Sleep Therapy

The first step in stress management is getting a good night's sleep, every night.

The goal of sleep therapy is maximizing the benefits attainable from sleep, both as to the duration and quality of sleep. Sleep duration refers to the total number of hours slept each night, while quality of sleep refers to the degree to which one awakens in the morning feeling energized and fully refreshed.

Little is known of the functions, purposes, and mechanisms of sleep, despite the best efforts of scientists. Nevertheless, the importance of sleep to good health should never be underestimated.

As a practical matter, there are only two stages of sleep that any health conscious individual needs to be concerned about: REM (Rapid eye movement sleep) and NREM (Non-rapid eye movement sleep). These two different cycles of sleep, REM and NREM, repeat in normal individuals three or four times a night.

There are a number of different scientific classification systems used to describe the different stages of sleep. The most commonly referred to sleep classification system on the Internet refers to four different stages of NREM sleep (i.e., stages 1 through 4), plus REM sleep is actually out of date.

How To Get A Good Nights Sleep

NREM (Non-Rapid Eye Movement Sleep)

This refers to stages to 1 through 4 of sleep during which there is relatively little dreaming.

SWS (Slow-Wave Sleep)

This stage of sleep refers to deep sleep or the stage where it is the hardest to wake someone up.

REM - Rapid Eye Movement Sleep

This stage of sleep has the highest association to dreaming. In addition, this stage accounts for around 25% of the total sleep time experienced by most normal human adults.

Brain Waves

An EEG (Electroencephalography) is a way of measuring brain wave activity during sleep. Some people are of the opinion that playing special CD music containing just these specific sound frequencies can induce the stage of sleep most associated with these respective brain waves.

Alpha waves - frequency of 8–13 Hz (awaken state - relaxation)
Beta waves - frequency of 12-30 Hz (awaken state - active thinking)
Delta waves - frequency of 0.5-2 Hz (deep, or slow-wave sleep)
Theta waves - frequency of 4–7 Hz (first stage of sleep)

Sleep Strategies

The goal of sleep therapy is to sleep soundly through the entire night without interruption, and awake each morning feeling fully restored and refreshed. As found in a study on https://www.cavalcadeproductions.com/ambien-online.html, regulated use of Ambien can produce wonderful results. The study also saw that patients functioned and performed better when they were paired with the perfect dose of Ambien. For patients who are thinking of switching to Ambien, please consult your doctor to find what works best for you.

Create a to-do list, one hour before going to bed.
Sleep the entire night with as little disruption as possible. For the older adult, that means cutting back on drinking a lot of fluids at around 6 in the evening.
Follow the suggested body clock of normal light–dark cycle patterns.

Start each day in bright light.
Avoid bright lights from evening on.
Try dimming light levels during the evening in preparation for sleep.
Sleep in a dark room reserved exclusively for sleeping.
Do NOT turn the light on during bathroom breaks, or use a very low wattage of red light in your bedroom.
Working graveyard and shift work is extremely bad for your health, and thus should be be avoided whenever possible.

Increase body temperature with blankets during the warm months, and an electric blanket during the cooler months.
Perform intense physical exercise from early to mid afternoon.
Eat a snack of carbohydrates, such as a slice of apple pie, an hour before bedtime.

Functions of Sleep

Dreaming – trying to remember your dreams can be counter productive to getting a good night’s sleep
Growth and the release of human growth hormone
Memory retention
Release of melatonin
Restoration or body repair and recovery from illness and headaches

Sleep Therapy Comments:

References:

Overview of sleep & sleep disorders. Chokroverty S.
Indian J Med Res. 2010 Feb;131:126-40. Review.
PMID: 20308738
Sleep disorders in the older adult - a mini-review. Neikrug AB, Ancoli-Israel S.
Gerontology. 2010;56(2):181-9. Epub 2009 Sep 9. Review.
PMID: 19738366
Sleep and Aging:

Sleep and aging: 1. Sleep disorders commonly found in older people. Wolkove N, Elkholy O, Baltzan M, ...
CMAJ. 2007 Apr 24;176(9):1299-304. Review.
PMID: 17452665
Sleep and aging: 2. Management of sleep disorders in older people. Wolkove N, Elkholy O, Baltzan M, ...
CMAJ. 2007 May 8;176(10):1449-54. Review.
PMID: 17485699