Is 7 Hours of Sleep Ideal?

Very interesting.  Give it a shot!  Let me know how it works. Thanks Dr. Michael J. Breus!

-- Dr. Dale

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Is 7 Hours of Sleep Ideal?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-michael-j-breus/sleep-tips_b_5723640.html?utm_hp_ref=@sleep123

Eight hours. That's the nightly sleep recommendation you hear most frequently, the gold standard for a healthy sleep routine. But what if it isn't? I read this article in the Wall Street Journal with great interest, for it points to recent research that suggests the eight-hour model may not be the ideal one for most healthy adults.

Although eight hours is the number most often associated with a full night's sleep, sleep experts know that there is some degree of variation when it comes to individual sleep needs. Most often, the recommendation for sleep times comes in a range of seven to nine hours, depending on the individual. The National Sleep Foundation currently recommends this seven- to nine-hour range as ideal for healthy adults.

But there is a growing body of research that suggests the ideal amount of sleep may in fact be at the very low end of that range. A number of studies indicate that seven hours -- not eight -- may be the most healthful amount of nightly sleep. There's no broad consensus about this among sleep experts -- but there's an increasingly compelling case that's being made by studies that for many people, eight hours may be more sleep than they need, or than that's healthy for them.

We hear a lot more about the dangers of too little sleep, but sleeping too much can be hazardous to your health as well. Both too little sleep and too much sleep are associated with greater mortality risks. So understanding as much as we can about the overall "best" amount of sleep has real importance.

The National Sleep Foundation is currently at work examining and analyzing sleep data in preparation to release new guidelines for sleep. And the Centers for Disease Control has funded a panel to explore all manner of issues related to sleep, including updated recommendations for healthy sleep amounts. Both are expected to release their recommendations in 2015.

Those guidelines are important, for medical professionals and the general public. But the right amount of sleep is always going to be a personal and individual determination. The most important information in determining your sleep needs is what your body and mind tell you. Pay attention to how much (and how well) you're sleeping at night, and also pay attention to how you feel during the day. A sufficient night of sleep should leave you feeling alert and energized throughout the bulk of the day, and ready for bed at roughly the same time every night.

In order to read your body's need for sleep, it's important to practice good sleep hygiene. That includes consistent bed times and wake times, a dark, cool, and comfortable bedtime, and quiet time away from bright light and electronics in the hour before bed. Give yourself ample time for sleep, and create a sleep-friendly environment and routine, and your body can tell you a great deal about how much sleep you need.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD

The Sleep Doctor

Stressed? Think again.

This is a really great article about stress management.  Something we all should read. -- Dr. Dale

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Stress-Free Is As Near to You As Your Own Thoughts

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-joseph-goewey-/stressfree-is-as-near-to-you-as-your-own-thoughts_b_5767360.html?utm_hp_ref=healthy-living

If you take a close look at stress over the course of a busy week, you're likely to discover that stress is happening in you far more than to you. It has more to do with the anxious way you relate to people and events than with the events themselves.

"We humans generate all sorts of stressful events purely in our heads ... linked to mere thoughts," states Robert Sapolsky, one of the world's leading stress researchers.

It's the way worried, pessimistic, stress-provoking thoughts ignite upsetting emotions that generate a sense of threat, when a real threat isn't verifiably present.

It's called psychological stress and it can flood your system with adrenaline and cortisol, sending your mind and body into an uproar. If these kinds of stress reactions become chronic, it will gradually wear out your body, depress your mood and could contribute to killing you. And it all begins with the stress provoking thoughts we think.

Recall the last time an email caused your mind to race with anxious thoughts, painting you mentally into a tight corner. This tight corner makes the world appear threatening, and we believe the threat our mind imagines is real. But it isn't real; it's the mind making up emergencies that the primitive brain assumes must be happening simply because you imagined it. The primitive brain possesses the intelligence of a two-year old, and when it senses any kind of danger, real or imagined, it sets off a fight, flight, or freeze reaction.

For the last 500 years, we've been quoting the great French statesman Michel de Montaigne, who said, "My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened." There's now a study to back up Montaigne. This study found that 85 percent of what we worry about never happens, and that the 15 percent that does happen turns out better than we expect. We laugh at Montaigne's comment because we see ourselves in it, but we often miss the message.

So here's the message: most of our stress is a form of mental suffering we inflict on ourselves by believing thoughts that aren't even true.

I knew a lawyer who was in litigation over a dispute between two large corporations. There was a lot at stake and this lawyer, who I'll call William, thought he was losing the case. He blamed it on the opposing litigator, who he described as unscrupulous and crooked. William was stressed about the case and he was becoming increasingly difficult for his legal team to work with. He was taking the case home at night. He thought about it incessantly, lost sleep over it, and as his stress level increased, he began to lose his edge and make bad decisions. By the time I ran into him he was exhausted.

Biologically, where there's stress, there's fear, so I asked William, "What are you afraid of?"

"Losing the case, of course," he said glaring at me as if I'd asked a stupid question.

"And if you lose the case, what are you afraid of?" I asked.

"Looking like a fool," he said nervously.

"And what's the fear of looking like a fool?" I asked.

"I'll lose my reputation," he said, and I could see terror flash in his eyes.

"So what's the fear of losing your reputation?"

"Well ... I'll lose my clients ... and my job ... and my livelihood." All at once, he looked like a deer caught in headlights. When I asked him what he was feeling, he said, "I see myself pushing a shopping cart down Main Street."

You can see in his last statement how far the mind can travel when we are afraid and really stressed. This was the story running in the back of William's mind, and the more stressed he became the more he believed the story.

So, I asked William, "Have you lost the case yet?"

