SLEEP
Sweet dreams
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SLEEP |
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Sweet dreams |
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News flash from www.wddty.com March 2007
MORE ON THE SLEEPING PILL DEBACLE So what can you expect from a pharmacist responding to the adverse reaction of a junk pharmaceutical?
Answer: The prescription of another junk pharmaceutical.
Dr Geraldine Moses, Senior Pharmacist Adverse Medicine Event Line (funded by the Pharmacy Guild) based at Mater Health Services in Brisbane speaking on ABC Radio National's Life Matters program on Monday 19th of March 2007, expressed caution about certain types of sleeping tablets as per the advice from the dozy FDA.
But her advice at the end of the program was to go back to your doctor and get a prescription for an older-type sleeping medication - not go and find out the cause of your sleep dysfunction and then deal with it.
An inability to sleep well is just another of the many symptoms of general metabolic dysfunction - along with the usual suspects - diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, snoring, sleep apnoea, cardiac insufficiency, fatness, headaches, cardiac insufficiency ...
The doctor and the chemist would be the last places you'd go to (not the first) in your quest for a good night's sleep.
If this is the best we can expect from the Australian Government's Adverse Drug Reaction body then heaven help us. We're drowning in a sea of junk medicine.
The advice of the Senior Pharmacist is not to ask yourself 'Why am I not sleeping as well as I'd like to?' On the contrary the advice is to go to a doctor and get another prescription for another pill that will put you to sleep without dealing with the problems that are keeping you awake. Hello!
As Andrew Weil (MD) says, 'Don't go to doctors for things doctors can't sure.
Get yourself into exceptionally good shape and you'll sleep like a kitten.
I've had a couple of goes at Norman Swan (ABC Health Report) when people have come onto his program comparing the efficacy of one drug to another, but not comparing the efficacy of either drug to the effects of getting fitter, eating wisely, meditating ... I don't know whether he doesn't understand or he's not interested, but either way I get the impression that he's just another medical commentator in the anodyne warp.
Primary health care So, whenever you feel dreadful, ask yourself whether you first need to get yourself back into exceptionally good shape. Ask what you can do for yourself. That's primary health care!
SO HOW DO YOU PREPARE YOURSELF FOR A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP?
WORK OUT HOW MUCH SLEEP YOU REALLY NEED? In the first instance you need to decide how many hours sleep you reckon is about right for you. Too many people are spending too long in bed when they should be up and doing something - either up longer before they go to bed or up earlier and getting on with the day.
There are times when I'm lying in bed at 7.30am and I think, 'Sheesh, John Howard's already had his walk, made a dozen phone calls, read the papers, done his pressups, had a shower, eaten his breakfast, spoken to the Parrot, he's on his way to Canberra and I'm still lolling around.'
Some time ago a bloke in one of my seminars said he didn't sleep well. I asked him what was the problem. He said he kept waking up at 4.30am. I said 'What time do you go to bed?' He said '9.30pm.' I said 'That's 71/2 hours. Get up - or go to bed later.'
Tom Hafey told me that Percy Cerutty told him that the 'formula' for sleeping was '6 hours for a man, 7 for a woman and 8 for a fool.' Someone said it came from Napoleon in the first place.
The spread of hours sleep people need varies greatly, from as little as 3 or 4 hours for someone like Phillip Adams (as I under stand it). You'll need to work out how much you need by trial and error, but start with six hours every day for a week and see how you go.
GET YOURSELF INTO EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD SHAPE It's in the nature of the healthy human being to get to sleep quickly, sleep like a log and wake up refreshed.
Complete the Mind and Body profile. If you score more than 30 you need to get back into better physical and mental condition.
EXERCISE It's a tough assignment going to sleep quickly and getting a good night's sleep if you're not tired. No-one ever got physically tired sitting cooped up in a cage all day and watching TV for three hours a night.
You need a regular and systematic vigorous aerobic fitness program.
Nathan Pritikin said that if you don't have time for exercise take an hour off your sleep. You'll need less sleep and you'll sleep better.
