Health & Life Magazine March 2017

HEALTH IN QATAR
doctor about a suitable treatment for you.
Counselling, anti-depressants, talking
therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy
can all help relieve your symptoms and help
you towards healthier sleeping patterns.
Insomnia and Substance Dependence:
Using alcohol to help you sleep carries
with it many health risks, including
adverse effects on your health. As does
the regular use of sleeping pills. Those
addicted to alcohol suffer from severe
insomnia in the event of alcohol’s
unavailability before going to sleep.
Sleeping pills taken with alcohol to treat
insomnia can lead to death. If you are
concerned about this, speak to your doctor.
Circadian Rhythm (Body Clock)
Disorders:
Your body runs like a well-timed clock.
The Circadian Rhythm runs your internal
body clock, which regulates hormone
production, cell regeneration and other
biological functions over the course of 24
hours. When this is disrupted, because
of insomnia or poor sleeping habits, it
can have serious repercussions on health.
People with irregular sleeping patterns,
due to social or professional duties,
can suffer from a disrupted circadian
clock. This can also happen with travel,
for example moving from the eastern
hemisphere to the western hemisphere—
which is why jet lag can be so difficult to
deal with. If you suffer from insomnia,
your circadian rhythm will be disrupted.
Treatment for Circadian Rhythm
Disorders:
Treatment depends on the underlying
cause of the disorder, but generally
involves a combination of sleep hygiene
and lifestyle changes to return to a more
regular sleep routine.
What are the stages of sleep?
Researchers have identified the various
phases of sleep by measuring the brain’s
intermittent electric waves during sleep.
Sleep phases last about two hours each.
The first phase is falling asleep—the
eyeballs move upwards. The second phase
is slow-wave sleep—hearing and muscles
become relaxed. The third phase is Rapid
Eye Movement (REM) sleep—this stage is
a coma-like state, in which dreams occur.
The fourth phase is medium-active and
usually leads to waking up.
Modern studies have shown that sleep
deprivation for any reason leads to severe
behavior disorders and brain atrophy.
Chronic lack of sleep leads to fatigue,
irritability, high blood pressure and heart
attacks, and reduces the body’s immunity.
Why do some people wake up feeling
tired in the morning even after a long
night’s sleep?
Some active people can wake up every
morning at about the same time, without
the use of an alarm clock. While others use
the alarm clock to wake up and feel tired
for an hour or more after waking. Or you
might wake up feeling energized, decide
to hit the snooze button, and feel tired the
next time the alarm goes off.
This is because of the nature of sleep.
During the night, you pass through several
stages of sleep: light sleep, from which
you can easily wake up; deep sleep, which
is difficult to wake up from; and then the
dream stage. When your biological alarm
clock wakes you up naturally during the
light stages of sleep, you feel energetic
when you wake up. But the traditional
alarm clock is simply set to a specific time
that doesn’t take into account what stage
of sleep you find yourself in. If your alarm
clock goes off during a deep sleep phase,
you will feel tired when you wake up.
In practice, most people spend most
time in the deep sleep phase in the first
three hours of nocturnal sleep. Therefore,
to avoid feeling sluggish during the day
and struggling to wake up, it is important
to get to sleep early and not to be
subjected to physical or mental effort for
two hours before bedtime, like working on
the computer.
Do you have any tips for our readers for
a healthy, restorative and comfortable
sleep?
+ Go to bed at the same time every night.
+ Have a light meal in the evening. A
big meal can be heavy on the stomach
and disrupt sleep. It also presses
on the diaphragm, which can cause
nightmares.
+ Avoid stimulants such as tea, coffee,
cola and energy drinks, as they are
enemies of sleep. If you are sensitive to
caffeine, do not consume it after 2 pm,
if you are less sensitive, simply avoid it
after 5 pm.
+ Make sure you exercise in the morning
or earlier in the day, because working
out at night can stimulate the body and
make it harder to fall asleep.
+ Create a quiet and relaxed atmosphere
in your bedroom.
+ Relax in a warm bath with calming
essential oils like lavender.
+ Read a good book.
+ Drink herbal tea like chamomile.
+ Avoid sleeping in light because that
accelerates the aging process and
inhibits the secretion of melatonin,
which is essential for comfort and
tranquility.
+ Do not think about disturbing things
while you are in bed. Avoid worrying
or feeling tense. Relax and forget the
world’s problems.
+ Smartphones and tablets produce blue
light which has been shown to disrupt
sleep. If you have an Apple product,
switch it to Night Mode, alternatively
you can download the Flux app, which
removes the blue light from your screen
past a certain time of night.
Still can’t sleep?
Why not give meditation a try?
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HEALTH AND LIFE