The How & Why of Sleep is a field of medicine that is being increasingly emphasized.

A study published in the  Biological Psychiatry September 15, 2008 reports  "sleep disturbance is associated with inflammation and related disorders including cardiovascular disease, arthritis and diabetes mellitus."

 

Sleep has a direct relationship to physical and mental health

Basic science of 21st century biosynthetic protein production .. hormone & vaccine production.

  • Deprive a person of proper sleep & physical symptoms invariably develop.

    • Research at Harvard University Medical School has identified links between the lack of proper sleep and assorted medical conditions ranging from cardiac conditions to cancer.

  • Proper sleep is now recognized as a physical necessity.

  • Sleep works as a restorative function for the brain and body.

    • It is thought that deep sleep allows for a period of brain chemical / neurotransmitter replenishment.  Are we smarter in the morning?

  • Lack of proper sleep can be responsible for an assortment of medical conditions.

& healthy sleep is comprised of 90 minute sleep cycles.  Each 90 minute cycle  consisting of the 5 stages of sleep.

 

Narcotic / prescription sleep meds are detrimental to proper sleep.

Appropriate exercise, proper rest & planned nutrition ( intelligent lifestyle? )

are required for personal optimization

University of Chicago Researchers found that the first stage of age-related deterioration of sleep quality in men occurs between the ages of 25 and 45.

  • They found that the proportion of deep sleep drops from nearly 20% of a normal night's sleep for men under 25 to less than 5% for those over 35.

  • By age 45, few men spend much time in deep sleep.

  • Our ability to sleep, rather than our need for sleep,  decreases as we enter middle age.

  • Melatonin produced by the pineal gland is involved in our sleep cycle.  Melatonin is another natural hormone whose production decreases as we mature.

 

Factors involved in poor quality sleep include:

Aging effects our sleep.  We wake up more often through the night and sleep less deeply. 

Proper sleep is very important for health.  GABA is a neuro-transmitter involved in REM Sleep /  dream state. Enjoy vivid dreams with GABA    (When was the last time you had a vivid dream?)

Brain scans during sleep have allowed researchers to actually see brain activity patterns during the stages of sleep.

The 5 Stages of Sleep.

There are 5 stages of sleep that SHOULD cycle through 5 or 6 times throughout the night.  Proper restful sleep will cycle through these 5 stages of sleep every 90 minutes throughout the night.

  1. This 1st stage is characterized by a drowsy feeling rather than 'sleep'.   It is definitely an integral part of the sleep process.

  2. In the second stage of sleep ones awareness of the external environment slips away.
  3. Stage Three is a transition into Stage 4's delta deep sleep. 
  4. Stage Four Delta Sleep is deep sleep, it is difficult to quickly awaken from Delta sleep. 
  5. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, associated with dreaming.  REM sleep is most prevalent in the final third of a sleep period.

Proper sleep equipment is essential .. you should spend 1/3 your life sleeping.. show sleep the respect it deserves

University of Chicago Researchers found that the first stage of age-related deterioration of sleep quality in men occurs between the ages of 25 and 45

  • They're sleeping as long as younger men, but they're spending less time in restorative deep sleep, the scientists write in the Journal of the American Medical Association

  • The scientists studied 149 healthy men ages 16 to 83.

  • Sleeping less deeply doesn't just mean that thirty something men might be more likely to be awakened by street noise outside the window. (This study did not find that more frequent awakenings during the night accompanied declines in deep sleep.) 

  • It also means that their bodies are secreting less growth hormone, the study found. In recent years, studies in the elderly have linked growth hormone deficiency to increased obesity, loss of muscle mass and reduced exercise capacity.

Another University of Chicago study in 1999 by Dr. Eve Cauter limited a test group of  men to only four hours of sleep per night for 2 weeks.

  • The subjects showed decreased levels of Leptin and increased levels of Cortisol.

  • There was a measurable loss in production of the positive hormone Leptin & an increase in the negative hormone Cortisol.

  • The reduced sleep resulted in loss of the rejuvenation benefits of Delta & REM sleep.

  • Non-REM sleep rejuvenates the parts of the body damaged by metabolism and free radicals,

  • REM sleep repairs the repair center that rejuvenates the body during Delta Sleep..