What does a vigorous aerobic fitness program do? - washes out of your system the stress hormones - adrenaline, cortisol ... that get you all fired up
ANXIETY Of course the first casualty of anxiety is sleep. Find out what's causing your anxiety and deal with it.
Go and see a good counsellor who can dig around and
a. help you find out what's bothering you
b. give you a signpost that encourages you to go in the direction of dealing with your anxiety.
The anxiety could come from your life, your family situation, your work ... Some of it might come from stuff that was bedded down years ago, it's so deep in your subconscious you need a crow bar to lever it out.
Find out what it is and fix it. Then you'll sleep like a log.
WHY DID YOU WAKE UP? If your sub-conscious mind is smart enough to wake you up to consciously think about something, think about it, write something down, get up and send off an email ... and then go back to sleep.
It's normal and healthy. Get up, deal with it and then go back to sleep. Don't just lie there, do something. It might take you a few minutes, a few hours, a few days, weeks or months to finish dealing with the problem, but deal with it., Then you'll sleep like a kitten.
Keep a pen and pad by your bed. If you think of something and don't write it down, you'll either forget it when you wake up, or you'll spend half the nigh awake worrying that you'll forget it. If it was important enough to you to be woken up, write it down, clear your mind and then go back to sleep.
One person in one of my seminars said that when he wakes up in the middle of the night it's because 'God' wants to talk to him. I said 'What do you do?' He said, I get up, go to the foot of the bed and start praying. When I've got the message I go back to bed and back to sleep.
It reminded me of the story of Samuel in the Jewish book of Fairy Tales who as a small boy kept being woken up.
If you're waking up, there's a reason - whether it's 'God', or your subconscious mind wanting you to deal with something, deal with it.
TEACH YOURSELF HOW TO GO TO SLEEP Most children are told to go to bed, very few are taught how to go to sleep.
You're awake and the monkeys are chattering. Switch off the chattering and you'll go to sleep quickly.
I've done the training use it to get to sleep some nights and when I want to get to sleep quickly on a planes.
The technique Imagine yourself in front of a nice clean whiteboard. it has a ledge with a whiteboard marker pen and a duster on it.
Pick up the pen, take off the cap and in the middle of the circle draw a nice big circle. In the middle of the circle write the number 100. Outside the circle, between 4 and 5 o'clock, in your best hand writing write the word 'deeper' sloping it down toward the bottom right hand corner of the board.
Put the cap on the pen put the pen down, pick up the duster and rub out the number 100 without rubbing out any of the circle. Put the duster down, pick up the pen, take off the cap and write the number 99 in the middle of the circle and go over the word 'deeper'.
Put the cap on the pen put the pen down, pick up the duster and rub out the number 99 without rubbing out any of the circle.
Put the duster down, pick up the pen, take off the cap and write the number 98 in the middle of the circle and go over the word 'deeper'.
Keep doing this until you go to sleep.
For the first week you might find yourself counting down and down into the 80's, 70's 60's even lower. That's normal, it's a training program. Over the 21 days you'll start going to sleep quicker.
If you get to zero, that's not uncommon, just go back to the beginning and start again.
If you forget where you've counted to, just go back to the beginning and start again, it's a training program.
At the end of 21 days you'll have a habit that your subconscious mind recognises as a trigger to get you to sleep and in future if you're having trouble sleeping you'll be able to pluck this routine out of your mental tool box and go to sleep quickly.
LET THE SUBCONSCIOUS DEAL WITH PROBLEMS WITHOUT WAKING YOU UP In the Silva Method of Mind Control it is suggested that you take a small glass of water to bed with you. Just before you go to sleep, drink half the glass and say to yourself that in the morning you'll wake up with the solutions to any problems you have.
You want subconscious to work on the problems while you're asleep, and not keep waking you up.
Edison (or one of those chaps) would use this technique during the day. Being stumped by a problem have a short nap. The other side of this coin is, being stumped by a problem? Go for a walk. Either way you may be surprised what jumps out of your subconscious mind.
