Better Sleep Coach; Your Help to Better Health through Better Sleep
  • Home
  • Who we are
  • Tips for Better Sleep
  • Tips for Students of Any Age
  • Tips for Making CPAP your Friend
  • Tips for Techs
  • Sleep Quiz
  • Coaching
  • Night shift coaching
  • Products to Help You Sleep Better

​What is Healthy Sleep and How It Will Benefit You?

6/4/2016

1 Comment

 
Picture
We hear tons of articles about balance and happiness and being purpose driven or being successful but with each of these things we see that the suggestions tend to be out of balance or unrealistic.  What if instead of using these catch all’s we look at what is important to our health and make those priorities.  In particular healthy sleep.  If you really want to achieve any goal you need to have your brain working at optimal levels which will not happen unless you allow yourself to get healthy sleep.  In order to get healthy sleep you must make that one of your priorities. 
The question then is what is healthy sleep?
  • Your brain requires a certain amount of time in each stage of sleep.  In the first half of the night you go into slow wave sleep which is the deep restful sleep your body needs to health and rejuvenate itself.  If you go to bed too late you miss that important part of sleep. 
  • Every hour and half to two hours you go into REM sleep or rapid eye movements sleep.  This is also known as active sleep and is a very light layer of sleep.  It is where your brain processes your experiences and emotions and stores them.  It is also the part of sleep where you release certain hormones that help you to sleep.  One of the issues with REM sleep is that you release a hormone that relaxes your muscles and keeps you from acting out your dreams.  If you have a sleep disorder such as snoring or sleep apneas this stage of sleep can become interrupted. 
  • As the night goes on your REM sleep sessions last longer so if you wake to an alarm and you find that you are having difficulty waking it may be that you are waking during a REM session and you might benefit by changing your alarm by 15 minutes in order to miss this problem.
  • When you are not in slow wave sleep or REM sleep you are in non REM sleep.  If you have pain issues this can be very disrupted and may cause your brain waves not to slow down properly.  Proper pain management is important so you can go into all stages of sleep.
  • Medications will affect your sleep significantly.  It is not just sleep medications that will disrupt your sleep.  Heart medication, blood pressure medications, antidepressants, pain medication and respiratory medications can all affect your sleep staging and your ability to go into slow wave sleep and REM sleep.  If you are finding your sleep is disrupted talk to your doctor or pharmacist about the effects of your current medication on your sleep. 
  • Alcohol may help you fall asleep faster but as it leaves your system it will disrupt your sleep significantly during the important long REM cycles causing your sleep to not be as restorative as it can be.  Alcohol is not the friend of sleep. 
Which brings us back to the fact that sleep is important for your brain to function optimally.  When you are sleep deprived because of short sleep times or disrupted sleep times your frontal lobe does not function optimally.  This is the part of the brain where you make judgement decisions.  Think of your brain without proper sleep as the brain of a 16 year old who has to make some important life decisions.  Because the brain is not fully engaged in these decisions you tend to be more impulsive and head for the decision that may not be in your best interest.   Instead you want to be fully engaged alert and be able to take both long and short term goals into the consideration.  A well-rested brain will let your do that.  In the end it will help you to be the well balanced and successful person you choose to be.  

1 Comment
Fabian Tjong link
1/29/2017 01:57:04 am

Great post. Good sleep is a very difficult subject to explain, so the bullet points work very well.

If others are interested how medication or alcohol effects their sleep, I can highly recommend using a sleep tracker (an app or a Fitbit)

I noticed via the Fitbit that I wake up more frequent if i consumed alcohol.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    May 2020
    December 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    January 2018
    January 2017
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    August 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    December 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    January 2010

    RSS Feed

    Blog Roll
    Stop Snoring
    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Categories

    All
    Aasm
    Aast
    Add
    Allergies
    Amy Korn Reavis
    Amy Korn-Reavis
    Anxiety
    Apap
    Auto Titrating Cpap
    Balance
    Bedding
    Bipap
    Boards
    Bodymedia Fit
    Books
    Breathing
    Brpt
    Career
    Children
    Cpap
    Cpap Accessories
    Cpap Mask
    Cpap Masks
    Cpap Problems
    Cpap Solutions
    Cpap Therapy
    Daylight Savings Time
    Dental Appliances
    Diabetes
    Dr Steven Park
    Education
    Enurisis
    Exercise
    Fatigue
    Fibromyalgia
    Florida Association Of Sleep Technicians
    Gerd
    Growth
    Habits
    Health
    High Blood Pressure
    Holidays
    Hot Weather
    Insomnia
    Insurance
    Job
    Licensure
    Management
    Monitoring
    Morning Headaches
    Napping
    Nbrc
    New Cpap
    Obesity
    Obstructive Sleep Apnea
    Oral Appliances
    Osa
    Pain
    Pap Nap
    Physicial
    Planning
    Publicity
    Relax
    Relaxation
    Resolutions
    Respiratory Credentials
    Respiratory Therapy
    Shaq
    Sheets
    Short Sleep
    Sleep
    Sleep Apnea
    Sleep Deprivation
    Sleep Disorders
    Sleep Education
    Sleep Hygeine
    Sleep Hygiene
    Sleep Lab
    Sleep Routine
    Sleep Societies
    Sleep Stages
    Sleep Study
    Sleep Technician
    Sleep Test
    Sleep Testing
    Sleep Therapy
    Snoring
    Stress
    Studying
    Summer
    Support
    Support Groups
    Surgery
    Teens
    Tired
    Travel
    Treatment
    Vitamin D
    Weight Loss
    Winter Health
    Women
    Writing

    Amy Korn-Reavis, EzineArticles.com Basic PLUS Author
    Follow this blog
Photo used under Creative Commons from momentcaptured1
  • Home
  • Who we are
  • Tips for Better Sleep
  • Tips for Students of Any Age
  • Tips for Making CPAP your Friend
  • Tips for Techs
  • Sleep Quiz
  • Coaching
  • Night shift coaching
  • Products to Help You Sleep Better