Tuesday, June 28, 2005

sleep

When I was doing my "teacher's license" a few years ago, I did a presentation for the special ed class about the high percentage of students with serious concentration/behavior/memory/impulsivity problems. According to neurologists, there should be only 3-5% of kids with ADHD, but there are so many more who show the symptoms, characteristics.

After some reseach, it was obvious that the cause was insufficient sleep. The negative effects of insufficient sleep are identical.

read this from Dummies.com. :

Figuring Out How Much Sleep You Really Need
On your next vacation, go to bed when you feel tired, but don't set an alarm. Sleep as long as you can -- until you're "slept out." Ridding yourself of the sleep debt you've accumulated may take several days. The time you naturally start waking up tells you how much sleep you need. If you find that eight hours seems to be the average length of time you sleep on vacation, set that amount as a goal when you get home.
Sleep experts generally agree that you need eight hours of sleep a night. People who get six or less hours of sleep have a 70 percent higher mortality rate according to the California Department of Health.
Live long and live well with the help of
Fit Over 40 For Dummies, by Betsy Nagelsen McCormack with Mike Yorkey.

4 comments:

Esther said...

Sigh...... I want to sleep more but I can't. I sleep in chunks, for some reason. I always wake up around 2 or 3 am and then fall back asleep but I never feel well rested in the morning. I have those things you listed that are from sleep deprivation. This has been going on for almost 5 years and I'm miserable. But no one has any idea what to do. My memory is shot, etc. I've done drugs, working out, sleep disorder clinics, got my deviated septum fixed -- nothing has worked. :(

Batya said...

Poor thing.
Have you done diet changes? No tea, coffee, etc. You may be the type who needs a daily nap to split your daily sleep.

Refuah shleimah

Esther said...

Thanks. That's an interesting idea -- the nap. Hmm. I'll give it a try. As for cutting out caffine, I rarely if ever have any (except chocolate, which I always have), so it wasn't really on the table to give up. I do think my allergies started around the same time. Sigh... I think I'm going to go take that nap. :)

Batya said...

You may be getting "high" in terms of energy from the sugar in the chocolate, plus the caffein from the chocolate. If you're craving such a high energy food, your meal patterns may need an overhaul and/or something like B12 may be low. Once everything's balanced, there are fewer and less powerful cravings.