Winter 2010

We All Need A Good Night's Sleep

Marcia Degelman, CMT, Integrative Medicine Specialist in Massage Therapy and Stress Relief

The amount of sleep needed varies by individual and children and teenagers need more sleep than adults, but the quality of sleep is more important than the hours spent in bed. This means that you want to have more time spent in the deeper stages of sleep.

Getting enough sleep is also important for glucose metabolism. The hunger hormone, “gherlin” tends to rise when we don’t get enough sleep, making us want to eat more. Lack of quality sleep also creates a tendency for cells to become less sensitive to glucose over time, making us more susceptible to weight gain and diabetes.

Sleep Hygiene
So what can you do to get a good night’s sleep? Following some simple steps of “sleep hygiene” can help:

Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.
Have your bedroom as dark and quiet as possible.
Leave the TV and the computer and cell phone out of the bedroom.
Exercise more than four hours before you want to go to sleep.
Limit caffeine intake after 4pm.
Take a hot bath an hour before you want to go to sleep. Afterwards, as your body cools down, you will start to feel sleepy. Listen to your body, and when you are ready, go to sleep.

Sleep Cycles
Sleep occurs in cycles. It takes about 90 minutes to get to the deeper “REM” (rapid eye movement) stages when dreaming takes place. Deeper levels of delta wave sleep follow REM cycles, about 4-5 per night.

“Sleepiness” occurs in waves, so when you feel your body temperature starts to fall, catch that wave to sleep!

Winter 2010

Winter 2010

We All Need A Good Night's Sleep

In 2008, Marcia published Explaining Health, which offers more tips for healthy living.