Sleep and Sleeping Disorders
Saying goodnight is often rounded off with something like: “Sleep well” or “Sleep tight”. Almost half of the population do not sleep well and is tired during the day. Sleeping disorders lead many patients to their pharmacy in the hope of getting some helpful advice. A better understanding of the mystery sleep is often the first step towards improvement.
Sleep is not just rest; it makes it possible for the body’s recreation functions to be activated. Sleep is essential for one’s health and performance. Chronic restrictions or disturbances may lead to serious health problems but can also cause mistakes and accidents.
A performance-orientated society is responsible for changes in our sleeping habits. An increasing demand for mobility and flexibility in work as well as in leisure has lead mankind to slowly adjust to technology. Irregular or insufficient sleep and especially poor quality sleep may be the result, bringing with it negative consequences for everyday life.
Living in tact
In test subjects who were able to choose for themselves the times of being awake and sleeping, a 25-hour-rhythm usually appeared. This rhythm is obviously controlled by an endogenous system. Almost all physiological functions are subject to fluctuations during the day: temperature, blood pressure, heart frequency and breathing.
The remarkably pronounced release of the hormone Cortisol in the early hours of the morning is taken into consideration in therapy. The signals for all these rhythms come from a very small part of the brain, the epiphysis, which helps to synchronize the inner clock using external signs of light and darkness.
This clock is sensitive to light and the time of day, which is why having a good bedtime routine and a quiet dark place to sleep is so important. The synchronization of external and internal signs is disturbed by flights across time zones and shift-work. Furthermore, the synchronization may be disturbed in the elderly who often suffer from sleeping disorders.
Understanding Sleep
Getting good, restorative sleep is not just a matter of hitting the pillow at night and waking up in the morning. Regulated by the body’s clock, sleep is made up of different stages, all of which are important for your body. Understanding these needs can help to achieve better sleep. When someone falls asleep, their sleep progresses in cycles throughout the night, moving to and fro between deep restorative sleep and more alert stages and dreaming. As the night proceeds, more time is spent in dream sleep and lighter sleep.
Jane Funke, Hannelore Gießen
Diesen Artikel finden Sie in DAS PTA MAGAZIN 09/2010 auf Seite 68 ff. oder als PDF-Download im Kasten oben rechts.
