Sleep Better, Live Longer

John (not his real name) came to my office complaining of depression. John was a 55-year-old schoolteacher, married with two teenage children. His history revealed that he also suffered from high blood pressure and poor sleep. The latter symptom is not surprising, since 3 out of 4 people with depression suffer from insomnia.

Sleep—good, restorative sleep—is a much-underestimated factor contributing to health and disease. Almost half of all Americans say they feel sleepy during the day between three and seven days per week, an obvious sign that they are not getting sufficient sleep.

Adults between 18 and 64 need seven-to-nine hours of sleep per night. Adults over 65 have been shown to awaken approximately one-and-a-half hours earlier and sleep one hour earlier than younger adults. Kids need even more sleep than adults. With each passing year, getting the ideal amount of sleep for adults or children is becoming more elusive.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 28.4% of working adults slept six or fewer hours per night in 2009 compared to 32.6% in 2017-2018. We do not have figures for 2021-2022, but I am certain that they are higher still. Interestingly, 45.8% of Black people, 40.4% of American Indians/Alaska Natives, 37.5% of Asians, 34.5% of Hispanics, and 33.4% of white people reported getting less than seven hours of sleep per night—and women have a lifetime risk of insomnia up to 40% higher than that men.

The Beneficial Effects of Sleep

If you sleep well, you wake up feeling rested. Being rested helps your energy levels shoot up. When your energy is up, you deal more easily with life’s challenges, be they small or big. After a good night’s sleep, people tend to be more patient and more tolerant of others’ annoying ways. You’re more likely to be happy more often.

In addition, 40% of people with insomnia are affected by a mental health disorder. These include depression, anxiety, and panic disorders. Not getting enough sleep can lead to health problems like high blood pressure, heart attacks, and diabetes. Insomnia initiates a stress response with the release of cortisone and adrenaline that cause your heart to work harder.

The stress response also depresses your immune response. As a result, you are more likely to catch any virus looking for a new home to break into that’s poorly guarded. For the same reason, sleep can also make vaccines more effective, which is obviously a plus.

When you don’t get enough sleep, your body produces ghrelin, a hormone that boosts appetite. Your body also decreases the production of leptin, a hormone that tells you you’re full. Also, when you don’t sleep enough you may not have the energy to fight off junk food cravings—and we know well what happens in that case.

Sleep has been linked to improved concentration, better memory, and higher cognitive function, which can help you be successful at work or school. On the other hand, lack of sleep can be dangerous—literally. You’re twice as likely to get in a car accident when you have had only six to seven hours of sleep compared to a full eight hours. Sleep less than five hours and your chances of a crash quadruple. That’s because your reaction time slows way down when your brain isn’t fully rested. People with severe insomnia are seven times more likely to have work-related accidents, and nurses working 12.5-hour shifts report committing more than three times as many medical errors than those working eight-and-a-half-hour shifts.

Tips for Getting More and Better Sleep

• Create a comfortable sleep environment—for example, make sure your bedroom is dark and quiet.
• For the most comfortable sleep, the best bedroom temperature for sleep is approximately 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18.3 degrees Celsius). This may vary by a few degrees from person to person. Adjust to suit your needs.
• Set a bedtime routine, which means going to bed at the same time every night.
• Use your bedroom, if possible, only for sleeping and intimacy.
• During the day, exercise. Walking, swimming, climbing stairs, weight training, etc., are imperative. No need to spend a fortune on joining a health club.
• Try meditating, yoga, or taking a warm bath.
• Hot milk with sugar produces tryptophan. It seems to have a calming effect.
• Grinding teeth during sleep may apply as much as 250 pounds of pressure to your teeth. Obviously, you will wake up with severe pain in your jaw and temporomandibular joint. And your dental bills will skyrocket. Time to see a specialist.
• If you suffer from sleep apnea, snoring, nocturia (frequent nighttime visits to the washroom), night sweats, sleep paralysis, restless leg syndrome (RLS), or sleepwalking, I suggest you consult a physician.
• Melatonin is one of the most commonly used supplements among both adults and children. Studies have found that melatonin can improve sleep in certain cases, but it is not for everyone. People who want to use melatonin supplements should also be aware of issues related to dosage and the quality of supplements.
• Do not read the paper or watch TV news at night. All that disturbing information will still be there in the morning.
• Think twice about coffee or chocolate late in the day. In healthy adults, caffeine has a half-life of five hours, which means that around half of the caffeine in your cup of joe or your favorite chocolate bar will still be in your body five to 10 hours after you had it.
• Alcohol might make you sleepy at first, but drinking alcohol will wake you up soon afterward, sometimes repeatedly.
• Talk to your physician about the risk of addiction from prescription drugs that induce sleep. They should often be avoided.