Sleeping Your Way into a Healthy, Younger Body
Sleep doesn’t seem terribly important. We could be working, dancing, or talking late into the night with friends. What the heck, we will catch up on sleep during the weekend. Sleeping gets in the way of getting things done.
It’s a common but not normal attitude, and it has a price. Both lab and clinical tests show that sleep affects every other system in the body. How much and how well we sleep determines how well we function. Sleep can dictate food intake (and whether it’s healthy or comfort food), metabolism speed, inflammation, creative and cognitive ability, stress level, information processing, the ability to learn new things, organization, and memory. Chronic sleep deprivation shows up as confusion, brain fog, immunity impairment, obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and depression.
And, sleep influences our genes. In a study done in 2013, scientists in England discovered that lack of sleep for a week altered gene function in the areas of inflammation, immunity, stress, and metabolism. These, in turn, affect brain function, which, in turn, affects quality of life.
Seven hours is considered adequate sleep. About 10% of Americans suffer from chronic insomnia, and 25% report poor quality of sleep on occasion. Heck, who doesn’t occasionally have a bad night’s sleep? The trick is to not let it become regular. As we age, sleep gets worse. Sleep apnea appears, in addition to insomnia. Once asleep, we don’t stay asleep. There are reports by Kristine Yaffe at UCSF on the relationship between lack of sleep and cognitive decline. Which means, lack of sleep inhibits our ability to think clearly. Which may lead to dementia. By age 65, 1 in 8 Americans will be showing signs of severe cognitive decline. By age 80, the number goes to 1 in 2. There is a 50% chance (flip of the coin) that, by age 80, we will have developed dementia. I am writing this, and you are reading it. One of us will develop dementia.
With lack of sleep, the hormone leptin decreases. This hormone tells your brain that your stomach is full. You stop eating. When sleep deprived, the level of leptin plummets, and you overeat. And I am not talking celery and carrots either. It’s comfort food all the way: mashed potatoes, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chocolate cupcakes and coffee. Overeating leads to weight gain and obesity, which leads down the slippery slope to diabetes, which is associated with dementia. No need to wait until you are 80.
However, having regular sleep habits, a regular sleep time, and recognizing the importance of sleep is a start. Temperature cool darkened bedrooms, turning off the computer half an hour before bedtime, reading instead of watching TV, chamomile tea or hot chocolate all help the sleep pattern establish itself.
Be a Sleeping Beauty: good sleep habits lead to Aging Intelligently.