“Healthy Dreams”
From Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Brent Pyfrom/All Hands Magazine

Let’s talk about sleep. Did you know that 30% of American adults sleep less than seven hours per night? Or, that humans spend an average of six years of their life dreaming? These two facts are according to vitalistics.com. Getting sufficient sleep is one of the best things you can do for your health and safety. If you don’t sleep much, it can cause many health problems and immediate performance impairments, creating a particularly dangerous environment aboard ships or aircrafts.

“Sleep is one of those things we have a love-hate relationship with, but we want to do more,” said Cmdr. Rachel Lee, Chief, Allergy, Immunology & Immunizations at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. “We think we don’t need that much sleep, we can get more done, and we can go work out and do all these different things, but sleep is important to your health and immune system--even for vaccinations. It’s a key part of being healthy.”

On average, most adults need 7-9 hours of sleep, with kids needing even more, according to Lee. Quality is just as important as total duration, and good quality sleep could be characterized by less tossing, turning, or waking up. Overall, you want to cycle through all the different stages of sleep, which each have distinct functions and are necessary in order to fully benefit from this incredibly important function.

“When you’re sleeping, white blood cells and antibodies all work so much better,” said Lee. “If you’re not sleeping well, then your body can’t make enough of those things that fight off infection. A lot of health conditions have been associated with lack of sleep.”

Lee is an immunologist and has seen how lack of sleep can affect the body, allergies, and even mental health. One famous method of torture consists of keeping someone awake by annoying means such as loud noise and music and extreme lighting.

“When your body is stressed, not sleeping is a huge physical stressor,” explained Lee. “In time, not sleeping can damage your cortisol, which then damages your immune system. Even allergic reactions can be worsened by chronic stress. When you sleep, your body recovers. It’s like a little rejuvenating psychology and physical therapy session all in one.”

Have you ever said one of the two following statements? “I’ve gotten too much sleep” or “I’ve trained my body, so I don’t need a lot of sleep to function well.” Those are myths. Once your body is rested, you really can’t sleep more; and, when you don’t get enough sleep, you subconsciously find ways to keep it going.

Lee expressed that when people get less sleep than required, they usually find themselves making up for it on the weekends (or when they’re off), trying to sleep as much as possible.

“We all want to be special but most of us are not rare in that aspect,” said Lee. “People think they don’t need sleep, yet they drink all the caffeinated drinks or make up those lost hours by staying in bed longer than they should. These kinds of practices regularly just aren’t good for you. Teenagers push that limit, and they are going through a lot of physical and biological changes.”

Speaking of teenagers, Dr. Gena Glickman, a neuroscientist and chronobiologist by training and assistant professor in the departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Uniformed Services University, says the biological process teenagers go through tend to make them more night owls, so that cuts their total sleep time down when they should be getting 9-10 hours per night. She said this natural process sometimes unfairly gives teens a bad reputation for being lazy.

Dr. Glickman studies circadian rhythms and the biological effects of light. She emphasized the value and benefits of this (generally) nighttime ritual: “Sleep is so important! The main thing people need to do is prioritize it. That’s one of the hardest things to overcome, especially for service members,” said Glickman. “But, it’s important to remember that you can use sleep as a tool. It’ll help you perform optimally; it’ll help you fight off infections, and it’ll help you maintain good overall health.”

The circadian system is one of the primary regulators of sleep. We have internal clocks that help us synchronize the timing of numerous physiological functions, including our sleep. According to studies, there is a qualitative difference between daytime sleep and nighttime sleep. Glickman elaborates that if you’re a shift worker, the best thing you can do to get better sleep is to try to align your preferred sleep times with your circadian clock.

“As soon as you wake up, you want to send a signal to your brain that it’s daytime, and that’s best done with light,” explained Glickman. “If you can get out and get natural sunlight during your day, that’s ideal, but bright electrical lighting that has a lot of short-wavelength energy in it can achieve the same thing. In contrast, when you want to sleep, try to make your surrounding environment dark, quiet and cool.”

She added that eye masks and dark-out curtains are easy ways to keep light out of your eyes and don’t forget to turn off your screens!

According to Glickman, to get good quality sleep, only caffeinate early in your day, try not to work out too close to bedtime, limit exposure to your smartphone and computer screens before bed, and try to wind down from anything that may stimulate your mind and body so that you can rest soundly. Alcohol is a depressant, so though it may help you fall asleep, it also shortchanges the activities the brain is doing while you sleep, so try to limit those cocktails just before bed.

“It’s simple when you think about it. Generally, you should do everything that’s alerting and stimulating during your day, and you want to minimize those same things during the times just before and during sleep,” said Glickman. “Also, keeping regular sleep and wake times, even on your off days, will help optimize sleep and circadian health. This is especially hard but also important for those working nonstandard schedules.”

The quote is “mother knows best” so thank her for always telling you to “go to bed.”