Tracy99 | posted 1 week ago

I know we all sleep but why? It seems like a waste of time to spend so long in bed when we could be studying or earning money. Can’t we just take a catnap whenever we feel tired?

DrSue > Tracy99 | 2 days ago

Hi there!

Let’s get one thing clear: you can’t simply exchange hours of sleep for hours of study or work because you need to sleep at the right time, and the right time for sleep is roughly 10.00 pm to 6.00 am. Why is this? Well, of course it’s dark then and darkness helps you to sleep, but more importantly the body is programmed to clean itself during this period. Research shows that the organs of the body are cleaned in a particular order, starting with the liver, then going on to the lungs, and finally the intestines. The brain also needs down time to allow chemicals to clean the plaque that builds up in the gaps between nerve cells (neurons). This kind of housekeeping allows the brain to fix memories and consolidate learning.

Background Information: 

The Text: The Study of Sleep

The scientific study of sleep and dreams is still in its early stages and there is much that we do not know about sleep, so the information presented in the text is still being discussed and researched. There are many centres around the world devoted to studying the science of sleep. It is understood that sleep is vital to our well-being, and is closely linked with serious health and mood problems such as high blood pressure, obesity, and depression.

REM sleep has been most studied. It is now known that we dream not only during REM sleep but during other sleep too. However, REM sleep is believed to serve the purpose of consolidating recent memories and reinforcing old memories. The dreaming that occurs in REM sleep is a by-product of this process.

Monitoring sleep is no longer only the field of scientists. There are a variety of apps on the market that promise to monitor your sleep cycle and sleep patterns with a view to helping you sleep better and wake up more easily. In addition many of the fitness tracker bracelets that are available also claim to track your sleep. Many sleep scientists, however, are sceptical about the accuracy of these sleep trackers.

Key Words:

down time: Time when you can relax and not work

plaque: A substance that forms in parts of your body and in which bacteria can grow

housekeeping: The activity of keeping things organized so that you can work more effectively

Maxc | posted 4 days ago

What happens if we sleep poorly or have only a little sleep?

DrHayton > Maxc | 2 days ago

Good question. Thanks for asking it. Poor quality sleep or lack of sufficient sleep can be dangerous, especially if the problem persists for a long time. All kinds of problems can occur, such as the cognitive ones of poor concentration, short attention span, memory and language loss, and problems that threaten us physically such as increased risk of obesity and diabetes If you have survived on only a little sleep over a long period of time, you will have built up a “sleep deficit” or “sleep debt.” You need to settle that debt by catching up on the sleep you have lost. It is theoretically possible for a person to still be “making payments” on sleep that was lost many years ago. The concept of sleep debt is the subject of debate, however, and some medical experts refuse to recognize its existence because it is not verifiable through observation or experimentation.

Key Words:

cognitive: connected with recognizing and understanding things

obesity: a condition in which someone is too fat in a way that is dangerous for their health

diabetes: a serious medical condition in which your body does not produce enough insulin to reduce the amount of sugar in the blood

settle: to pay back

EllaB33 | posted 2 days ago

What actually happens when we sleep? I’ve heard that sleep is a time for having dreams that can help us make sense of the past and even plan for the future.

DrSmith > EllaB33 | 1 day ago

It’s unlikely that sleep has much to tell us about our past or future life. Sleep is concerned with the present — the here and now needs of maintaining the brain and the body. As for dreams, they may simply be the result of the processes of fixing memories and consolidating learning we discussed in answer to the first question. We dream during REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, when our eyes move rapidly in various directions under our eyelids. The first REM episode normally happens about eighty minutes after falling asleep, and most people have three to five REM episodes per night. 

REM sleep is interesting to researchers but for most people it’s probably easier to think in terms of three stages of sleep: drowsiness (feeling tired with your eyes beginning to close), light sleep (your eyes are closed but you can be easily woken up) and deep sleep. Deep sleep is the most refreshing mentally and is the kind of sleep that allows the body to clean and repair itself most effectively. REM sleep takes place in the deep sleep stage.

