SHELDON—The amount of sleep seems like a simple topic.
The goal is to get a decent night’s sleep, which is usually in 7-8 hours, and you would like a sleep session where you don’t wake up often.
But sleep is more complicated than that. There are different reactions in the brain that go off as one sleeps and different responses when one doesn’t get enough sleep.
Daniel Flahie, who is the program director and assistant professor of exercise science and health at Mount Marty University in Yankton, SD, gave a webinar last Wednesday called “Sleep, Recovery, and the Circadian Rhythm” to provide insight on what kind of sleep you need to be getting and to help with any problems that may be impeding you getting a good night sleep.
The webinar was put on as part of the statewide Live Healthy competition that has less than a month remaining. The final day is March 18 of the weight-loss and activity competition.
The circadian rhythm is a 24-hour cycle influenced by light and dark.
“You might tend to feel more energetic during the summertime and less energetic during the wintertime and that’s largely because of when the sun is up and when it is not,” Flahie said.
Humans spend one-third of their lifetime sleeping. Teenagers require 8-9 hours of sleep while adults need a little less at 7-8 hours.
“If you are not getting that 7-8 hours of sleep threshold, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, the exercise isn’t going to be as beneficial as you want it to be, your morning coffee isn’t going to be as beneficial as you want it to be,” Flahie said. “Really, the foundation of your healthy living starts with your sleep. If we try and live more and sleep less, it’s going to do more harm than good. We won’t be able to live to our fullest if we are not sleeping to our fullest.”
Sleep plays a key role in a person’s exercise schedule as well.
Flahie said exercise is important, and he will never downplay it, but he also stressed that the recovery period after a workout is just as important if not more important.
A good night of sleep helps with the body recover since it is in a relaxing state.
The circadian rhythm controls the nocturnal release of adrenocorticotropic hormone, prolactin, melatonin and norepinephrine, which are all essential hormones for normal body functioning.
Sleep cycles last 90-100 minutes and can be broken into four or five stages:
- Wake: Individuals become drowsy and eyes close.
- N1 (Stage 1): Lightest sleep stage.
- N2 (Stage 2): Heart rate and body temperature drops.
- N3 (Stage 3): Deepest sleep stage. Vital for body repair. As we age, we spend less time in this stage.
- N4 (Stage 4): REM sleep. Dreams.
One viewer asked what happens when you get up after an hour or two of sleep, for example to use the bathroom or to tend to a crying baby. When you attempt to go back to sleep, does it restart the sleep cycle?
Flahie said typically, yes, the sleep cycle will restart.
“We go through those cycles so when you wake up in the middle of the night, you have probably reached the end of your sleep cycle and you are going back to that shallower sleep,” he said. “As we progress through the night, the deeper sleep takes a larger chunk of that time. So you spend less time in the shallow sleep area.”
Flahie was later asked about what advice he could give on which bedtime routines lead to good sleep patterns.
He said a waking up time is extremely important for routine.
“The bedtime is not as important as when trying to wake up at the same time,” Flahie said. “A good bedtime routine, if you can dim down the blue light on your phone or taking away electronics at night is beneficial. The most important thing is to take away the overhead lights. Have lamps at eye level or below and it will disrupt your melatonin level less than the overhead because the overhead florescent seems to mimic the sun more.”
Another viewer asked about natural sleep aids for people who have difficulty staying asleep.
Flahie said you want to talk to your doctor before you take anything.
Melatonin supplements are the most nature form of sleep aid, according to Flahie.
“Like anything else, your body adapts to it, so you might have to take more and more of it,” Flahie said. “Talk to your doctor about it but sometimes cycling on and off it helps it do its job.”
