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Major Reasons Why You May NOT Be Getting a Good Night’s Sleep |
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By the time you’ve reached puberty, your personal sleep pattern is set. When you are aging gracefully, leading an active and involved life, you are much better able to preserve the pattern of restorative sleep you had when you were 12. What begins to change as you get older, however, is not your need for a good night’s sleep but rather your ability to get a good night’s sleep on a regular basis. This can be brought about by a variety of causes. Restless Leg Syndrome, depression, and anxiety are often the underlying concerns that result in poor sleep in most middle-aged adults. These problems have to be addressed with your physician, and once a treatment program is started, the temporary insomnia you are suffering often clears up fairly rapidly. |
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The fragmented, disturbed sleep of middle-aged adults can also be the result of sleep apnea, the most dangerous sleep disturbance, or narcolepsy. Sleep problems can also be caused by the use of sleep medications.When people have trouble sleeping, they often begin to self-medicate, and indiscriminately use over-the-counter and prescription sleep medications—more than $1 billion is spent each year on these items. Sleeping pills—both over-the-counter medications, which contain antihistamines and more powerful prescription drugs—have a definite role in restoring your sleep, but when improperly used, the medication will often disrupt your sleep patterns and can actually harm your sleep. |
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A Sleep Debt Is the Worst Type of Debt to Have |
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If you sleep poorly several nights a week and don’t meet your genetic requirement of five, seven, or eight hours per night, you can quickly accumulate a dangerous sleep debt. Stay up late working on a report and only get six hours when your body requires nine, and you now have a three-hour deficit. Repeat this again the next night or several times during the week, and your sleep debt begins to mount. This is neither good for your health nor your longevity. |
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How Much Sleep Do We Need? Dr. Pillar |
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