Fab54u | posted 2 days ago

Most doctors recommend sleeping for eight hours a night. Does everyone need eight hours?

DrHayton > Fab54u | 1 day ago

That’s a great question, and the answer is that we all need different amounts of sleep. Most people get between five and eleven hours a night. However, the young need a great deal of sleep to help them grow, but the old need considerably less because they are not growing and their metabolism is much slower than that of young people. It is certainly unhealthy for a mature person to get too little or too much sleep but as individuals we all have different needs. So the best thing to do is listen to our minds and bodies to discover the optimal amount of sleep for us. Think of it this way: the right amount of sleep for you is the amount you need not to be sleepy in the daytime!

Key Words:

metabolism: the chemical processes by which cells produce the energy and substances necessary for life

optimal: best or most suitable

SunnyF | posted 2 days ago

I’ve got some friends who tell me they suffer from insomnia. What is insomnia exactly?

DrSmith > SunnyF | 1 day ago

People who suffer from insomnia have serious problems in getting to sleep and staying asleep. Most people who claim to suffer from insomnia are just experiencing temporary problems — they might be going through a stressful period in life, for example, or may have suffered trauma at some stage in life. The real insomnia sufferer is unable to sleep for long periods of time. The results of this can be catastrophic family tensions, job failure, illness and even death. Sleep medication can help some but not all insomniacs. Some respond better to a routine that involves taking plenty of physical exercise in the evening. Another cause of poor quality sleep is sleep apnoea, which refers to pauses in breathing and shallow breathing during sleep. Each pause in breathing, called an apnoea, can last from at least ten seconds to several minutes, and may occur five to thirty times or more an hour. A symptom of sleep apnoea is snoring, which can become so violent and loud that it wakes the snorer up! Devices that fit in the nose are now available to prevent violent snoring and also prevent the bad marital relations that can develop as the result of one partner being an uncontrollable snorer!

Key Words:

trauma: a bad experience or serious injury

catastrophic: causing a lot of damage

Margaretw | posted 2 days ago

I’ve heard doctors on TV talking about “sleep hygiene,” but I don’t know what it means. Can you explain, please?

DrSue > Margaretw | 1 day ago

“Sleep hygiene” means doing the right things to get the best sleep: getting into the habit of going to bed at the right time for you, not eating dinner too late, not drinking alcohol or caffeine drinks before sleep, and getting into a stress-free frame of mind. This last point is important and one way to relax before sleep is to read (but nothing too interesting!). Another way is to listen to music (but nothing too stimulating). My preferred way is to write down a list of things that are bothering me. In this way, I externalize my problems. If you internalize problems and do nothing about them, this is very likely to disturb your sleep. My advice is this: if you can’t quickly solve a problem, then to remove the problem from your mind, put it down on paper. Getting problems out of your mind really helps.

Key Words:

stimulating: making you feel interested

externalize: to express thoughts and feelings

L.Miller | posted 2 days ago

I’ve heard that some high achievers like to catnap. Does this really work?

DrSmith > L.Miller | 1 day ago

Some successful businesspeople claim that taking a nap in the daytime, normally after lunch, helps to refresh the mind and body. Certainly a lot of people in China like to nap and the Spanish afternoon sleep, the siesta, is known the world over. Evidence suggests that a nap helps to refresh us by allowing the body to concentrate on breaking down and releasing energy from lunch; what I mean is that catnapping facilitates digestion by ensuring that ample blood is available in the stomach and intestines rather than being used for work or exercise. However, a nap should be taken for no more than twenty minutes and only if the person really is sleepy; otherwise there’s no point. In any case, few of us are now free to sleep at lunch time. We’re too busy!

Key Words:

facilitate: to make it possible or easier for something to happen

ample: enough and often more than you need