Forget what you might have heard in the past about naps. For those who respond well to naps (and who learn the ropes to perfecting this art), naps can provide a wealth of rewards that go beyond just you feel better and able to tackle the rest of your day.

Naps have been shown scientifically to benefit almost every aspect of human wellness from the physical rewards of lowering your risk for heart disease and repairing cells to the more obvious ones of lifting your mood and stamina, knocking down stress, and making you more productive. Because naps can improve heart functioning, support hormonal maintenance, and encourage cell repair, they can help you live longer, stay more active, and look younger.

These benefits, of course, are what nocturnal sleep is for, so the purpose of a nap is to plunge you into and out of rejuvenating sleep as fast as possible. By doing so, you tap into these benefits during the day instead of having to wait until nighttime to recoup them. MRIs of nappers have shown that brain activity stays high throughout the day with a nap; without one, it declines as the day wears on.

The brain is the part of the body most affected by a nap, which is evidenced by a greater alertness, improved memory retention, and enhanced ability to think creatively and insightfully. By sharpening your motor skills and neuromuscular coordination, napping can make you better at just about anything you do, from dancing and playing the piano to driving a car, making quick decisions, responding to stimuli or danger, exploring the Internet, and typing frantically on a computer or a BlackBerry.

Psychologist Dr. Sara C. Mednick, a scientist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, has been leading the way in conducting napping research, publishing convincing data with colleagues at Harvard University, among others, on the value and benefits of napping. Collectively, recent findings among the top nap researchers are demonstrating just how naps enhance information process and learning. In a nutshell, napping has been shown to:

• Improve a person’s capacity to learn certain tasks, and
• Reverse information overload by protecting brain circuits overuse until those neurons can consolidate what’s already been learned.

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The twenty-minute power nap has been talked about for years, but napping doesn’t have to be so confined. You can gain a lot of benefits from as little as five minutes, and as much as two or more hours (but, please, no more than three). As mentioned earlier, if you can achieve full cycle of sleep through slow-wave, or deep, sleep, you stand to the most out of a mid-day snoozes.

If you’ve tried to nap in the past and you’ve awakened grog feeling worse off than beforehand, this is most likely because haven’t timed it right and you’ve awakened in the middle of that wave sleep stage. During this stage, your brain’s activity is polar o to how it functions while you’re awake. At this stage, you’ve corn tuned out the external world and your entire brain rhythm synchronize into a slow, uniform pattern instead of multitasking and operating many frequencies.

If you suddenly come out of slow-wave sleep forces your brain to desynchronize and fire off high-frequency electrical activity. Until your brain catches up to the fact you’re actually you’ll feel slow, sleepy, and probably cranky, too. Your limbs will heavyweights, your eyes won’t focus well, you’ll have a hard time sounding articulate, and your mind will feel left behind. A quick way to slap your brain into wakeful shape is to do something physical, listen to stimulating music, or splash cold water on your face.

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There’s no denying that today’s drug of choice is caffeine. It’s most widely used psycho stimulant in the world. And in standard practice, about 85% of Americans use caffeine regularly may help bolster wakefulness in the morning or to stay alert throughout the day. There is no nutritional need for caffeine in the diet, Moderate caffeine intake, however, is not associated with any recognized health we’re willing to throw upward of five dollars over the counter for drug in the form of a designer coffee.

Every working day, Star opens four new outlets somewhere on the planet, hiring 200 employee But caffeine isn’t ubiquitous due to popular coffee and tea hangout found in soft drinks, medicine (especially cold medicines and pa relievers), candy, ice cream and other desserts, and even water. (Yes, it’s true. Some bottled water companies market “Java water.”) Multiple sources of caffeine make it incredibly easy to consume, sometimes unintentionally.

About 78% of us drink at least one cup or can of a caffeinated beverage daily, and 25% of us drink four or more cups or cans a day. In technical terms, our average daily intake is about 280 milligrams or over 16% above the recommended daily allowance. Caffeine’s effects on sleep are determined by a variety of factors, including amount, the time between caffeine ingestion and attempted sleep, individual differences in metabolism and sensitivity and/or tolerance to caffeine.

