Sleep Patterns

Sleep Patters

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We've all been experiencing the strange phenomenon where all of the days of the week are blending together and our sleep patterns have been all over the map.

Here to explain why this is happening and how to correct it for a more healthy night's rest is dr. william dawson, pulmonary disease and thank you so much for joining us.

>> thank you.

>> so can you explain to us, why is it that we're just finding that we can't remember if it's a monday or a thursday?

>> well, i suspect it has something to do with loss of social cues, which is getting up and going to work in the morning, going to work at all.

And there's a tendency to do what we cat free run, which is stay up late at night and sleep late in the morning, and it's kind of like you're retired but you're not.

We call that phase delay, and as time passes, we stay up later and get up later in the morning, and we move ourselves off to the west.

So the problem with that is, if you're retired and you never work, then you can sort of do what you want.

But it produces a problem with your circadian rhythm.

It's the rhythm that directs the helpfulness of your life, and it's the key off of the early sunlight exposure and when you go to beds at night.

So it's important to keep your regular eastern standard time rhythm, get up when you normally get up and have some discipline in your life, so when you go back to work, you'll still be on eastern standard time and not on pacific time to cause you republic.

>> i know i can speak from personal experience, and i used to work overnights at a radio station, and arbitrarily mornings at a tv station, and even there your circadian rhythm can be thrown off.

But even people who live that way can find ways to deal with it.

So how do you talk to someone coming out of this, so they can ac had mate themselves to a normal it schedule or find some sense of normalcy in this.

>> in the day, you can stop doing that, and you can begin to take naps when you have all of this free time.

And you can stop doing that, and really, the time you get up in the morning and set yourself to light is what sets the clock, and in the evening when you're going to bed, it's important to not be experiencing television light, because it's blue light and it secretes melatonin, which helps you fall asleep.

It's important to get up at the same time in the morning.

And if you have to reset the schedule, you have to reset the clock.

We spent millions of years with this one-day circadian rhythm.

>> one of our guests said that she sets an alarm for herself at night.

So if she's sitting and juaning tv with her family, the alarm goes off and she needs to go to bed now, would you recommend that?

>> i think that you need to do whatever works.

If you need to set an alarm to go to bed, that's fine.

You have a window to go to sleep at 9:00 or 10:00 at night.

And if you miss the train, it may be an hour or two before you get sleepy again, and once you delay the day into the night, it's a hard trip back to the regular rhythm, so it's important to keep going and fix yourself.

>> one thing that i want to talk about on the other side of the commercial is the health detriment that you can experience by having a sleep cycle that's completely out of whack and helpful things that people should be introducing into >> we're back with william dawson, from it charles and it associates.

And before we get into diet ear contributions to a heatful night's sleep, i want to talk about what sleep hygiene is and what does that mean?

>> hygiene is a healthful health practice, that is the things that you sent for your life, when sleep was first allude ud to by hipocrities.

And it's the same hipocrities who created the hippocratic oath before that the seniors take before they become doctors.

It has been a long time.

And sleep heimine, when you go to bed at night and when you get up in the morning, and being sleep deprived and a lack of adequate sleep has quite spanish health, especially with circadian rhythm sis orders, being out of a sleep cycle and sleeping poorly creates a problem in your body and keeps you from responding to viral infections, and there's a lot at stake with healthy hygiene and sleep, especially from this outbreak.

>> right, have you heard in friday of your patients with insomnia?

>> money problems produce be problems with worrying and sleeping, and basic leashing the sleep process is very if we just do the things that enable our own sleep system to help us, we can get by with out medications and other things.

And those things r.

We talked about them already, going to bed at the same time every night.

And avoiding blue light or other stimuli before you go to bed, for instance watching a violent movie before you go to bed, your body is trying to process it, and you won't fall asleep and it takes active discipline.

>> that's true, and we have to be even extra disciplined during this time.

Let's talk about some foods, because there are certain foods that contribute to a better night's rest.

I know that certain studies have been done on tree nuts and things to ingest before going to bed.

And can you give us any recommendations on what we should be eating and drinking and not eating and drinking before going to bed?

>> what you should do, alcohol consumption within three or four hours of bedtime produces trouble with sleep continuity through the night and alters the way we sleep.

And cigarette smoking also problems with that.

Milk actually is said to help people fall asleep it has medicinal values, and there are tease that can be taken, and aish carbohydrate meal is supposed to help you sleep.

Not exercising vigorously within an hour or two, a hot bath is supposed to help you fall asleep at night.

We all fall asleep on the temperature arraignment.

All of those are grandmother's had remedies, and they have validity and have been around for a long time.

>> oils like lav ender?

>> i don't think that there's any science behind them.

But it's what you don't do more than what you do.

We spend a lot of time ruining our rhythm by watching tv late at night.

And eating late at night.

And the list is it fairly long.

>> we tend to get into habits that are not very good for us.

But essential oils, and eating well.

And camomile tea before you go to bed.

And a lot of people use sound machines.

>> all of those things are helpful.

You can use ear plugs and a facial mask.

All of these things help.

But often if an individual has confidence in something that they're doing, it will work.

So trust simple things that are safe, discourage the use of sleeping pills and other things like that unless you have a sleep disorder and you're not a physician's care.

>> that's an excellent way to end this, and i want to thank you so