Sleep Doctor Michael Breus, PhD | The Insomnia Blog

Sleep Loss, Brain Loss

2010-02-09T15:31:15-08:00

A mind is a terrible thing to waste, as the old adage goes. But so is sleep.

Last week a new study emerged indicating that chronic insomnia may be doing more damage to your brain than you ever thought: it could be associated with a wasting away of its gray matter.

The area in question is known as a “stress sensitive” region, which involves memory formation. And the scientists who headed up this latest study out of the Netherlands have shown that insomnia patients have lower grey matter density in the brain regions that helps us to evaluate pleasant stimuli (i.e., that which helps us get to sleep!), as well as in regions related to the brain’s “resting state” (i.e., sleep!).

The people most at risk for smaller brain volume? Not surprisingly, people:

Under chronic and severely stressful situations.
Depressed or those with post-traumatic stress disorder.
With psychiatric disorders.

These circumstances are not all that unusual now that stress is very much a part of everyone’s daily life. Psychiatric disorders may be rare, but unrelenting stress is not. These researchers noted smaller gray matter in people with chronic insomnia who were otherwise psychiatrically healthy!

Since this is an early study, we also must ask the question: Which came first? The smaller grey matter causing/influencing the insomnia, or the insomnia causing/influencing the grey matter. Only time will tell, as I am sure this is another study to be done.

The lesson: if you suffer from insomnia, get help in finding out its root cause. Chronic insomnia will wreak havoc on much more than your brain.

The brain is not something you want to lose over lack of sleep. And it’s not something you can get back easily once it’s gone.

Like I said, a mind (quite literally, the brain) is a terrible thing to waste.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/thesleepdoctor

Click here to see Dr. Breus's list of recommended sleep products. Click here to order his book, Beauty Sleep, on Amazon or Kindle, or here to buy it for the Barnes & Noble Nook.

Would You Like Us to Send in a Human Bed Warmer?

2010-02-02T09:49:32-08:00

Imagine checking into a hotel, and instead of the front desk telling you about their bed-turning-down routine in the evening (with the chocolates gingerly placed on propped pillows), they tell you about a new amenity: human bed warmers. As in, they send someone dressed in a special all-in-one sleeper suit to curl up in your bed for five minutes to heat the sheets up.

Sound absurd? Well, it’s not. Starting at the end of January, the U.K.’s Holiday Inns in London and Manchester will test out this program in an attempt to outshine others in the crowded hotel industry.

Granted, there’s nothing like getting into a warm bed. A cool bedroom combined with a warm bed is the perfect recipe for dozing off to a good night’s sleep as the body’s temperature takes a dip. But I wonder if there are other ways to stand out without resorting to this weird, human-required strategy? How about:

A smart phone application that lets you control your bed’s temperature or alert the front desk when to turn on the electric blanket.
A sterile, non-human device that can be used to warm up the bed quickly when placed on top of it (note: no need to soil the actual sheets), like a big heated brick.
More amenities elsewhere: a swankier bathroom, free wi-fi, more TV channels, a plusher mattress and blankets, etc.

I mean, really, who wants to get into a fresh bed that’s already been used, albeit briefly, by a stranger? What if that person has a cold coming on and sneezes into your sheets and pillow when “incubating” your bed?

This is something for which the consumer electronics industry and sleep industry should combine forces. There must be a gadget that can do the same thing and give hotel guests more peace of mind. Besides, what if you run into your human bed warmer on your way back to your room (who happens to be chatty) and you just don’t feel like engaging in conversation? Maybe it is just me but this feels a little weird.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/thesleepdoctor

Click here to see Dr. Breus's list of recommended sleep products. Click here to order his book, Beauty Sleep, on Amazon or Kindle, or here to buy it for the Barnes & Noble Nook.

Social Media NOT Causing Sleep Problems?

2010-01-29T10:18:38-08:00

I don’t believe it.

A new study says the amount of time spent on social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn doesn’t affect how much sleep college students get each night.

Like I said, I’m very skeptical of this study, though I should note that it wasn’t done on American students.

The very next day, I read about another study—this one done on US soil by the Kaiser Family Foundation—that states plainly how connected our kids are these days. Check out the following facts:

Those ages 8 to 18 spend more than seven and a half hours a day with such devices, compared with less than six and a half hours five years ago. (This doesn’t count the hour and a half that youths spend texting, or the half-hour they talk on their cellphones!)
Multitasking (ahem, texting while listening to music and watching TV) allows youths to pack on average nearly 11 hours of media content into that seven and a half hours.
The heaviest media users were more likely than the lightest users to report that they were bored or sad, or that they got into trouble, did not get along well with their parents and were not happy at school. They also didn’t score as well on their report cards.
More than 7 in 10 youths have a TV in their bedroom, and about a third have a computer with Internet access in their bedroom.

A problem? Social media is here to stay. But that doesn’t mean that parents can’t take back the power and instill good habits in their kids when it comes to using social media responsibly. There have been plenty of other studies done to support the idea that all these digital distraction do, in fact, interfere with a good night’s sleep.

So with all this in mind, I hope that parents increasingly consider establishing better ground rules at home. Think about setting “curfews” for electronic usage in the Power Down Hour before bedtime. This includes television, computer, cell phones, iPods, and portable players like DVDs. Your teenager might not like it, but his or her mind and body (and bed!) will.

And if social media truly doesn’t affect how much our kids sleep at night, then I want more proof of that—at least when it comes to our over-stimulated and often privileged American children.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/thesleepdoctor

Click here to see Dr. Breus's list of recommended sleep products. Click here to order his book, Beauty Sleep, on Amazon or Kindle, or here to buy it for the Barnes & Noble Nook.