People differ greatly in their sensitivity to caffeine; some people can drink several cups of coffee, tea, or soft drinks within an hour of sleep and notice no effects, whereas others may feel stimulating effects after one serving. Caffeine does not accumulate in the bloodstream or body and is normally excreted within several hours following consumption. (Caffeine can begin to take effect within fifteen to twenty minutes and reaches peak concentration in the blood in sixty to ninety minutes after ingestion, then gets metabolized in the liver, complete clearance of caffeine from the body, however, doesn’t occur until twenty-four to forty-eight hours after the last cup! Keep in mind that excretion rates vary from person to person based on age, weight, sex, hormonal status, and metabolism.)

Thus, there is no one grande mocha half-caf, fat-free fits-all set of guidelines for using caffeine responsibly. I love a good cup of joe myself, but I also know my limits. You, too, can get in tune with how your body responds to caffeine and can make adjustments so that it’s less likely to disrupt your sleep.

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If you wake up after seven to eight hours of sleep and still feel unrefreshed, your problem may not be about quantity but rather quality. The quality of sleep is as vitally important to our health and well-being as is the quantity. Why? Our sleep has a complex pattern, or architecture, those cycles through five stages during the night.

During certain stages and times of the sleep cycles, we secrete hormones and other substances that help regulate our metabolism and support our general health. What happens in our brains during REM sleep is how we retain information, organize our memories, and prepare to learn something new or perform a special task. If our sleep patterns are altered, it may leave us feeling unrefreshed, tired, and sleepy, as well as put us at risk for a host of minor and even serious medical conditions.

Science is still trying to understand completely how our body clock work, and even how many body clocks we have. Currently, we think w have two body clocks: one that is set by outward cues of light and darkness, and a second one that has an internal schedule set in the brain. It is when these two clocks don’t agree on the same schedule, and compete with each other, that we feel “off.” Synchronizing these two clocks comes with hitting the “reset” button every twenty-four hours.

We can do this by exposure to light and by activity. For example, when you want to be alert and awake but your body doesn’t want to follow, you can stimulate your body to reset itself just by going outside into the sunlight for ten or fifteen minutes or engaging in some physical activity, preferably outside in the bright light.

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I get asked all the time if a woman or a man needs more sleep. This a hard question to answer because the research just isn’t there yet. Beyond what the scientific reports tell me, what I see in actual people in and day out from a clinical perspective however, says a lot. I know from a clinical standpoint that women tend to confess more about sleep issues than men. Does that mean men are less vulnerable to sleep problems or that women happen to be more comfortable talking about their health? It’s hard to say.

Given my experience I’m inclined to admit that women, as a gender, appear to bear numerous stresses due to the multifaceted nature of their roles in today’s society: Mom, Wife. Employ Chauffeur. Cook. Cleaner. Business owner. Family manager. Caretak etc. When I sit and talk with my female patients who do happen comprise more of my patient base than males we discuss everything from pregnancy to menopause, to career, to marriage, and that word “balance,” and I know I’ve got it much easier than many of them.

One would naturally think that since women and men are physic logically different, they’d also have different sleep needs. But women from adolescence to postmenopause, are underrepresented in studies sleep and its disorders. Although sleep complaints are twice as prevalent among women, the majority of sleep research has been conducted in men (this is changing). Some studies are now showing that women men be at greater risk for insomnia, or have a predisposition due to their Sex, but explaining this from a purely scientific standpoint is not entire] possible right now. Thus, the question remains unanswered.

Compounding the complexity of this question is the fact that age can have more to do with sleep needs and experiences than gender. For example, younger women may build up a sleep debt more easily than older women. Whether or not this is true, however, is debatable. In fact many sleep studies result in controversial and inconclusive data.

What we do know about sleep and aging is that the older you get, that more likely you are to suffer from interrupted sleep, which is critical to feeling rested and refreshed, Older people still need roughly the same number of sleep hours as they got when they were younger (it may dev ate by thirty minutes to an hour, over a lifetime), but the architecture their sleep shifts. The amplitude (height) of their brain waves decrease, making these waves no longer meets criteria for deep sleep. They a easily awakened by noise, light, or even their own pain from a chronic medical condition. Sleep becomes more fragmented and inefficient, the actual time spent sleeping is less than the time spent in bed.

