A Season for Good Sleep
Are you craving a long winter’swinter nap? It can be hard to get good sleep around the holidays, but it is essential to staying healthy and enjoying all the season has to offer.
Different ages need different amounts of sleep, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Newborns need 14-17 hours of sleep. School age children need nine12 hours of sleep every 24 hours, teens need eight-10 hours. Adults need seven or more hours per night.
Not getting enough sleep can cause health problems. Health problems associated with getting less than seven hours sleep include heart attack, coronary health disease, stroke, asthma, COPD, cancer, arthritis, depression, chronic kidney disease and diabetes.
DEVELOP HEALTHY SLEEP HABITS
How can you make sure you get enough sleep. The CDC suggests a couple of habits that might improve your sleep hygiene.
• Be consistent. Go to sleep at the same time and wake up at the same time, even on weekends.
• Prepare your sleep space. Make sure the place where you sleep is quiet, dark, relaxing and at a comfortable temperature (slightly cooler is better).
• Unplug yourself. Remove all electronic devices from your sleeping area including televisions, computers and smart phones.
• Watch what you eat and drink. Avoid large meals, alcohol and caffeine before bedtime.
• Exercise. The more you move during the day, the more easily you are likely to sleep at night.
The Sleep Foundation adds more tips.
• Take baby steps. Making gradual changes helps you adjust and settle into a new sleep schedule.
• Avoid the nap temptation. If you must nap, keep it short and take it early in the afternoon.
• Don’t force it. If you find yourself tossing and turning and can’t fall asleep after 20 minutes, get up and stretch, read or do something else calming in low light before trying to sleep again.
• Optimize your bedroom. Make sure you have the right mattress and pillow for you. Block out light or use an eye mask. Drown out noise with ear plugs or use a white noise machine or fan. Engage in some aromatherapy using such scents as lavender.
DIAGNOSING SLEEP DISORDERS
What if none of that helps? You might have a sleep disorder. Common sleep disorders include insomnia, narcolepsy, restless leg syndrome or sleep apnea. If you can’t sleep, the CDC recommends keeping a sleep diary for 10 days and then taking it in to your family doctor.
There are templates for sleep diaries online, but the CDC recommends recording when you go to bed, when you sleep, when you wake up, what naps you take, how much exercise you get, and recording any alcohol, caffeinated beverages or medications you are taking.
There are also sleep apps that help you track all of the above and can even monitor how much sleep you’re getting and what sort of quality sleep you’re getting.
So bundle up in those matching PJs and drift off to dream of sugar plums and nutcrackers.