"No," he said, "it's still on-going."

"Any chance you might turn things around and win?" I asked.

"Well, yes," he said. "I suppose there's an outside chance. You never know what a jury might do."

Next I asked, "Do you really think people see you as a fool?"

"No," he said somewhat self-consciously. "People respect me."

"If you lose this case will you really be in jeopardy of losing your clients?"

"No, it's not very likely," he said. "Everyone knows you win some, you lose some." He began to breathe easier and the lines on his forehead began to relax.

"Will you really be asked to leave the firm if you lose the case?"

"No," he laughed. "They're making me a partner." It was the first he'd smiled in some time.

"So," I said, "It's safe to say that you won't be pushing a shopping cart down Main Street any time soon, right?"

"Right," he laughed.

So I asked William: "Who would you be without these fearful thoughts?"

"I'd be calm," he said. "My mind would be clear. I'd sleep better. My decision-making would be a lot smarter. And I'd be nicer to my team."

This had a happy ending: When William went back to work on the case, he was at the top of his game. He wasn't undermining himself with stress-provoking thoughts.

A better life is as near to us as our own thoughts. In the last twenty years, biology has established that the vast biochemical environment that constitutes our brain and body is shaped by our mental state. So, become keenly aware of stress-provoking thoughts and tell yourself, these thoughts are in me, not in reality. Then choose not to believe them. If you don't believe a stressful thought, it doesn't turn into stress and anxiety. The ticket to the health, wealth, and love we seek is cultivating a mental state that every day brings a little more peace into our experience, a little more empathy into our heart, and a little more gratitude into our attitude. This is how the door swings open to a better life.

Best time to go to bed? Hmm.

Thank you Markham Heid for this interesting article.  I'm all about learning about sleep these days. -- Dr. Dale

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You Asked: What’s the Best Bedtime?

http://time.com/3183183/you-asked-whats-the-ideal-time-to-go-to-sleep/

The earlier the better? 11 PM? Sundown? Sleep experts say it’s not that simple. But there is a time range you should shoot for if you’re questing for a perfect night’s sleep

Every hour of sleep before midnight is worth two after midnight. Your grandparents (and great grandparents) probably adhered to that creaky adage. “The mythology is unfortunate, because there’s no pumpkin-like magic that occurs,” says Dr. Matt Walker, head of the Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. And while nothing special happens to you or the quality of your sleep at the stroke of midnight, many do wonder: What’s the best time to go to bed?

Walker says your sleep quality does change as the night wears on. “The time of night when you sleep makes a significant difference in terms of the structure and quality of your sleep,” he explains. Your slumber is composed of a series of 90-minute cycles during which your brain moves from deep, non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep to REM sleep. “That 90-minute cycle is fairly stable throughout the night,” Walker explains. “But the ratio of non-REM to REM sleep changes.”

He says that non-REM sleep tends to dominate your slumber cycles in the early part of the night. But as the clock creeps toward daybreak, REM sleep muscles in. That’s significant, because some research has suggested that non-REM sleep is deeper and more restorative than lighter, dream-infused REM sleep—though Walker says both offer important benefits.

What does this have to do with the perfect bedtime? The shift from non-REM to REM sleep happens at certain times of the night regardless of when you go to bed, Walker says. So if you hit the sack very late—at, say, 3 AM—your sleep will tilt toward lighter, REM-heavy sleep. And that reduction in deep, restorative sleep may leave you groggy and blunt-minded the next day.

That’s unfortunate news for nightshift workers, bartenders, and others with unconventional sleep-wake routines, because they can’t sleep efficiently at odd hours of the day or night, Walker says. “The idea that you can learn to work at night and sleep during the day—you just can’t do that and be at your best.” Your brain and body’s circadian rhythms—which regulate everything from your sleeping patterns to your energy and hunger levels—tell your brain what kind of slumber to crave. And no matter how hard you try to reset or reschedule your circadian rhythms when it comes to bedtime, there’s just not much wiggle room. “These cycles have been established for hundreds of thousands of years,” Walker explains. “Thirty or 40 years of professional life aren’t going to change them.”

When it comes to bedtime, he says there’s a window of a several hours—roughly between 8 PM and 12 AM—during which your brain and body have the opportunity to get all the non-REM and REM shuteye they need to function optimally. And, believe it or not, your genetic makeup dictates whether you’re more comfortable going to bed earlier or later within that rough 8-to-midnight window, says Dr. Allison Siebern, associate director of the Insomnia & Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program at Stanford University.

“For people who are night owls, going to bed very early goes against their physiology,” Siebern explains. The same is true for “morning larks” who try to stay up late. For either type of person—as well as for the vast majority of sleepers who fall somewhere in between—the best bedtime is the hour of the evening when they feel most sleepy.

That means night owls shouldn’t try to force themselves to bed at 9 or 10 if they’re not tired. Of course, your work schedule or family life may dictate when you have to get up in the morning. But if you can find a way to match your sleep schedule to your biology—and get a full eight hours of Z’s—you’ll be better off, she adds.

Both she and Walker say your ideal bedtime will also change as you age. While small children tend to be most tired early in the evening, the opposite is true for college-aged adults who may be more comfortable going to bed around or after midnight. Beyond college, your best bedtime will likely creep earlier and earlier as you age, Walker says. And again, all of this is set by your biology.

Siebern suggests experimenting with different bedtimes and using sleepiness as your barometer for a best fit. Just make sure you’re rising at roughly the same time every morning—weekdays or weekends. It’s fine to sleep an extra hour on your days off. But if you’re getting up at 6:30 during the workweek and sleeping until 10 on weekends, you’re going to throw off your sleep rhythms and make bedtime more challenging, she says.