You may have discovered as you travel this weary road of life that you\u2019re not sleeping quite as well as you did as when you were younger. Gone are the glory days when you fell asleep listening to a bedtime story and then, suddenly, it\u2019s morning! What happened? \u201cWhy,\u201d you ask (and probably too often), \u201cam I lying here in the dark waiting to get back to sleep? I know I\u2019m going to be exhausted in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Actually, despite your worries, you\u2019ll probably be less tired than you fear. You\u2019ve fallen for that old myth about needing eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. Last week\u2019s Sunday New York Times<\/a> summarized what sleep specialists have known for the past few years: that the human animal was never really intended to sleep steadily through an eight-hour block of time. Children, yes–eight, ten hours. But for adults, nearly half of us (myself certainly included) find it virtually impossible to experience this type of uninterrupted sleep regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just 40% of us clamber into bed, are asleep within a half hour or so, and awaken refreshed the next morning. Our sleep abilities, by the way, steadily decline with age. Sixty-year-olds have more trouble than 40-somethings, who in turn sleep poorly when compared to teenagers. Another 40% of us sleep erratically, waking in the middle of the night, moaning as we glance over and see 2:30 AM or thereabouts on the clock. Once this was called being \u201csleep deprived,\u201d but researchers have had second thoughts given that the allegedly deprived sleepers were often quite energetic and functioning well the following day\u2026if they were able to get back to sleep in an hour or so.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This pattern of dividing sleep into two phases is called Sleep #1 and Sleep #2. For Sleep #1, you\u2019re able to fall asleep fairly promptly and you actually sleep quite efficiently, but then you find yourself awake in the middle of the night. At this point, you can go down one of two paths. In the first, you lie awake worrying about getting back to sleep, agonizing over how tired you\u2019ll be later in the day, bitter that it\u2019s now too late to take a sleeping pill. On the second path you\u2019re more accepting of the situation. You use the waking time to read for awhile, mull over something pleasant, or listen to some relaxing music until you sense you\u2019re getting sleepy enough to go back to sleep. You then enter Sleep #2, a phase not as deep as the first, but if you can manage three or four hours you\u2019ll do just fine the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People endlessly worry about sleep meds. In fact, many people worry so much that the worrying alone keeps them from getting to sleep. Are sleeping pills addictive? No, and you won\u2019t go through withdrawal if you stop them suddenly. No 7-11 has ever been robbed by an addict seeking money for his Ambien. But are they habit forming? The other term for habit forming is \u201cpsychological dependence\u201d and the answer is yes, they are habit forming. For example, if you\u2019ve been using Ambien and you run out of pills, you\u2019re likely to worry that your need for sleep won\u2019t be fulfilled. If you stay off the Ambien you\u2019ll experience a few days of what\u2019s called rebound insomnia as your brain queries, \u201cHey, pal, where\u2019s my Ambien?\u201d before returning to your old sleep-deprived self.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We can be psychologically dependent on a lot of things that aren\u2019t dangerous: coffee in the morning, a cocktail before dinner, jogging. Are you seeing the difference here between crystal meth and Ambien? I\u2019m trying to help you over your fears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are two groups of medication-needing insomniacs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n We know that people who sleep enough so they\u2019re not tired the next day do feel better and overall are healthier. It\u2019s not so much the number of hours you\u2019re sleeping, but how you feel the day after. Some people need six hours, some seven, some nine. And even though an average number for humans might be seven, those who feel great with six should leave well enough alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People who don\u2019t get enough sleep feel dull and tired the next day. Ideally, they should be allowed daytime naps, but virtually no employer permits this luxury (except for Google, which encourages napping). If you feel dull and tired after a wakeful night, analyze your sleep pattern. If you simply can\u2019t fall asleep, start by trying supplements like tryptophan<\/a>, valerian<\/a>, or melatonin<\/a>. Work with a sleep-inducing CD<\/a> and also review my list of suggestions for better sleep. If you get nowhere with these, ask your doctor for a sleeping pill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re in the second group, waking in the middle of the night, try reading some poetry or visualizing an especially nice vacation until you drift back to sleep. If you\u2019re stuck and can\u2019t get back to sleep, ask your doctor for a Sonata or Intermezzo. Life\u2019s too short to feel guilty about taking a sleeping pill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Be well,<\/p>\n\n\n\n David Edelberg, MD<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You may have discovered as you travel this weary road of life that you\u2019re not sleeping quite as well as you did as when you were younger. Gone are the glory days when you fell asleep listening to a bedtime story and then, suddenly, it\u2019s morning! What happened? \u201cWhy,\u201d you ask (and probably too often), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2087,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,211,50,3,70],"tags":[129,132,1430],"class_list":["post-5139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-g","category-healthy-lifestyle","category-knowledge-base","category-s","tag-insomnia","tag-sleep","tag-sleep-medication"],"yoast_head":"\r\nThe remaining 20% probably need sleep medications<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n