
STORY BYFor some of us, a good night’s sleep is plain
hard to get.
The harsh reality is that you can’t make yourself go to sleep.
The harder you try, the tougher it is to get to sleep. You can’t
buy, beg or borrow those restful “40 winks” we all need.
If you toss and turn on your way to dreamland, it may give you comfort
to know that 62 percent of adult Americans suffer from some form
of sleep disorder, with insomnia the most common.
Insomnia is a symptom, not a disease. It refers to the inability
to easily get to sleep several nights a week. Most individuals can
manage insomnia without any medications by making a few simple lifestyle
changes.
Dr. Richard J. Castriotta, professor of medicine at the University
of Texas Medical School at Houston and medical director of Memorial
Hermann Hospital’s Sleep Disorder Center, offers reassurance.
“Fortunately, most insomnia management is based on common sense
and attention to ordinary details,” he says. “We don’t
really know why people need sleep,” he adds.
Most adults require 7-8 hours of sleep a night, but from 6-9 hours
is still normal. The average child requires a little more than nine
hours of sleep per night and this need extends through high school.
Unfortunately, many patients don’t bother to tell
their doctors about sleep difficulties and many physicians
do not routinely ask questions about sleep patterns.
Therefore, it is not surprising that insomnia may be undiagnosed
in older and younger individuals. Older adults often are not in sync
with society’s schedule and may go to bed at 6 p.m. and wake
up at 3 a.m. Teens often have a delayed sleep phase and may not be
ready to go to sleep until 3 a.m. and then sleep until noon.
Sleep hygiene refers to the conditions surrounding sleep that make
it either a healthy environment or a disturbing one and the sad
truth is that many of us have poor sleep hygiene.
So, plump up your pillow and follow these common-sense tips to
help you get to sleep—and stay asleep.
“We train patients to manage insomnia by controlling or correcting the problem,” explains Castriotta. “People should be able to fall asleep on their own and not be dependent on chemical substances.”
You may not be a Rip Van Winkle— wannabe and sleep several decades,
but beware of these common causes of insomnia:
Caffeine must be eliminated, including coffee, tea, green tea,
chocolate and colas. Even decaffeinated beverages are a “no-no.”
Cigarettes or other forms of nicotine function as stimulants.
Alcohol has a sleeping phase that makes people drowsy and a stimulant
phase that hits in the middle of the night and can disrupt sleep.
Some people are more sensitive to stimulants than other individuals.
For some, even drinking coffee in the morning can keep them awake
at night.
Organic causes of insomnia that require specific treatments include:
Restless leg: an odd feeling in your legs causing you to have to
move or massage your legs.
Periodic limb movement disorder: you are not aware of a slow rhythmic
movement of your limbs in the night. This may be caused by iron
deficiency.
Sleep apnea: a periodic and repeated cessation of respiration,
often accompanied by horrific snoring, is the most common cause
of daytime sleepiness and it is often undiagnosed.
“Sleep problems are more common in people who are driven and want control,” concludes
Dr. Castriotta. “We can’t control sleep, unlike other things in life,
but the innate drive for rest will eventually overwhelm us and we will fall
asleep.”
Night! Night!
UPDATED: 8-18-2003
Dr. Richard Castriotta is director of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at UT Medical School.
See Dr. Castriotta also at:
Make an appointment
with your stress—
and keep it!
Set aside a specified time of day, say 3:00 to 3:20 P.M. Keep this appointment with yourself—make it as important as a client or a child’s reading time.
Now, let the stress pour out of you, all the worry, guilt, what-ifs, if-onlys. Hold nothing back. Imagine every possible scenario that intrudes on you, day and night. Funnel it into that 20-minute period.
When the bell goes off, you are done, finished, until your next appointment with yourself.
When you’re tempted to let stressful thoughts crawl across your mind, remind yourself that you have 20 minutes to address them—tomorrow.