress relief means finding and honoring your body's own natural sleep rhythms. For more innovative real stress solutions go to
http://www.RealStressSolutions.com
Angela W. Bussio is a best selling author, coach, and founder of Real Stress Solutions.com, and inbox magazine. Real Stress Solutions provides state-of-the-art stress reduction and management techniques to help people find the balance they need. She is also the innovator of upcoming online program,"Turn Stress to Success" featuring the "5 minute Stress Solution" phone APP.
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