How much sleep do you need for optimal health?
In this valuable interview with Dr. Joseph Mercola, Dr. Rubin Naiman, an integrative doctor who specializes in sleep and dreams – discusses this question.
Like everything else, the exact answer for each person depends on a large number of highly individual factors. The general consensus seems to be that most people need somewhere between six and eight hours of sleep each night.
There's compelling research indicating that sleeping less than six hours may increase your insulin resistance and risk of diabetes. And recent studies show that less than five hours of sleep at night can double your risk of being diagnosed with angina, coronary heart disease, heart attack or stroke. Interestingly enough, the same appears to be true when you sleep more than nine hours per night.
Dr. Naiman's recommendation is to simply sleep
"enough hours so that your energy is sustained through the day without artificial stimulation, with the exception of a daytime nap."I would add to that guideline, however, the suggestion to watch out for physical or biological symptoms.
For example, when I push myself and don't get high quality sleep or enough sleep, I'm predisposed to hypoglycemia. In other words, I have low insulin resistance so when I sleep poorly, it doesn't take much sugar or carbs for it drop my blood sugar—which also makes me really sleepy. When I get enough sleep, I'm far less susceptible to it.
Dr. Naiman also discusses this, stating that there's solid data showing the connection between insulin resistance and sleep. When participants slept three or four hours less than normal for just a couple of days in a row, they saw a dramatic spike in insulin resistance.
Insufficient Sleep Puts Your Health at Risk
"There is really interesting data," he says. "I think the data is very strong showing that if you don't sleep enough, you're in trouble."
However, it's important to differentiate between occasional lack of sleep, and a chronic pattern. Everyone loses sleep here and there, and your body is typically resilient enough to allow for that. However, when poor sleep becomes a constant, there's no question your health may be at risk.
To Nap or Not to Nap…
According to Dr. Naiman, we're actually biologically programmed to nap during the daytime, typically in the middle of the afternoon. Some European countries still adhere to the daily siesta and close shop for a couple of hours in the middle of the day when the heat is also at its most pressing. Most employers in Western countries, however, do not accommodate daily snoozing, so when the natural tendency to get drowsy sets in, you may try to alleviate it with coffee, or simply fight the urge to take a nap.
The problem is, you're now training your body to resist the urge to sleep, which can then lead to being unable to easily fall asleep at night.
There are nuances with sleep just as there are with waking. There are so many different ways of being awake, different kinds of experiences. Light sleep is fine. Being half awake and half asleep is fine. In fact, I really believe that in any moment in time during the day and at night, it's a mixed percentage. Right now, you and I are talking; we're probably 98 percent awake. I'm just making up a number. There is a restful part of us. We might say we're 2 percent asleep. Closer to bed time it might be 50/50.
What we call being sleepy is being 'part of awake, part asleep.' In the middle of the night when we get up to use the bathroom, we might be 95 percent asleep still and 5 percent awake just to find our way there. We need to allow a mix of these different forms of consciousness."
Can You Catch Up on Lost Sleep?
This is another area fraught with confusion. Can you make up for lost sleep by sleeping longer on certain days? According to Dr. Naiman: "First of all, you can't really bag sleep any more than you can bag oxygen. We just need to replenish it. If you're well slept, you'll be more resilient… If you've under slept and you throw in jetlag on top of that, it gets a lot worse. In terms of making up for sleep, it is a very common pattern in our world that people short sleep during the week and then sleep in [on the weekend]. It's considered delicious. For me, it's kind of funny. It's like starving yourself during the week and then pigging out on the weekend. It's not the best way to eat, as we know.
You can make up for some lost sleep on the weekend but here is the price: it throws off your circadian rhythm. Again, the infrastructure of our sleep is this rhythmic drum beat of day and night, of light and darkness, of sun and melatonin and so on. What most people do on the weekend is actually go to bed later and sleep in much later. You really confuse the poor brain. It's almost like shifting it to another season. It's almost like a little bit of stationary jetlag. You're yanking your circadian rhythm around. It's not something that's recommended."
Sleep Timing—Does it Matter?
A common natural health understanding is that every hour of sleep before midnight is equal to two hours after midnight. But is that true? According to Dr. Naiman, this notion is likely more metaphoric than factual.
“[R]oughly the first third to first half of sleep is when we get most of our true deep sleep," he says. "… We spend most of the first part of the night truly sleeping, most of the latter part of the night dreaming… In Chinese medicine, they say the best time to get to sleep is roughly 9:00 or 9:30 pm… roughly a couple of hours after sunset, when there have been enough melatonin raised in our brains that will naturally put us out… [But] I've never seen really hard scientific data. I've seen a lot of anecdotal experience. And there is data that suggests that there is a window of heightened opportunity for falling asleep, which can vary depending on your personal circadian rhythm."
The most important aspect of sleep timing appears to be the consistency of going to bed at the same time every night.
More Information
Dr. Naiman also has a great website, www.DrNaiman.com, where you can read more about all things sleep related. You can also find information about his lectures, which is a wonderful way to learn more about the mystery of sleep, and the most effective solutions.
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