LET TOMORROW DEAL WITH IT'S OWN PROBLEMS 'Therefore
do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own
things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.' Go back to the Jewish book of Fairy Tales, read Ecclesiastes and the Sermon on the Mount. Let's get some perspective here.
CAFFEINE Even a small of caffeine (coffee, tea, cola drink, chocolate) will keep some people wake half the night.
If you're not intolerant of it altogether, have a couple of cups a day and don't drink any more of the stuff after lunch time.
Go without caffeine for a couple of weeks and see what happens to your sleep patterns. For a few days you may have caffeine withdrawal headaches - that'll let you know what sort of harm it's doing to you.
FLUID INTAKE Some people drink too much (of anything, water, coffee, cool drink, alcoholic beverage ...) in the later part of the day and have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet. Then they can't get back to sleep. You train your children to sleep through the night without urinating, so retrain yourself.
ALCOHOL Alcohol has a half life of 5 hours. You go to sleep at 11 pm with a few drinks under your belt and at 4am you're waking up as the effect of the alcohol starts wearing off. Then you have to go to the louvre. Then you wake your sleeping partner up. Then the two of you can't get back to sleep again.
Stop drinking. The fittest and healthiest people I see are people who don't drink.
PAIN Have you ever had a crook back where you can't sneeze and you can't cough because when you do it feels like a red hot poker in your back?
If you've got back, neck and shoulder pain fix it up. Click through to the Crookback website.
SNORING Snoring is driving the women of Australia nuts - their sleeping partners keep snoring their heads off.
The recipe for a good snore is to - be male - be 20 or more kilograms over-fat - have a neck larger than 45cms in diameter - be stressed out of your brain - have a few drinks and - lie on your back.
If your neck has a circumference larger than 45cms you're a prime candidate for sleep apnoea as well. Then they'll put you on the mask. That will definitely give your romantic life! a shot in the arm
AND WHILE WE'RE TALKING OF MEN As men get older the prostate gland may become less resilient and enlarged, the effect being to clamp off the urethra and as a by product increase the desire to urinate - especially during the night.
Providing, of course you don't have prostate cancer, your health food shop can steer you in the direction of a few herbs and spices (saw palmetto is the most common) that will loosen the prostate up and save yourself the bother of getting up in the middle of the night. There's a good chance the stream will improve, though probably not to the same extent as it was when you were in primary school!
For women this is an important message. You don't want your sleeping partner or your dad to keep getting up in the middle of the night and disturbing ever one else's sleep.
TURN OFF THE IDIOT BOX While you're watching TV your brain switches off. Then when you go to bed it wakes up again, ready to go. You want to go to sleep. Your brain wants to go to work. It wins, you stay awake.
Or worse, you fall asleep in front of the box and then wonder why you can't sleep when you go to bed. Hello!
GET A LIFE The people I see who are most stressed are people who don't do the things that unstressed people do - they don't exercise, don't have hobbies and interests, don't take good long holidays, don't read books, (I've just finished reading a biography of Richard Burton - on a good day he could read five novels; on a bad day he could get through three bottles of vodka!) are in the wrong job, don't particularly enjoy the people they live or work with, don't even get away from their desk at lunch time.
Go to the pictures mid-week. Have friends around for cards. Sing, dance, play a musical instrument ..., laugh, exercise ...
Complete the Stress Risk profile and see whether you're doing the things unstressed people do.
Complete the Career Satisfaction profile. See if you're in the right job.
DEEP RELAXATION Click here and you'll be taken to a spot on my website where you can read more about relaxation. There's a relaxation technique there which it you read it into a recorder you can play it back to yourself at night and drift off to sleep with the sound of your own voice.
LISTEN TO THE WIRELESS I drift off to sleep listening to the wireless. I set the sleep button for 24 minutes and I'm off with the faeries well before it goes off.
Someone said recently you shouldn't go to sleep listening to the wireless because you start to absorb a lot of negative stuff. I listen to Tony Delroy's quiz, so I reckon I'm getting smarter.
Sweet dreams. |