Another influential aspect of aging that can affect sleep is your circadian rhythm, which is a very important subject matter we’ll be visiting throughout this book. Circadian rhythms are the patterns of repeat activity associated with the environmental cycles of day and night. Our internal rhythms repeat roughly every twenty-four hours. Examples dude the sleep-wake cycle, the ebb and flow of hormones, the rise a fall of body temperature, and other subtle rhythms that mesh with twenty-four-hour solar day. A lot of people’s sleep problems can be attributed to an internal clock that has become out of sync or mismatch with the day-night cycle. And as you’ll learn about extensively, ii has an immense impact on setting our body clocks, also called our circadian pacemakers.

Everyone’s circadian pacemaker ticks at a different rate, but as age, your pacemaker will speed up or slow down, thus altering how’, body responds to that twenty-four-hour cycle. Babies don’t get a rhythm going until about six months of age, at which point they establish a rhythm that matches closely with the twenty-four-hour day. If you had teenagers in the house, you know they typically don’t go too much before eleven at night. From the age of about fifteen to twenty five, that pacemaker slows down, so a seventeen year old’s body usally won’t want to go to sleep early or get up early.

Sometime during our twenties, the body clock speeds back up again so it matches the twenty four-hour day. Then, later on in life, our clocks speed up further, so body doesn’t match so well with the twenty-four-hour day. If want go to bed early and get up super early, which is what you find Granny and Gramps doing. At an older age the body also doesn’t experience strong a fluctuation in core body temperature throughout the day, with affects the rhythm. This might explain partially why older people rhythms aren’t as robust and clearly defined as younger people.

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1. Choose a set wake-up time. Wake up at exactly the same time every day, no matter how much sleep you got the night before.
2. Choose a bedtime. Choose the earliest possible bedtime that enables you to get the sleep you need. However, too much time in bed will lead to lighter, more interrupted sleep, so an appropriate bedtime is one that enables you to get the sleep that you need but doesn’t let you be in bed too long. You only want to spend the amount of time in bed that you actually need for sleep.
3. Go to bed when you are sleepy, but not before your chosen bedtime. Don’t go to bed until you are sleepy. So if you are still wide-awake at your chosen bedtime, wait a while longer until you are sleepy enough to fall asleep quickly.
4. Get out of bed when you can’t sleep. If you are lying in bed and can’t sleep, get out of bed and do something relaxing out of the bedroom. Read a book, watch television, or do something else relaxing; then go back to bed when you feel sleepy enough to fail asleep quickly. Again, if you do not fall asleep quickly, get up. Keep repeating this cycle until you fall asleep. You need to get out of bed when you can’t sleep both at bedtime and in the middle of the night.
5. Don’t worry or plan in bed. When lying in bed at night, don’t spend the time worrying or planning for the next day. Set aside another time of the day to do these things. If you automatically start thinking and worrying when you get in bed, get up and don’t head back to bed until your thoughts won’t interfere with falling asleep. Thinking in bed is a habit, and one that you can break.
6. Use your bed for sleep only. Don’t do anything but sleep in your bed. That is, don’t do other activities, such as eat, watch television, or pay bills in your bed. (Sex is allowed.)
7. Avoid naps. Naps will interfere with your ability to fall asleep at bedtime, so no naps.

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Perfect Night’s Sleep: write down what and when you eat and drink in your sleep diary for a week, and see if there are any correlations between your diets and sleep patterns. You can then start by eliminating potential trouble-makers. You’ll probably find, like one sleepless friend, that however much you like them late-night pizzas will just have to go.

As we all know, Friday night vindaloos washed down with several lagers are not the recipe for sleep; nor is tucking into your favourite cheese at midnight (cheese contains a substance called tyramine, which indirectly leads to an increase in blood pressure, a symptom associated with nightmares).

Foods which are difficult or take a long time to digest, high-sugar foods which take no time to digest but which give the body and brain a rush of fuel, too much alcohol and caffeine, foods containing the additive MSG (monosodium glutamate, found in many processed foods and take away) which causes, among other things, digestive problems, headaches and heartburn, foods and drinks containing the yellow peril, tartrazene (E-102), notorious for its link with hyperactivity in children – all of these can negatively affect your sleep.

Life as an insomniac is already miserable enough. Cut them out or reduce them as much as you can from your diet. The other substance nutritionists advise to avoid is aspartame (Nutrasweet). Apart from being a stimulant, it depletes tryptophan and serotonin levels.

As we all know, too, large quantities of fat and protein hang around in the system and are difficult to digest. Both take twice as long (about 4 hours) as carbohydrate to metabolize another reason to go easy on the butter and cream (or olive oil) in the evening. Furthermore, despite what Mediterranean’s do, the digestive system does not work half as well in the evening as during the day.

