With summer giving way to fall and a return to school and work, our internal body clock start making its own adjustments to the shorter days, longer nights and resumed routines of a busier schedule. Just like a sensible diet and daily exercise, sound sleep is an essential component of a healthy lifestyle.
Sleep Through the Lifespan
Good sleep is important at all ages. It’s critical for brain health by facilitating learning and remembering; emotional health for stress management, decision-making and coping skills; and physical health by protecting the immune system and helping to maintain a healthy body weight.
As most of us are aware, daytime performance is dependent on good sleep. Chronic sleep deprivation can lead to decreased productivity, slowed reaction time, mistakes at work, motor vehicle accidents and other safety hazards.
What may be less widely known, however, is that sleep deficiency has been linked to more than just grogginess and lack of focus. Heart disease, kidney disease, hypertension, diabetes, strokes, anxiety, depression and other mood disorders have all been linked to poor sleep in some way or another.
[See: 7 Signs You’re Tired Other Than Yawning.]
Quantity and Quality
Many people notice changes in sleep patterns with age, both in quantity and quality. Newborns spend from 16 to 20 hours sleeping each day. Between ages 1 and 4, that amount drops to approximately 11 or 12 hours, and adolescents need about nine hours nightly to function at their best. Most adults need seven to nine hours each night, a figure that doesn’t change for the remainder of life. What does change, however, is the ability to consistently sleep for this amount of time without interruption — something that becomes increasingly more difficult. While changing circadian rhythms lead to a tendency to go to sleep earlier and wake up earlier, older adults also tend to spend less time in deeper stages of sleep, and as a result, there are increased episodes of wakefulness and insomnia.
Sleep-Disrupting Factors
Several chronic medical conditions and medications can also contribute to arousals during the night. Obstructive sleep apnea, for example, is a partial or complete obstruction of the upper airway when sleeping due to decreased muscle tone during sleep. More common in postmenopausal women, it results in multiple arousals and sleep disruptions in an attempt to bring back muscle tone to the upper airway and allow breathing to occur.
Restless legs syndrome, another common sleep disorder, is a creepy crawly sensation in the legs which worsens at night and with immobility, affects both falling and staying asleep.
Both conditions can be treated effectively with devices, medications, or in rare cases, surgery. In the case of obstructive sleep apnea, a continuous positive airway pressure machine delivers air pressure through a mask while you sleep, keeping upper airway passages open and preventing apnea and snoring.
Sleep deficiency from any cause, and especially related to sleep apnea, increases the risk of hypertension, congestive heart failure, arrhythmias and coronary artery disease.
[Read: Which Doctor Should I See for Sleep Problems?]
Healthy Habits for a Sound Snooze
For many midlife adults with multiple responsibilities, including demanding jobs, young children and aging parents, there may simply be an occasional challenge in falling or staying asleep. Although this is common during what is, for most people, the busiest time of life, there are simple strategies that can be hardwired into your daily routine to help ward off more frequent sleep disturbances. Here are a few:
— Have the same bedtime and wake time every day of the week, including weekends, and aim for an average of seven hours of sleep every night. Although some may function well with only five hours of sleep, others may require nine hours of sleep to function well during the day.
— The bed should be for sleep and sexual intercourse only. No reading, TV watching, computer, eating or using the computer or phone.
— Avoid vigorous exercise close to bedtime. Cardiovascular exercise about six hours prior to sleep may help initiate sleep but shouldn’t be done later.
— Stop eating within three hours of bedtime.
— Be wary of alcohol. While it decreases the amount of time to fall asleep, alcohol disrupts sleep in the second half of the night and causes wakefulness in many people.
— Limit caffeine use throughout the day, and do not consume any caffeine after 3 p.m.
— Naps, if needed, should be limited to only 20 to 30 minutes.
[See: 8 Steps to Fall Asleep Fast.]
When to seek professional attention:
— If you have regular difficulty sleeping, more than once a week.
— If you’re still tired or don’t feel refreshed with seven or more hours of sleep.
— If you’re snoring regularly.
— If you experience excessive sleepiness during the day.
If you experience any of these problems, talk to your doctor. He or she may recommend a sleep study done at a sleep center, which usually involves an overnight stay to monitor the quantity, quality and type of your sleep.
More from U.S. News
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How to Promote Safe Sleep for Your Infant
Can These New Devices Really Help You Sleep, Drug-Free?
The Essential Value of a Sound Snooze originally appeared on usnews.com
