I Just
Want a Good Night’s Sleep!
5 Strategies for Better Sleep at
Midlife.
By Nina
Price
Copyright 2011 Nina Price
Smashwords Edition
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Table of Contents
Typical Midlife Sleep Struggles
How Much Sleep Do I Really Need?
Men and Women and Midlife Sleep
How Lack of Sleep Can Lead to Insulin Resistance
Sleeping Six Hours or Fewer on a Regular Basis = Higher Risk of Cancer
1.
Nourish yourself to promote health and sleep.
2.
Lower the impact of daily stressors through exercise and
relaxation
3.
Create an irresistible, sleep-inducing bedroom environment.
4.
Develop a routine before bedtime that promotes the deepest
slumber.
5.
Take herbs and supplements to support the best sleep.
Sleep: A Reflection of Your Heart and Your Mind
What Happened to Greg, Susan and Rob
Introduction
Just can't fall asleep?
Or is your sleep constantly interrupted?
Or do you wake up after 8 hours of sleep or more, feeling unrefreshed?
In my practice as an herbalist and acupuncturist I see such problems all the time. We all deserve a good night’s sleep, but this fundamental respite can become torturous at midlife.
Midlife in Dreamland -- It Ain't the Way It Used to Be
I work with people dealing with the midlife changes that affect their bodies, their minds, their relationships, and even their spirits. In midlife we find ourselves trying to live the way we always have, but not getting the same results. For example, this is the complaint I hear so often from people who are working hard and are very stressed:
“I used to sleep so well, but these days I don’t seem to be able to. It’s infuriating. I’m exhausted, have no energy, can’t concentrate and I’m so irritable. I just need a good night’s sleep!”
Typical Midlife Sleep Struggles
Let’s look at three typical examples of midlife people struggling with sleep:
1. Trouble Going to Sleep
Greg is an engineering executive at a hot Silicon Valley start up company. When he arrived at my office the first time, his need for sleep was at the top of his list. Most importantly he wanted to sleep better. Each night as he went to bed, he found that he couldn’t turn his thoughts off. His mind was racing, reviewing all the projects he was responsible for and all the problems his team was facing. Then there was the new house his family had just moved into and all the financial issues entailed in a new home and mortgage.
2. Trouble Staying Asleep
Susan is an attorney in a very busy, successful practice. Recently she was waking up in the middle of every night soaking wet due to night sweats. Her heart would be pounding, and her mind was wide awake. Even once she’d changed her clothes and was feeling more comfortable, she couldn’t get back to sleep. Like most women who’ve experienced this, she wanted it to stop.
3. Not Enough Refreshing Sleep
Rob gets plenty of hours of sleep each night. He goes to bed early to be sure that he gets at least eight hours of sleep. But when he wakes up in the morning, he just doesn’t feel refreshed. He feels tired, he is slow to get started and he doesn’t feel up to doing his best work. Often when he’s at work he’s out of energy, can’t concentrate, or can’t perform on the job the way he’d like to.
Peter Hauri and Shirley Linde in "No More Sleepless Nights" estimate that more than 100 million Americans (almost 30% of our population) have occasional sleep problems. About a third of these have some form of chronic insomnia. Over 10 million of these people suffer enough to see their doctors and spend millions of dollars on the tranquilizers, sedatives and sleeping pills their physicians prescribe them.
How This Book Can Help You
This book is designed to give you plenty of information about sleep and do-it-yourself techniques for achieving more restful and enduring sleep.
In my practice I draw on wisdom from both Western and Eastern medicine and I apply them as I treat my clients.
Here is my prescription or “Midlife Sleep Formula.” On the surface it may look like a lot of what you already know, but as you dig in deeper you’ll find plenty of new insights and things you’ll want to try. When people I’ve worked with use this sleep formula, they've seen amazing reversals and I'd like to share some of them with you. Here is the shortlist of my five-point formula. Later on we will examine these issues in more detail.
The Midlife Sleep Formula:
1. Nourish yourself to promote health and sleep.
What and when you eat do matter.
2. Lower the impact of daily stressors through exercise and relaxation
Minimizing the effects of stress on your body, mind and spirit are more important during midlife than ever before.
3. Create an irresistible, sleep-inducing bedroom environment.
Design the most perfect and inviting bedroom for you.
4. Develop a routine before bedtime that promotes the deepest slumber.
What you do during the day and before bed do make a difference to the quality and quantity of your sleep.
5. Take herbs and supplements to support the best sleep.
To complement everything else you’re doing, you may want to use non-pharmaceuticals to assist you in going to sleep, staying asleep or having more refreshing sleep.
Before we go into the specifics of The Midlife Sleep Formula, let’s examine the mechanics and physiology of sleep.
Why We Need Sleep
Sleep is observed in mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. And yet homo sapiens is the only animal known to curtail, interrupt or otherwise disturb his normal sleep cycles deliberately. Whereas a bear sleeps until his inner clock rouses him, men and women will shorten their sleep based on external criteria – a business meeting or medical appointment, family demands, a gripping novel that transfixes or a movie too exciting to turn off.
It is a common misperception that less sleep is the sign of a more productive person, or that as we age, we need less.
I have to admit that in the past I have bought into this way of thinking and neglected my sleep. Instead of trying to live 16 hour days, I tried to cram even more life in by cutting my sleep – to get more done. After all, when you’re asleep, you’re not getting anything done.
I discovered that my sleep pattern was very much like New York Times writer Jane Brody’s. Read her recent article “A Good Night’s Sleep Isn’t a Luxury; It’s a Necessity”.
I have fallen asleep at movies, performances and even social gatherings. Occasionally this has been embarrassing. Although my friends, classmates and family who have had to elbow me awake find it both amusing and occasionally annoying.
I have been lucky. At least, while I cheated myself on rest, I have not dozed while driving, although unfortunately many do.
While the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration allows that it is difficult to attribute crashes to drowsiness, the agency estimates that as many as 100,000 crashes are due to driver fatigue each year. The NHTSA further projects that these crashes cause an estimated 1,550 deaths, 71,000 people injured, and $12.5 billion in economic losses. And these are just guesses. Who knows the full picture?
Cutting back on slumber is also a danger to those who work under hazardous conditions or with machinery. Or to innocent people who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
These days I can see how precious my “zzzzs” are and I want to be sure that I get as much sleep as I need. It turns out that in midlife we tend to need more rather than less sleep. In fact sopor -- the Latin term for deep slumber -- is vital to our health and happiness at midlife. Getting more deep, nourishing sleep is what most of our midlife bodies badly need, so let’s learn to do that.