Dr. Mercola September 20 2007 51,875 views
“Sleep is the most undervalued contributor to optimal health and performance,” says Dr. Keith Humphreys, professor of psychiatry at Stanford University. Dr. Humphreys does research in addiction treatment, and national mental health and drug policy. He has written for the New York Times and other publications.
Many people have no idea that getting enough sleep is essential for helping them stick to a diet, making their workouts more productive, or boosting their immune system in general.
When it comes to dieting, leptin and ghrelin are the two hormones that regulate appetite, and are adversely affected by sleep deprivation. Ghrelin, which is produced in the stomach, signals to the brain when it’s time to eat. Leptin, on the other hand, is secreted by fat tissue and has the reverse effect, signaling when you are full.
Chronic lack of sleep increases ghrelin, making you feel hungry when you don’t really need to eat, and decreases leptin, urging you to keep eating although you’ve already gotten all the calories you need.
The deep sleep state is also the time during which your body repairs itself, including your sore biceps, which benefits your workout routine.
Making a habit of sleep deprivation comes with a heavy price tag. A nine-year study of nearly 7,000 Alameda County residents, found that those who routinely slept six or fewer hours a night had a 70 percent higher risk of dying (in the same age groups) than did those who slept seven or eight hours per night.
San Francisco Gate September 2, 2007
First of all let me make it VERY clear that I do NOT agree with Dr. Humphreys’ premise, that the more you sleep the longer you live. There is very strong evidence that sleeping longer than seven hours can cause brain diseases like Parkinson’s.
While there is no better example of optimal wellness than to be in harmony with your deepest function (sleep), I am convinced that there is a window we should strive for, somewhere between six and eight hours is probably good for most.
Studies reveal that less than six hours can decrease insulin sensitivity and increase your risk of diabetes, BUT these studies were done in average Americans who are anything but healthy, and they are exposed to so many toxic stressors they require the extra sleep.
My belief is that if you are healthy, and compensating for many of the EMF and emotional stressors, you can probably get by with less sleep, and not impair your insulin sensitivity.
Fortunately it is really easy to figure this one out. If you find yourself frequently yawning during the day, and are fatigued and exhausted, it is probably a major clue that you did not sleep enough.
It is very important to value sleep as one of your most precious resources for health and happiness. If you do that, you can then figure out what you need to sleep really well.
You may think that, when sleeping, the brain simply shuts down for a rest. But your brain doesn’t shut down at all during sleep, not as it does under general anesthesia or in a coma. Instead, sleep is an active process, which might be better described as a deeper form of consciousness than as a lack of it.
Can You Really Shed Pounds in Your Sleep?
If you’re like most people in modern society, you have to keep an eye on your weight. Americans alone spend $35 billion (each year) on weight-loss products.
And, 64 percent of American adults are losing the body fat battle.
Why?
America’s trend toward obesity just happens to match its trend toward voluntary sleep restriction. And 70 to 75 percent of Americans report having one or more persistent symptoms of sleep disruptions.
Sleep-loss is a double whammy for anyone looking to shed pounds because of the two hormones mentioned above: ghrelin and leptin, the tandem hunger and appetite regulators of your body.
In one study, just two days of restricted sleep caused an 18 percent decrease in plasma leptin levels and a 28 percent increase in ghrelin levels in young healthy men. The result was increased hunger and an appetite for carbs. Definitely not good if you’re trying to lose weight.
So in addition to regular exercise and eating according to your nutritional type, getting enough good quality sleep is extremely valuable for maintaining your ideal weight.
Chronic sleep-loss can also contribute to a wide variety of other health problems, including:
Good Sleep Not Only Promotes Good Health…
During sleep, the hormone melatonin (which is secreted only in total darkness) signals your entire body to shift from daytime running-around mode into nighttime healing mode. In addition to that, it also stimulates the nighttime release of another valuable hormone: growth hormone.
Growth hormone is vital for normal development of children, but it has wonderfully beneficial effects in adults as well. It actually:
All together, growth hormone makes you look and feel younger. (This is why you hear about professional body builders and athletes who sometimes risk injecting synthetic growth hormone in artificially high amounts.)
But you already have a natural way to get your very own growth hormone delivered in just the right concentration at just the right time, every night… if you sleep well.
