Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 1, 1994 TAG: 9402030020
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jane Brody
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Another says that if she gets more than six hours a night she wakes up ``feeling like a lead balloon.''
How do you know how much sleep is the right amount, and how can you adjust your sleep schedule if you fail to get enough sleep now and then, or night after night?
Researchers have a fancy way of judging how sleepy a person is at various times of the day and night. Called the multiple sleep-latency test, it involves an assessment in a sleep lab of how long it takes a person to fall asleep at two-hour intervals.
Such studies show that people generally have two especially sleepy times: at what most people think of as bedtime, around 10 p.m. to 12 a.m., and in midafternoon, around 2 to 4 p.m.
They also show that a fully rested person will not fall asleep within 20 minutes at any test session during the day, whereas a sleep-deprived person will fall asleep in three or four minutes at every session, just as do people with the sleep disorders narcolepsy and sleep apnea.
And when people who are sleep-deprived live in a sleep laboratory, without any cues about day and night or alarm to arouse them, they will often sleep for as many as 16 out of every 24 hours for days on end until they ``catch up'' on lost sleep and gradually revert to a more normal sleep period of about eight hours.
James Maas, a psychology professor and sleep researcher at Cornell University, suggests this self-test : ``If a warm room, heavy meal, boring lecture or meeting or a low dose of alcohol makes you drowsy, you are sleep-deprived. A well-rested person will become bored, annoyed, restless or fidgety, but not sleepy, under such circumstances.''
Furthermore, he said, on going to bed at night, a well-rested person will take 10 to 15 minutes to fall asleep, but a sleep-deprived person will fall asleep within a few minutes.
So if you are one of those people who falls asleep before your head hits the pillow, consider yourself sleep-deprived. And if you find yourself dozing off at concerts and plays or in cars and planes at a time of day when you would normally be awake, or if you cannot stay awake all day without caffeine, you are most likely sleep-deprived, and perhaps seriously so.
You are hardly alone. Experts estimate that 100 million Americans maintain a serious sleep debt by failing, night after night, to get enough sleep. They also say that most sleep-deprived people do not realize just how prone to falling asleep at the drop of a hat they really are.
In a study by Thomas Roth at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, 100 young adults were given a multiple sleep-latency test. Thirty-four percent of those who said they never got sleepy during the day performed like a person with sleep apnea. Maas said, ``God help them if they are struck by a sleep seizure while driving a car or piloting a 747.''
Maas, who produced ``Sleep Alert,'' a film on sleep deprivation for public television, gives these guidelines for good sleep hygiene:
f\ Zapf Dingbats f-b f-inoKnow how much sleep you need. Most people get only seven hours of sleep each night but need eight to eight and a half hours. If you are sleepy during the day, you are not sleeping enough at night.
f\ Zapf Dingbats f-b f-inoTry to sleep in a continuous block. People need a long period of consolidated sleep; sleep broken by frequent awakenings leaves people unrested no matter how long they spend in bed.
f\ Zapf Dingbats f-b f-inoGo to sleep at the same time every night and wake up at the same time each morning. ``You should never need an alarm clock to wake up,'' Maas insists, unless, of course, you have to catch a very early flight. And trying to catch up on sleep by sleeping late the next morning merely messes up your body's normal sleep-wake rhythm. Sunday night insomnia is a common affliction among those who get up early during the week to go to work but then sleep late on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
f\ Zapf Dingbats f-b f-inoRemember that sleep loss is cumulative. ``If you take sleep out of the bank for one or two nights, be sure to pay it back as soon as possible so that your week's sleep total is always stable,'' Maas said.
f\ Zapf Dingbats f-b f-inoGet daily physical exercise, which results in more restful deep sleep and also decreases your total sleep need a little. But Maas cautioned against exercising within three hours of bedtime, because exercise increases alertness and inhibits the ability to fall asleep. He said the best time to exercise to induce restful sleep was between noon and 6 p.m.
If you have frequent or periodic insomnia, as one in three people does on any given night, take a hot bath before bed, read a book for pleasure, write your worries down and leave your notes on the nightstand, and be sure your bedroom is quiet, dark and cool. If you toss and turn for more than 20 minutes at bedtime or during the night, get out of bed and do something else until you feel sleepy again.
Do not use caffeine or other stimulants to counter midday sleepiness. Although stimulants produce momentary feelings of alertness, they rob people of restful REM, or dream, sleep at night.
Caffeine abuse results in restless, not restorative, sleep and makes people more tired the next day. REM, or rapid eye movement, sleep restores brain cells, and its loss results in daytime irritability, anxiety, depression, lack of ability to concentrate and remember and a loss of creativity.
To readjust a sleep schedule that is causing a chronic sleep debt, start going to bed 15 to 20 minutes earlier each week. It may take six or eight weeks to reschedule your bedtime so that you avoid daytime sleepiness.
Instead of a coffee break or as part of your lunch hour, Maas suggests a ``nap break.'' He said, ``A 15- to 20-minute nap will increase alertness, productivity and creativity.''
For many people, working in a nap can be a challenge, but for those who can take a brief nap once or twice a day, it is a way to catch up without robbing yourself of sleep the following night.
But Maas cautions, ``If you nap for an hour or more, you will lapse into delta, or deep, sleep and wake up feeling worse,'' for 15 or 20 minutes.
In anticipation of a late night or short night, take a nap beforehand to help prevent sleepiness the next day.
\ The New York Times
by CNB