iHealthCast > Physicians<br>& Specialists > Heartbeats Blog - <span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: bold;">A Good Night's SLEEP is Critical to your Mind and Body's Wellness </span>

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Posted by: Dr. Chris Meletis, ND	3/6/2010 6:05 PM
Yes, you can actually sleep yourself to a higher level of wellness. However millions of us are walking around in a sleep deprivation stupor. We also routinely make huge mistakes when it comes to the "simple act of sleep". If you follow these tips you will feel better and help restore your mind and body. Mistake #1 You must sleep in a totally dark room. Sleeping in a dark room helps with the production of the brain chemicals serotonin and melatonin. How important is sleep in a nice dark room? Well a Finnish study actually showed that women that slept 9 hours had 1/3 the risk of getting breast cancer. Also it is totally essential not to have an alarm clock with a blue hue. It is better to have red or orange, but keep it dim. Bright is not right, in one's bedroom. Why not blue, well UV rays that help keep us happy and also wake us up in the morning are part of the blue spectrum. So, blue light in the bedroom is not the way to go. Mistake #2 Sure it is annoying, but I can live with my partner's snoring. Wrong answer. Sleeping with a chronic snorer can rob you of your health. It takes energy and disturbs your sleep to keep nudging them to roll over. Furthermore, they could be dying in front of your closed eyes. The fact is about 24% of young guys and 10% of young women actually aren't just snoring, they are suffocating with a condition called sleep apnea. Apnea is where your oxygen levels plummet, choking out the very life sustaining breath that keeps you alive. Sadly 38,000 people a year die in their sleep from sleep apnea, this does not even count all the other accelerated ways of dying from lack of sleep. By the way as we all get older, the prevalence of sleep apnea and sleep disorders rises dramatically. Get tested for sleep apnea, it can save your life and help address everything from diabetes, acid reflux, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeats and even impotence in many cases. Mistake #3 Thinking that sleep problems really aren't a big deal. Well here are some powerful facts; 20-40 percent of all adults will have insomnia during the course of a year. Over 70 million Americans suffer from disorders of sleep and wakefulness. I have also found that people that don't dream or remember their dreams in my clinical practice are often low in B vitamins or have sleep apnea. Solutions: As always, talk to your doctor; yet here are some helpful tips to sleep and sleep well: Don't watch television in bed. Don't eat in bed. Use of the supplement melatonin can often help with sleep. This supplement is actually the same hormone your body produces to help you fall asleep and stay asleep, plus it is a powerful antioxidant as a bonus. Taking calcium prior to bed can also help with sleep. If you choose to take some extra B complex to help with dreams, it is absolutely essential to do so prior to noon, so it does not keep you up. My patients report the vast majority of time, they have more dreams with B vitamins. Remember, snoring is not good and can be a sign of something possibly (not always) worse, like sleep apnea. I wish you a good night of sleep and RESToration.
Copyright ©2010 Dr. Chris Meletis, ND
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