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Sleep & Self-Worth

The Unlikely Duo Affecting Your Life

By Gina Dewink

It is not uncommon to read about connections between exercise or balanced diet with health and selfesteem. But researchers are urging we take a look at the third pillar of health: sleep. Recent studies show just how important sleep is when evaluating your own value, self-image and worth.

Not getting enough quality sleep negatively impacts your cognitive function, mood, reaction

time, learning and memory tasks. 1-3 Deep down inside, many of us value ourselves based on how others perceive us. But by depriving ourselves from the sleep we need, we are more likely to appear gruff and forgetful. By getting too few hours of quality sleep, we are setting ourselves up to forget that acquaintance’s name… again.

Individuals getting better quality sleep are perceived to appear more alert, more youthful, and more attractive (changes in facial surface

volume and color were identified). 4 Appearing more youthful and attractive? Yes, please. Chalk up another self-worth point for sleeping. As it turns out, beauty sleep is real. (Science says so.)

Short sleep duration appears independently associated with weight gain, particularly in

young age groups. 5 Weight gain and physical appearance have always been tied to self-esteem and worth. Though the answer is basic and a bit unremarkable, we now have a name for the magic weight loss solution we’ve been coveting! And thy name is sleep.

There is value to treating sleep disturbances in

treatment-resistant depression. 6 Science and anecdotal evidence have long linked depression and trouble sleeping. But this new research is a bit like the chicken and the egg. Its findings suggest that instead of treating depression to stop the sleep disturbances, we should treat the sleep disturbance which in turn will improve the symptoms of depression! (Mind blown.)

Sleep loss affects social abilities such as moral awareness, leadership ability and empathic

accuracy. 7 During the process of evaluating ourselves, these three are heavy hitters. Our moral compass, ability to lead and empathy for others can be viewed as signs of success. By striving for that quality sleep, we can better ourselves in the social situations that make up our lives. Sleep is a basic human need—a crucial component of survival, much like breathing, eating a healthy diet or getting enough exercise. But it is not yet a mainstream topic until we make it one.

References

1. Dinges DF, Pack F, Williams K, et al. “Cumulative sleepiness, mood disturbance, and psychomotor vigilance performance decrements during a week of sleep restricted to 4-5 hours per night,” Sleep, 20 (1997): 267-77. 2. Carskadon MA, Dement WC. “Cumulative effects of sleep restriction on daytime sleepiness.” Psychophysiolog y, 18 (1981): 107-13. 3. Van Dongen HP, Maislin G, Mullington JM, Dinges DF. “The cumulative cost of additional wakefulness: Dose-response effects on neurobehavioral functions and sleep physiology from chronic sleep restriction and total sleep deprivation.” Sleep, 26 (2003): 117-26. 4. Chervin, RD, Ruzicka, D, Vahabzadeh, A, et al. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 9 (2013): 845-852. 5. Patel SR, Hu FB. “Short sleep duration and weight gain: a systematic review.” Obesity (Silver Spring), 16(3) (2008): 643−53. 6. Dr. YK Wing (U. Hong Kong, China) presented new data on the “Added value of treating sleep disturbances in treatment-resistant depression.” World Sleep 2017. 7. Dr. Tina Sundelin (Sweden), “How sleep loss affects social perception and social abilities, which includes recent experimetal sudies determining how sleep deprivation affects self-reported sociability, emotional expressiveness, moral awareness, leadership ability, and empathic accuracy.” World Sleep 2017.

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The Sleep Secret Experts Prioritize

Sleep is one of the three pillars of good health, along with a balanced diet and regular exercise. The world’s leading sleep experts have hectic daily agendas, often directing a sleep center or university department while also conducting and publishing research and managing personal/family life. In a time when business leaders are proudly proclaiming they only sleep a few hours per night, what are leading sleep experts doing? Are they only sleeping four hours a night to get ahead?

World Sleep Society interviewed five internationally-renowned sleep experts who all understand that success does not have to come at the price of sleep deprivation. The real secret? Making time in a busy life for adequate sleep.

Dr. Liborio Parrino (Italy)

“Sleep is a non-negotiable condition that warrants wellness and prevents diseases,” states Liborio Parrino, MD, an Associate Professor of Neurology at Parma University, Italy. “Unfortunately, sleep is generally considered a time-wasting duty by many.”

Dr. Parrino began his sleep career by studying the recovery of sleep in comatose patients. Thirty-five years later, his current sleep research centers around the overlap between insomnia and sleep apnea syndrome. Dr. Parrino is industrious and successful. But does he make time for sleep? “In accordance with the recommended indications, I try to respect the range of 7–8 hours of sleep per night,” he relays. “No matter the content of my day, after 9:00pm, I start to slow down in order to welcome sleep in a relaxed and peaceful background.”

Dr. Parrino believes by making sleep a “trendy and attractive” activity, we can better our own health as well as the world’s. He explains, “When we sleep, we spend less on energy, water and food—And that’s in addition to improving our personal health. Once we all accept that, perhaps people will start rushing to their beds every night to enjoy the reinvigorating and rejuvenating properties of a good night’s sleep.”