Other foods to avoid are: processed foods, which are poor-value nutrition and, biologically speaking, just a waste of space; spicy foods hot spices such as chili and mustard, which act as stimulants foods high in tyrosine, especially before bedtime.

Tyrosine is an amino acid that increases the release of norepinephrine the neurotransmitter that does for the brain what adrenaline does for body. Examples are bacon and other cured meats, aged cheeses such as parmesan, blue cheeses such as Stilton, soft cheeses such as mozzarella, potatoes, and tomatoes, chocolate and also wine. Now we know why pizzas and chianti give us a buzz.

Junk food diets are a no-no. So is not eating – I’ve been there myself, when you are literally too tired to eat, and know of other insomniacs who, through stress and anxiety, end up not eating. As far as your body is concerned, both are extremely stressful. The final aspects of your diet worth checking are food allergens: wheat (gluten), dairy, nuts and oranges are among the most common culprits.

All this makes very good sense, but don’t go into a panic. It doesn’t mean these are banned foods, or that your insomnia will spiral out of control if you have a bacon busty at 9 p.m. You know what you can eat and what you can’t. If you don’t, this is a very good time to find out. Even if you do nothing else, you can at least become more strategic about when you eat what. Your sleep will thank you for it.

Don’t eat large meals close to bedtime; in fact, if you can, ideally aim to eat lightly in the evening, and save binges for lunchtime. At the very least, avoid foods which give your liver a hard time and are difficult to digest. Absolutely avoid any kind of sugar at bedtime in the form of food or drink. It’s an instant source of energy for the brain at exactly at the wrong time. Incorporate sleep-friendly foods into your diet.

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In addition to those discussed above, the following herbs are well-known soporifics. Herbal sleep preparations are often sold as blended formulations. I agree with sleep scientists that, generally, lovely though they are, these rarely do the job, especially for serious insomnia. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try them, particularly if your insomnia is recent, temporary, or not that severe.

There are countless testimonials from people who swear by them, and for whom they have really helped. As with the herbal anti-stress remedies above, it is extremely rare to experience any negative side-effects. They may not cure your insomnia, but they will not harm you. Use certified organic herbs if you can. Two remarkable American websites that will give you pharmacological chapter and verse about herbs are: www.herbs.org and www.herbmed.org.

German chamomile (Matricaria recutita): So mild and lovely, it is often suggested for children. Add a few drops of the oil to your bath to relieve fraught nerves.

Hops (Humulus lupus): Used for centuries and probably the best known herbal sleeping pill, its sedative effect works directly on the central nervous system. The suggested dose is 200 mg per day; and is said to be most effective taken in combination with valerian, kava kava or passionflower

Lavender (Lavandular): Who doesn’t drown their pillows with it, religiously add it to every bath, or dab the insides of their wrists or soles of their feet with lavender when we go to bed? Aromatherapists swear by its ability to relax you and promote sleep. That includes adding a few drops of lavender oil to children’s baths, too.

Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata): This has a proven non addictive mild sedative effect, and is an ancient remedy in its native South America to combat insomnia. It encourages deep, restful sleep. The suggested dose is 100-200 mg per day, best used in combination with other relaxant herbs.

Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora): American skullcap.Used to alleviate anxiety, depression, headaches and insomnia.

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Changing your diet to maximize sleep-promoting nutrition clears away the crud and lays the foundation for better sleep. But it is not a cure. First, nutrients don’t work in isolation, but synergistically. As far as sleep is concerned, two obvious examples are the relationship between magnesium and calcium, and that between tryptophan and carbohydrate. The science of nutrition is littered with such examples, and you could drive yourself mad trying to compose the theoretical ‘ideal’ diet and it still wouldn’t work.

Similarly, we all absorb some nutrients better than others (I have the perfect diet, and lousy absorption), need more of this or that than the next person – and we are highly unlikely to be aware of what our precise needs are. I have no idea, for example, of how much vitamin C my personal bio-system thrives on. I just whack it in (as it’s water-soluble, excess is just flushed out). All scientists and experts can do is generalize.

This is where supplements come in. They are not a substitute for a good diet and sound nutrition, but are potentially a good way of boosting whichever nutrient or sleep-promoting substance you might need, which might help do the trick.

