As seen on Channel 7's 'Today Tonight'
Renowned sleep and dream specialist, Dr Rubin Naiman, PhD
was brought to Sydney in April by South Pacific Private to present his
well-researched integrated approach to understanding and healing sleep
deprivation.
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If you answer YES to one of these questions then you are not getting the valuable, healthy sleep you deserve.
Do you:
- Have great difficulty falling asleep at night?
- Wake up during the night?
- Sleep fitfully and wake up feeling un-rested?
- Fall asleep as soon as ‘your head hits the pillow'?
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These are all signs that you are not getting the full benefits of a good night’s sleep.
Think about this: if you lose 1 hour of sleep at night over 8 nights, you have by the end of this lost a full night’s sleep. According to Dr Naiman sleep debt like all debt accumulates if you are not attentive to paying it off.
The two greatest gifts a good night’s sleep can give us are the deep sleep at the beginning of a normal sleep cycle and the REM/dreaming time that comes at the end of the normal sleep cycle. People who sleep for short or disrupted periods of time will lose out on either one or both of these gifts and can be at risk of:
Obesity.
For women in particular the low energy sign our body gives us usually cues us to feel tired at night but mis-cues us to feel hungry during the day. Not only do we then eat when our body is tired rather than hungry, we often go for quick energy boosters that are high in sugar.
Excessive Day-time sleepiness.
This can hamper our ability to feel productive and may lead to accidents in the work place. Suppressing dreams can also lead to us feeling ‘dreamy’ during the day. Eventually, people can become fatigued and depressed.
Hyper-arousal.
We go into over-drive building so much energy during the day that we can’t dial it down at night.
Loss of memory and creativity.
REM plays a vital part in memory and learning. Through dreaming, it enables creativity and helps heal emotional trauma.
How can a person improve the quality of their sleep?
1. Take a look at your sleeping environment:
a. Is your bed comfortable? Aches disrupt sleep
b. Are there electric lights coming in through the window, or coming off other light sources within the house (such as a computer monitor left on at night)? 80% of our sensory input is cut off when we close our eyes and feel darkness
c. Is your bedding, room or pyjamas too hot? For a good night sleep our body needs to literally chill out
2. Start preparing yourself for sleep about an hour before your bedtime:
a. Go green.
Turn off unnecessary lights around the house and, if possible, dim the ones you are using. If you need lights on outside the house opted for ones with motion detectors. Finally, think about your alarm clock – do you really need it staring you in the face at night? It’s aiming light and heat energy right at you. Try moving it away, sharing one with your partner or using another form of alarm.
b. Stop working!
Give your mind a chance to wind down. You may think your next day will go better if you finish that one last thing but guess what? Tomorrow will be far more productive if you can sleep well tonight.
c. Let go of stress.
Stress causes adrenaline which cues our body into wakefulness we also unconsciously tense ourselves (e.g. clenching our jaw, tightening our stomach muscles). However, when we are sleeping well and enter REM, our dreams can often work through the stresses of the day for us without interacting with our muscles. In a sense our mind is doing its own housekeeping at night.
3. Practice resting.
We cannot sleep well until we learn how to properly rest. Activities that help may include: meditating, journaling, watching something light-hearted on TV
4. Be consistent. If you are a shift worker you are better to keep the same sleep hours 7 days a week and then change them once you’re rostered on to new shift times. The body finds it hard to adapt to changing sleep times every few days.
5. If you are taking medication, it may be interfering with your sleep. Consult your doctor and perhaps look at melatonin supplements. Some common medications that can interfere with a good nights sleep are: anti depressants, beta-blockers, benzodiazepines and aspirin.
6. Think about your nutrition. Caffeine has a long half life which mean the effects of your morning’s coffee will still be in your system at bed-time. This alone may not affect your sleep but if you continue to take in caffeine all day you are going to start having sleeping problems. Ironically, a bad night’s sleep is one of the main reasons we cling to our tea, coffee and caffeinated soft drinks!
Finally, a word on medications that ‘help’ you sleep. Sleeping pills are known to suppress your dreams, they are also highly addictive. As an alternative try some natural remedies such as valerian and melatonin supplements. Be aware that while chamomile is a naturally conducive to rest it is also a diuretic, which means it could be the reason you’re disrupting your sleep for a trip to the bathroom.
Profile on Dr Rubin Naiman, PhD
Dr. Rubin Naiman is the sleep and dream specialist and clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of Arizona’s Program in Integrative Medicine, directed by Dr. Andrew Weil. He serves as Integrative Wellness Consultant for Origins Natural Resources, Inc. and is also the director of sleep programs for the world-renowned Miraval Resort. Dr. Naiman maintains a private practice and provides professional consultation and training internationally.
For more than a decade, Dr. Naiman served as the sleep and dream specialist at Canyon Ranch Health Resort in Tucson, where he founded the first formal sleep center at a spa. Over the years, Dr. Naiman has worked with a diverse clientele ranging from Fortune 500 CEOs to world class athletes, from homemakers to statesmen and entertainers.
Dr. Naiman is the author of a number of groundbreaking works on sleep, including  Healing Night, a revolutionary book that approaches sleep and dream issues from a scientific as well as a spiritual perspective, Dr. Naiman is the founder of the newly formed Integrative Sleep and Dream Health Coalition, a member of the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the Institute of Noetic.
To learn more about Dr Naiman and his approach to better sleep and dreams, or review his resources for purchase click here visit his website.
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