Dr. Charles Samuels (Canada)

Charles Samuels, MD, CCFP, DABSM is the Medical Director of the Centre for Sleep and Human Performance as well as a Clinical Assistant Professor at Cummings School of Medicine, University of Calgary. He also is the current President of the Canadian Sleep Society. “The general public needs to know that sleep is important, has a purpose and we should all make it a priority,” Dr. Samuels declares. “I aim for an 8-hour window at night, usually from 11:00pm to 7:00am,” he says of his sleeping habits. “If I have to get up early, napping is a key part of my strategy. If I get 6 hours of sleep, I nap during the day for 15–20 minutes.”

But Dr. Samuels wasn’t always able to balance his schedule around sleep. During prolonged work hours as a rural physician, sleep debt impacted his behavior with his young family, his performance as a physician and almost cost him his life. “Two incidents cemented why sleep should be priority number one in my health,” Dr. Samuels relays. “First, while on-call, I rolled my car in the middle of winter while driving to the emer gency room from my house at midnight. I was clearly not fit to drive, and I was very lucky. Another more dramatic incident occurred one summer night driving

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...And Why You Should Too

home from the emergency department around 2:00am. I drove by my house, continuing on a country road and ended up at the shore of a lake, having fallen asleep driving. I woke up scared to death. I had no idea where I was, and it took me an hour to find my house.”

After these incidences, Dr. Samuels began researching the science of sleep. He also learned how to organize his day and night around sleep. When following his routine, he has the energy to work, train and enjoy the weekends.

Dr. Maree Barnes (Australia)

“On an individual level,” begins Dr. Maree Barnes of the Institute for Breathing and Sleep, Austin Hospital in Melbourne, “sleep is essential to good physical, emotional and psychological health. On a societal level, inadequate or poor sleep is a significant financial cost to our community.” Sleep disorders cost the Australian economy more than $5.1 billion each year in healthcare and indirect costs. Reduction in life quality caused by sleep disorders in Australia has a further cost equivalent of $31.4 billion per year. “Personally,” Dr. Barnes explains, “I try to average 8 hours sleep each night. There are some nights when this is not possible, so I sleep in when I can. I don’t nap during the day. I make this possible in two ways,” she continued. “Firstly, by making sure I have at least 8 hours reserved every night, and secondly, by ensuring my bedtime behaviors promote good sleep.” Dr. Barnes creates the right sleep environment by making sure the bedroom is dark, quiet and comfortable, avoiding caffeine, alcohol or exercise for at least one hour prior to bed, and leaving electronics out of the bedroom.

“When I fell into the field of sleep medicine, I was at home with three children under the age of 5 and expecting a fourth. Training and research provided me with the interest and challenge I needed, as well as insight into the importance of prioritizing sleep in our family. We must all remember that without adequate sleep, we are at risk of accidents on the road, at work and in the home, as well as cardiovascular and metabolic illnesses.”

1. SLEEP MORE 2. SLEEP MORE 3. SLEEP MORE!!!

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Sleep Secret from page 17

Dr. Clete A. Kushida (United States)

When Clete A. Kushida, M.D., Ph.D. was a freshman in college at Stanford, he saw an advertisement in The Stanford Daily (a student newspaper) that said, “Are you interested in sleep?” It turned out to be a recruiting session for students interested in being research sleep technologists for academic credit. Dr. Kushida explains, “I ended up staying up during the night to monitor the polysomnograms of research participants whom had narcolepsy. This piqued my interest in sleep disorders and I subsequently enrolled in Dr. William Dement’s “Sleep and Dreams” undergraduate course.” Dr. Dement encouraged Dr. Kushida’s interest in the scientific study of sleep, leading Kushida to follow his footsteps at the University of Chicago for medical and graduate school to pursue further training in sleep medicine and research.

Currently, Dr. Kushida is researching treatment effectiveness for patients with obstructive sleep apnea, as well as new therapies for sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, and narcolepsy. “I average 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night,” Dr. Kushida states. “I do this by consistently setting a standard sleep routine, and going to bed and waking up about the same time. Sleep is so important—not only for health, but also for maintaining optimal alertness in job performance, particularly in occupations where public safety is at risk,” he says.

Dr. Nesreen Elsayed Morsy (Egypt)

“When I was starting a pulmonology career eleven years ago,” begins Dr. Nesreen Elsayed Morsy, the Deputy Chairman of the Board and Council Secretary of Mansoura University Sleep Center (MUSC) and Faculty of Medicine of Mansoura University in Egypt, “sleep medicine was a mysterious area to me. I was excited to explore it. Especially in Egypt, it was a new field in the medical practice.” Currently, Dr. Morsy is researching the relationship between obstructive sleep apnea and venous thromboembolic diseases (blood clots, veins and circulation). “Although daily I have a lot to do, I am eager to have 6 to 7 sleep hours for workdays, and increase it to 9 hours on weekends,” Dr. Morsy states. “I am careful to get enough continuous sleep in a suitable place.”

Dr. Morsy believes more individuals should be aware of how optimal sleep is important for the body’s health. “Our sleep period is a time of growth hormone release and body repair, essential for learning and memory,” she describes. “Sleep loss can impair immune response, increase hunger, elevate cardiovascular diseases mortality and impair neurocognitive performance. We must all place sleep at the highest of importance.”

The professionals highlighted in this article represent the many leaders belonging to World Sleep Society’s membership, committed to advancing sleep medicine and research worldwide.

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