Too Much Sleep or Not Enough is Unhealthy
When accessing your own health status, your sleep patterns are an important indicator of your progress. Your chronic, long term, sleep patterns is what counts. Everyone should be getting between 7 and 8 hours sleep each night.
One health research study found that both too much and too little sleep can be very unhealthy. Those who had slept less than eight hours a night had a 48% greater chance of dying from heart disease, along with a 15% greater risk of dying from a stroke.
There are plenty of other studies out there that likewise document other health risks from inadequate sleep. Too little sleep, for example, is associated with an impaired glucose tolerance, a greater risk for getting diabetes mellitus, being obese, and even a greater risk of experiencing falls and hip fractures in an elderly population.
Developing a good sleep pattern is nothing, but developing good long term sleep habits. Generally, it is best to force yourself to stay awake and NOT take a nap when suffering from a previous night's lack of sleep. If you must nap, then always set an alarm for a maximum of two hours.
Lack of Sleep is Not Healthy
For those with significant sleep problems, listening to slow music at bedtime for 45 minutes might be a long-term solution to getting a restful night's sleep. In one study, those who listened to soft, slow music experienced slower heart and respiratory rates, which apparently promotes a restful night of sleep. However, you must to stick to your music therapy for at least 3 weeks, without giving up on it.
Listening to soft music each night before bed "resulted in significantly better sleep quality in the experimental group, as well as significantly better components of sleep quality: better perceived sleep quality, longer sleep duration, greater sleep efficiency, shorter sleep latency, less sleep disturbance and less daytime dysfunction."
Music is not a quick fix for an episode of insomnia, but rather a long-term solution. Repeated listening to the same slow music creates a conditioned response. Music therapy trains your mind to associate sleep with playing slow music. Thus, playing the music subconsciously will induce sleep as a conditioned reflex. By focusing on the music, you should be able to slow your mind down and stop all your self-talk. A slow music tempo is required for better sleep quality.
References:
- Sleep
duration predicts cardiovascular outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis
of prospective studies.
Cappuccio FP, Cooper D, D'Elia L, ...
Eur Heart J. 2011 Feb 7. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 21300732 - Association
of sleep time with diabetes mellitus and impaired glucose tolerance.
Gottlieb DJ, Punjabi NM, Newman AB, ...
Arch Intern Med. 2005 Apr 25;165(8):863-7.
PMID: 15851636 - Insomnia
and hypnotic use, recorded in the minimum data set, as predictors
of falls and hip fractures in Michigan nursing homes.
Avidan AY, Fries BE, James ML, ...
J Am Geriatr Soc. 2005 Jun;53(6):955-62.
PMID: 15935017 - Overweight
and obese patients in a primary care population report less sleep
than patients with a normal body mass index.
Vorona RD, Winn MP, Babineau TW, ...
Arch Intern Med. 2005 Jan 10;165(1):25-30.
PMID: 15642870 - Music
improves sleep quality in older adults.
Lai HL, Good M.
J Adv Nurs. 2005 Feb;49(3):234-44.
PMID: 15660547