I haven't had a solid night's sleep in 25 years. Now thanks to this article ... I have something ELSE to keep me tossing and turning with worry at night!!!
I disagree with Dr. Mercola's comment that there is evidence that sleeping longer than 7 hours a night CAUSES Parkinson's disease. The study he refers to shows that there is a CORRELATION-- meaning that nurses that slept more than 9 hours a night were 80% more likely to be diagnosed with Parkinson's than those who slept less than 7 over the course of 24 years. However, this doesn't show CAUSE. All this shows to me is that for those who eventually develop PD, many years before they developed the disease they were in bed more than average people. But, this may just be a pre-Parkinson's symptom, not a CAUSE of the disease.I've read that PD is related to alterations in energy metabolism by mitochondria.If you had this problem, another symptom of it might be that you have altered sleep patterns. Plus, just because you are in bed for over nine hours night doesn't say anything about the sleep QUALITY of that time.It is possible, for example, that those people who will later develop PD don't have normal sleep patterns. They may have less deep delta sleep than normal people, so feel the need to sleep more to get an "average" amount. This is similar to those with sleep apnea, who "sleep" for ten hours a day (ie. are in BED for 10 hours a day) but really aren't getting restful brain sleep because they are awaking every 5 minutes during the night.You could then say that "sleeping more than ten hours a night CAUSES sleep apnea," when in fact, number one, they aren't really SLEEPING ten hours a night, and, number two, being in bed 10 hours a day is another SYMPTOM of sleep apnea, not a CAUSE of it. All that being said,sleeping more than 9 hours a night MAY IN FACT be a CAUSE of PD--I just don't see the data that has shown this cause/effect relationship yet.
Soteriagal...got a chuckle out of that!! I agree---try gaba or melatonin! I was in the same boat at one time.
Samurai, there's two things that make the difference in my power-nap success. I wouldn't be able to do it without them, but with them I can fall asleep in less than 5 minutes:
1) Completely cover your eyes with a dark shirt
2) Foam earplugs
Hope that will help.
~Luke
Hi Patty--- I highly recommend you look into your Calcium/Magnesium intake, and what this ratio is.That is, estimate (including supplements) how much Ca and Mg you are ingesting every day.I used to have sleep problems like you described,as well as constant sore muscles,and I finally discovered this was because I was taking supplemental Calcium with no magnesium.As soon as I started supplementing Mg,almost all of these long-standing problems disappeared within a month! Mg is a miracle nutrient, decreases cortisol release (this helps stress), stops melatonin decrease, helps muscles, and many other things.Ca and Mg work in tandem in the body-Ca causes muscles to contract, Mg muscles to relax. However, if you are overloaded with Ca, your muscles are in a constant state of tension (like tetanus) at the micro level.Consequence:muscles sore and tired. The essential thing that I have learned through experience is the RATIO of Ca and Mg in your diet/supplements.A lot of women are supplementing Ca for bones, but without Mg they are hurting themselves.When the Ca/Mg ratio is too high, this is also correlated to heart disease! www.enerex.ca/.../calcium_to_magnesium_ratio.htm
My recommendation--and this is based on personal experience!!-- is that you should up your magnesium intake until your Ca/Mg ratio is as close to 1:1 as you can tolerate.That is, if you intake 800 mg Ca,take 800 mg Mg too. There is some debate what is the best Mg to take.I have used MgCitrate and MgCarbonate, but some docs recommend Mg Taurate.I also learned that I needed to titrate up slowly, otherwise it causes lookse stools.But if you go slowly, you can build to those Mg levels over a few weeks.At first, the Mg may make you very sleepy--for a few weeks.That's OK.You need the rest.But after you recover, you will feel better,I think.Mg has made the biggest impact on my health out of any nutrient I've ever tried.I hope this helps you.I've used Natural Calm powder as well as MgCarbonate.
Oh, by the way, as I mentioned (since everyone is talking about Adrenal function,) Magnesium causes your adrenal glands to release less stress hormones, and thus gives your body a chance to recover. Too much Ca in your diet causes stress hormones to increase. I can't stress enough how Mg has improved my life. My ability to deal with stress has increased 200%--I am not always stressed and panicked now. Everything seems so much easier. For a great overview, see the books "The Magnesium Factor" my Mildred Seelig or "The Magnesium Miracle" by Carolyn Dean.
