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Sleep is a very serious issue for some of us. This will be short and sweet, so stay up and read it tonight and thank me in the morning.<\/p>\nSleep is a very serious issue for some of us. This will be short and sweet, so stay up and read it tonight and thank me in the morning.<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To function best, you need to get eight hours.<\/strong> 2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If you can get it, more sleep is always healthier.<\/strong> 3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some people function perfectly on four hours of sleep.<\/strong> 4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waking up during the night means you\u2019ll be tired all day.<\/strong> 5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You need prescription drugs if you have insomnia every night.<\/strong> 6.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You can make up for lost sleep on weekends.<\/strong> 7.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tylenol PM is better than a prescription sleep med for an occasional bout of insomnia.<\/strong> See you next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sleep is a very serious issue for some of us. This will be short and sweet, so stay up and read it tonight and thank me in the morning. 1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To function best, you need to get eight hours. There\u2019s…","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-talk"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nThere\u2019s actually nothing magic about that number. Everyone has different sleep needs, and you\u2019ll know you\u2019re getting enough when you don\u2019t feel like nodding off in a boring situation in the afternoon.<\/p>\n
\nWouldn\u2019t that be nice? Some studies have found that people who slept more than eight hours a night died younger than people who got between six and eight hours. What scientists don\u2019t know yet: whether sleeping longer causes poor health or is a symptom of it. Long sleepers may suffer from problems such as sleep apnea, depression, or uncontrolled diabetes that make them spend more time in bed.<\/p>\n
\nShort sleepers don\u2019t necessarily do better on getting little sleep. They\u2019re just not aware of how sleepy they are. Too little sleep is bad for your health and your image: It can make you ineffective (it impairs performance, judgement, and the ability to pay attention), sick (it weakens your immune system), and overweight. In fact, women who slept five hours or less a night were a third more likely to gain 33 pounds or more over 16 years than women who slept seven hours, according to one study. Oddly, cutting too much sleep and getting less than six hours is associated with the same problems as sleeping too long: A higher risk of heart problems and death. And of course, cheating on sleep hurts you behind the wheel: Wakefulness for 18 hours makes you perform almost as though you\u2019re legally drunk.<\/p>\n
\nTo the contrary: It might be our natural cycle. Many animals sleep this way, and there are a lot of indications that our ancestors did, too, perhaps stirring nightly to talk or have sex, says one researcher. When 15 people in one of his studies lived without artificial lights for a few weeks, they wound up sleeping three to five hours, waking up for one or two, then sleeping again for four or more hours \u2013 and they said they had never felt as rested.<\/p>\n
\nSleep medications are designed for short- term sleep problems, caused by stressful events like the loss of a job or taking a flight across the Atlantic. People with longer-term problems benefit more from what we call cognitive behavioral therapy \u2013 essentially, retraining your perceptions of sleep and learning better sleep habits, such as going to bed at the same time every night, avoiding TVs and computers before bed, staying away from caffeine at least six hours before sleep, and other lifestyle changes. In fact, in 2005, the National Institutes of Health concluded that this type of therapy is as effective as prescription drugs for short-term treatment of chronic insomnia. In many cases a sleeping pill may not even solve your sleep problem. One researcher says, \u201cabout half the people who think they have insomnia may have anxiety or depression.<\/p>\n
\nLoading up on sleep over the weekends and not sleeping during the week upsets your circadian rhythm and makes it even harder to get refreshing sleep. Sleeping until noon on Sunday generally prevents you from hitting the sheets by 10 that night. So instead of correcting your deficit from the week before, you set up a no-sleep cycle for the week to come. The body loves consistency. It\u2019s best to rise around the same time every day, even on weekends.<\/p>\n
\nThis is not true if the bout lasts longer than a few nights.\u00a0 Tylenol PM is no better than a prescription drug for people who have trouble falling asleep, and may be less effective than some prescription drugs. The active ingredient in Tylenol PM is an antihistamine, and its side effect is that it makes you drowsy. Some have reported a greater possibility of feeling \u201chung over\u201d after taking antihistamines than after taking prescription drugs. If you do decide to take antihistamines, don\u2019t do it in the middle of the night. They may stay active in your system for eight hours or more. Another difference: Prescription sleep drugs are thought to allow you to go through all stages of the sleep cycle; no word on whether antihistamines do the same.<\/p>\n