Sleep

Sleep is a great subject to go over. How many hours do I need? What type of bed should I use? What position is best? I could go on and on with the various questions I am asked from my patients on a regular basis; actually why don’t I? The format of this section will be a basic Q & A. Here it goes…

1. How much sleep do I need?

- There are no definitive studies that suggest that humans need a minimum requirement of a certain amount of hours of sleep per night. The amount of hours really is a personal issue. There are some people that thrive on 6 hours and some that really need 9 hours. In my opinion between 6-8 hours of sleep per night is healthy for the average adult. Children can sleep 10-12 hours easily and still need a nap. Remember children need the sleep so they can grow and repair from their highly active days.

- The key to sleep should focus less on the amount of hours you are sleeping but the overall quality of your sleep and how you feel when you awaken. If you are limited in the amount you sleep by time constraints from work or from children or your cat climbing on your head in the middle of the night there is less that this chapter will help you with. What you should be concerned with the most is that you fall asleep easily at night when you get into bed and that if you happen to wake up or are woken up by kids or cats that you have the ability to fall asleep again very easily.

- If there is trouble falling asleep or staying asleep the first thing I would look into is if you are getting enough calcium and trace minerals in your diet, and the answer to that is no. Yes that is a generalization but most people (unless you are already supplementing your diet with a high quality mineral supplement) are not getting enough minerals . Minerals tend to work like tranquilizers in a way. They keep your brain from vibrating with too many thoughts at night and also help to make your body more alkaline (or less acidic) which will also help you to sleep better. If you have trouble falling asleep you need a good source of calcium and magnesium ( I prefer Calcium Lactate –Standard Process ). And if your problem is waking up too often or trouble falling back to sleep after waking then trace minerals will help you more often. Trace minerals are zinc, manganese, molybdenum, copper…Trace minerals should always be taken with care. They are called trace minerals because you only need trace amounts of them in your body if any one gets too high there can be side effects. This is why when supplementing with trace minerals I prefer whole food supplements rather than individual trace minerals.(I prefer Min-Tran Standard process again)

2. What bed is best?

-There truly is no perfect answer to this question. Beds are very personal and individual choices left up to the comfort perceived by the one sleeping on it. In general a bed should have a very firm base but the top layers of the bed should allow your body to sink in a bit to contour the shape of you body. The bed should have enough give to allow for the curves of your body but still be able to give you firm support underneath.

That pretty much sounds like every bed advertisement that you have ever heard and they are all correct. Each company just goes about it in a different manner. Some use air, some water, some space age material, and some springs. My best advice is to figure out a budget that you can afford to spend, making sure that you keep in mind that a bed is a good place to make an investment. You do spend a lot of time in bed and money spent will typically be worth it. After you have an idea of what you can spend try out as many beds in that price range that you can. No matter what you choose it is hard to make a bad choice, with beds it typically is a matter of good, better, and best. My personal favorites though are the Kings Down beds at Sleepy’s.

3. Pillows/ What positions do I sleep?

-There is one piece of advice that I think tops all others when it comes to comfortable sleep and that is correct pillow technique. The technique depends on the position that you are sleeping. First of all the only poor position that you can sleep in is on your belly. The main reason is that you wind up placing entirely too much stress on you neck because it is turned to one side for hours at a time. I can’t tell you how many countless times that I work on patients’ stiff necks after “sleeping wrong”, which usually means sleeping on their stomachs.

-The best way to sleep is on your back, I don’t know many people that do sleep on their back, but if you do the proper pillow technique for you is to have one firm pillow under your head that supports the natural curve of your neck and doesn’t allow it to be pushed forward too far ( see Diagram). If you are still using your grandmother’s soft fluffy pillow get rid of it now. It may have been OK to use 30 years ago but pillows aren’t built to last forever. Also, if lying on your back, it is a good idea to keep a pillow under your knees. The size is up to your comfort levels just a few inches of bend in the knee is sufficient.(See Diagram).

-The position that most of us sleep is on our side and to make lying on your side as comfortable as possible I feel that the three pillow technique is the best. First the pillow for your neck is similar to the lying on your back position. There should be enough support to not allow your head to sink into the pillow and also not be too big as to push your head away too far( See Diagram). Second there still should be a pillow for your knees; this time in between your knees so they are not knocking together and there is something to prevent you from rolling onto your belly. Third and most importantly is everyone needs a hugger. If you are one of those people that is comfortable hugging your spouse or partner or dog all night then Kudos for you but most of us can’t sleep with all that extra body heat next to us. The perfect solution is a body pillow. The purpose of this one is to keep your shoulders from caving in on each other while you are sleeping. This also helps out those of you who like to sleep on your stomach by giving you something that puts a little pressure on your belly and makes you feel secure.(See Diagram)

-The last little tidbit about sleep is for you to switch sides of the bed more often. If you do share a bed typically you wind up sleeping on the same side over and over again and typically you also wind up sleeping on the same side of your body (if you are a side sleeper like most of us) the tendency is to face the edge of the bed and keep your back to the center of the bed. This is a more secure position that enables us, innately not worry about falling out of bed so easily. So switch side every 2-3 months. It may feel weird at first but believe me you will get used to it.

Hope this helped you to start enjoying more quality nights of sleep.