You Can Reset Your Sleep Cycle from Early Morning Waking to Jet Lag

Just as difficulty falling and staying asleep can indicate anxiety, a sudden change in your sleep pattern where you would normally sleep until 6 or 7 am, you now find yourself wide awake at 4 am, can indicate a possible underlying depression. If this happens to you, consult with your physician and relate your symptoms. Counseling, and sometimes, anti-depressants can greatly help relieve the symptoms.

There are actually times when less sleep is beneficial to an individual is suffering from depression. They can take advantage of the early morning waking and get out of bed and go for a walk or get active in some other way. However, when dealing with depression, always consult with a licensed mental health professional.

Jet lag is another culprit when it comes to sleep disruptions. When traveling through different time zones, it can take up to two weeks to adjust to the local time. One of the best ways to aid in resetting your sleep pattern is to get out of bed at your usual time no matter how much sleep you have had. You will find that within a short period, you will begin to get sleepy at your usual time. You may not feel very rested the first few nights, but over a brief period of time your body’s internal clock will reset itself. Some people have found the addition of melatonin to be helpful when to resetting their internal clocks. Melatonin can be found at your local health food store. Inquire at the store about its use.

For more information on Dr. Walton’s self-help for sleep, log onto TheDrWaltonSeries.com. You can also follow his tips of the day on Twitter@LAtherapist. For more information on Dr. Walton, and to obtain free audio affirmations log onto his website at LAtherapist.com. Press Release

How Much Sleep Is Normal and How Much Sleep Should I Get?

Difficulty falling and staying asleep can indicate the presence of a medical issue that needs to be addressed by a physician. If you are experiencing some sort of sleep disturbance, consult with your doctor first to eliminate any medical causes.

Difficulty falling asleep is most often related to anxiety. The more anxiety you’re feeling the more difficult it may be for you to fall asleep. Anxiety can also interfere with our ability to remain asleep. You may have noticed that during times when you are feeling anxious, you may frequently wake up at night, sometimes as frequently as every hour.

It is considered normal for adults to wake up once or even twice during the night. Sometimes this kind of waking is misinterpreted as a problem with sleeping. However, it is normal and rather common.

Our sleeping patterns actually change over the course of our lives. As new born babies, for instance, we do not distinguish day from night in regards to sleep. We would wake up to interact whether it was the middle of the night or the middle of the day. As newborns, we had not yet developed the sleep pattern that allowed us to sleep throughout the night.

By the age of four months, we began to sleep more during the night than during the day. Over time, we eventually adjusted to sleeping through the night and being awake during the day.

At this very early age, we slept about 12 hours a day. This is normal. As we became older we required less sleep. From adolescence into adulthood we generally require eight hours of sleep to feel rested in the morning. By the time we reach our late 50’s and 60’s we require much less sleep. Usually only five or six hours is enough.

Requiring less sleep as we get older is not a sleep disorder. It is a natural part of life and you would do better to accept it rather than fight it. Trying to make yourself get more sleep will only make you more anxious and interrupt the quality of the sleep that you actually do get. It will probably have the opposite effect and cause you to get less sleep.

For more information on getting enough sleep and to listen to free samples of Dr. Walton’s self-help hypnosis album for falling asleep at night, log onto www.TheDrWaltonSeries.com. You can also follow his tips of the day on Twitter@LAtherapist For more information on Dr. Walton, log onto LAtherapist.com.

Sleep: a short history

The average individual needs between 8 and 9 hours of sleep any given night to feel a sense of complete rest when they awaken in the morning. Too little sleep can make us feel groggy and less alert during the day.

Just as too little sleep can be damaging to our bodies and health, so is too much. Generally, more than 10 hours of sleep a night is not healthy either. Getting more than 10 hours of sleep a night, on average, can raise an individual’s chances of experiencing depression during the waking hours significantly.

The history of sleep in our culture is quite interesting. Before 1900, the average amount of sleep people acquired was 9 hours. After the light bulb became common in households, the average amount of sleep individual received dropped to 8 hours.

The cause? People were staying up later because of the artificial lighting and were no longer tied to the natural rhythms of sun light. Light, and the lack of it, are directly tied to the production of melatonin in the brain. When we enter into a dark environment, it triggers the brain to produce more melatonin which causes us to feel a sense of drowsiness.

Artificial lighting inhibits the brain from producing the sleep causing melatonin and we remain awake longer. As a result, people didn’t seem to suffer and most adapted quite easily and went about their daily lives without missing that extra hour.

Our sleep pattern changed again in the 1950’s. The average amount of sleep dropped again. It fell to 7½ hours on average. The reason? Television had become common in most households. More and more people were staying up later to watch their favorite programs before retiring for the night.

As a result, people seemed to adjust fairly well to this drop in sleep also. Although some people felt a little tired during the day, they were easily able to make up the lack of rest during the weekend.

The 1980’s brought yet another change in the amount of sleep the average individual received. This time, the average amount of sleep dropped to 7 hours a night.

The culprit? 24 hour news television programming. Up until that time, television stations ended their transmitters around midnight and with nothing left to watch, people went to bed. Now, they could watch news and other programming 24 hours a day. There was no external cause to direct them to bed. Entertainment was now 24/7 and people responded.

It was in the mid 80’s when researches began to notice a new issue arising in American culture: fatigue caused by a lack of sleep. Sleep deprivation was now just beginning to work its way into society as a cultural phenomenon. People actually began to brag about their lack of sleep as a badge of honor for social status.

Still, getting 7 hours of sleep is still enough for most people to function well enough at home and work. If it wasn’t enough, they could just catch up on the weekends.

Then in 2009, our sleep habits changed one more time. Yet again it dropped, and this time, to the lowest average ever in human history. In 2001, the average amount of sleep the average American experienced was about 6.5 hours and many others were living with significantly less on a sustained basis.

Why? Researchers are not completely sure why except that it coincides perfectly with the rise of the Internet. As more and more people logged onto the Internet, the average amount of sleep continued to fall. This time to dangerous levels.

Getting less than 7 hours of sleep will begin to cause ramifications in your daily life. Most people will begin to have a tired feeling throughout the day if they get less than 7 hours. It can mildly impair cognitive functioning. When we feel mildly sleep deprived, we might have more difficulty making good decisions. We may find ourselves a little more irritable.

In fact, getting less than 6 hours of sleep can be linked to an increase in car accidents, short term memory loss, lack of focus and difficulty maintaining attention. It has even been linked to weight gain by suppressing the body’s ability to control appetite.

Getting less than 6 hours of sleep on a continuous basis can have serious ramifications for the average adult. It can begin to negatively affect the immune system and we find ourselves more susceptible to depression and physical injuries.

For most people, it is vitally important that they receive between 7 and 9 hours of sleep on average every night. This amount of sleep allows us to function at our peak during the day without feeling tired or distracted. It allows us greater access to our faculties and gives our bodies a chance to rest and heal. It is critical for both our physical and mental health. Getting enough sleep is essential for living a vital, active and healthy life.

For more information on getting enough sleep and to listen to free samples of Dr. Walton’s self-help hypnosis album for falling asleep at night, log onto www.TheDrWaltonSeries.com. You can also follow his tips of the day on Twitter@LAtherapist For more information on Dr. Walton, log onto LAtherapist.com.