Hi Patty,
Maybe you're like me and you tend to be very active until you go to bed?
Then a solution may be to stop your activity a couple of hours before going to bed and only spend it doing relaxing stuff, such as watching a movie or cuddling (so no surfing the net and reading e-mail). It works for me, but I fail to implement it most of the time.
Also, getting rid of all issues that cause you stress also helps tremendously. GTD helps me a lot with that.
GregB777 I don't take any calcium/magnesium supplements nor to I take any multivitamins, minerals or Bvitamins. I am under alot of stress and have not been sleeping well or feeling well. I have been on the edge of anxiety because of it. Do you think magnesium would help me? Also, I just started taking a proton pump inhibitor 5 days ago because of acid reflux and spasms in my esophagus that I could not get under control with diet. It isn't helping the spasms yet much and I was wondering if maybe the magnesium would help. Also, if you are on an acid blocker would these supplements even be absorbed into the body?
It might be helpful to do a salivary work up of when the spiking of your cortisol level takes place. The time of day is important as far as energy and sleep/rest is concerned. Have a sample taken in the morning, noon and evening. We have an excellent lab in Calgary Canada to which I send all my salivary work ups. An in clinic urinalysis might be beneficial to check for adrenal exhaustion as well.
Hope this is helpful Patti.
Blessings
Dr. Trudy
to kare4u: I have no idea if Magnesium would help you. I THINK it probably would, at least for the anxiety. I don;t believe it can hurt you. It has helped me tremendously. The best you can do is give it a try. Try starting with maybe 200 mg a day, and steadily upping that to 600-1000 mg a day depending on Ca intake. As far as your acid reflux or whatever it is, from what I have learned acid reflux is often a sign that you are not producing ENOUGH stomach acid (rather than TOO much.) You might think of supplemeting Betaine HCl.Understand, this is just a SUGGESTION. If you truly have an ulcer or something of that nature, don't take this stuff! But, if you want to learn more, check out these two websites. www.revolutionhealth.com/.../betaine-betaine-hydrochloride reviews-cdn.jigsawhealth.com/.../reviews.htm Also check out "pop"'s postings on this mercola thread about his experience with Betaine v.mercola.com/.../More-Insanity----Heartburn-Drugs-for-Kids-9244.aspx
Paddy...Have you tried using essential oils [Lavender or Valerian to help you sleep and Peppermint ,Basil to wake you up], just be careful to use reputable ones, as most say being pure, but aren't.
I've been amazed how well they've worked for me [only use young living, as I know them being pure].
Patty,
I have been in your shoes with severe adrenal exhaustion. I was fortunate enough to find a holistic MD and a chiropractor (who is also a naturopathic endocrinologist) who worked together to restore me to health and sanity! They both are big believers in the Pekana homeopathic line from Germany. They have something called Neu-Regen which is for mental and physical exhaustion. It is truly amazing. It's a liquid and you take it in the am and afternoon. It's all natural plant tinctures, no stimulants. I still take it 5 years later. Someone else mentioned adrenal cortex, which I still take. I think due to things some of us have been through, we may always need some adrenal support, esp when life gets stressful. It sounds like you are regaining your health, so congrats! It's often an arduous process, just know that you are not alone out there!
Patty D,
Have you already investigated the possiblity of leaky gut syndrome and candida overgrowth? Steroids as well as many other medications can cause both of these problems. If waking up tired and hurting includes joint pain and/or "brain fog" (feeling like it's hard to think clearly) I'd recommend experimenting with a gluten-free diet. That worked wonders for myself and two other relatives. You'll probably know within a few days whether it's helping you. Some people also need to go casein-free (dairy-free) to see improvement (though that wasn't the case for me). Here is some info on leaky gut, the symptoms and causes:
altmedicine.about.com/.../TestLeakyGut.htm
www.diagnose-me.com/.../C22114.html
(be sure to scroll down to "Recommendations and treatments ..." where it recommends the gluten-free diet)
Here's some info on the gluten-free diet:
www.lifescript.com/.../achieving_a_gluten-free_diet.asp
Candida overgrowth can also cause tiredness, aches, memory problems (brain fog), anxiety, depression and other problems. More info on candida is here:
www.diagnose-me.com/.../C7890.html
BTW, I also recommend magnesium supplementation. It helps heal connective tissue disorders and is a natural muscle relaxant.