American studies using magnesium and B complex supplementation, for example, have all resulted in improved sleep for their insomniac guinea pigs. Sleep-promoting supplements fall into two broad groups: those which aim to get to the root of the biochemical problem and boost your serotonin or melatonin levels, and those which help you to relax and therefore hopefully stop those stress hormones from doing their worst.

Don’t use supplements as a quick-fix for not eating well sleep foods, you will need these to make sure you give your body the best chance of maximizing their absorption and doing their bit. They are additions and enhancements, not an excuse for passing the buck.

Nor are supplements cheap. We all experiment with them, with mixed results. If you are serious about supplements for sleep, you should consult a specialist nutritionist or naturopath who will help determine the right dose for you, and which other supplements you may need.

The more you begin to understand biochemical processes and just how complex they are, the more it becomes obvious (at least to me, and I speak as one who has tried most) why a supplement may or may not work for you. Each of us is a unique, constantly changing, forever interactive mass or mess of chemical reactions and electrochemical vibrations. Biochemically, the reason for your insomnia will always be slightly different from the next person’s, so your body’s reaction to adding anything into the soup will be unique as well. It will also change with time.

Think of supplements as first aid. Remember, too, that unless your insomnia is straightforward that is, there are no underlying emotional, psychological, life-sorting issues though proper supplementation can definitely help and does indeed fix many people’s insomnia they are not a magic solution.

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If you are an insomniac

• Remember that often your partner needs as much support as you do. Show your appreciation when you can.
• Don’t let insomnia rule both of your lives. That’s not fair to either of you.
• Try and be less obsessive, and more chilled out. Take a long-term view: it will get better eventually.
• Be nice to yourself. Don’t beat yourself up or blame yourself for not sleeping. If you are nice to yourself, you will be much nicer to be around.
• Tossing and turning is usually more disruptive to most partners than reading in bed, or getting out of bed. Train yourself to be poker-still, or go next door.

If your partner is an insomniac

• Don’t tell us we had more sleep last night than we say. It doesn’t help, especially when it’s true. For us, the amount we think we’ve slept is our reality.
• Don’t tell us not to be obsessive. It only aggravates us more.
• Be supportive about lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise. These can really make a difference in many cases, so it’s in your interest to give them an opportunity to work. The same goes for relaxation therapies, however bizarre. If your insomniac partner needs to start chanting mantras at odd times of the day or night, or stand motionless outside in the cold for half an hour at midnight practicing Chi Kung, so be it. Console yourself that mantras have a calming effect on brain waves, and being still helps you discover yourself. Maybe you should try it, too?
• The nearer you can be a saint, the better. Eventually we’ll love you more, promise.
• TLC goes an awful long way. If we need to crawl into bed, or sleep in a different room, tuck us up nicely and whisper sweet nothings in our ear.

For both of you

• Physical contact and mutual support are important.
• Hugs work wonders and are the instant, easy way to make things more bearable. Do hugs as often as you can. Remember, there is no such thing as a bad hug only good one and great ones.

Do take your sleepless partner’s condition seriously and appreciate that for them it may be seem the most important thing in their life and affects everything they do and think.

Do understand that their lack of communication and negativity do not originate with you, nor are they really aimed at you, but sometimes you’ll get it in the neck ‘cos you’re there and your partner can be irritable with you more easily than with friends/colleagues.

Do try and appreciate how desperate, isolated, fragile and vulnerable an insomniac can feel. At the same time, try and help them see things more positively and objectively.

Do understand that insomniacs can become like hermits. Socializing can become a pain rather than a pleasure. You may find you have to undertake more social outings or other activities on your own, but always talk about it rather than letting a gulf open up.

Do encourage without badgering your partner to work at handling the effects of insomnia and working at improving the amount of sleep they get. If you have an interest, help them look for potential remedies: books, counselors, sleep clinics, etc.

Do try and be accommodating if your partner feels it necessary to develop a bedtime ritual, such as going to bed early/late, doing medication, primal screaming, reading in bed or going off to try and sleep in the spare room.

Don’t encourage them to obsess about their condition. Help nurture peace and tranquility rather than anxiety and brooding.

Don’t debate anything controversial with your partner late at night. Agree to discuss it earlier in the day, or wait until the next day.

Don’t put your own sleep at risk by adopting or allowing yourself to overly disrupt by your partner’s routine. It will make you irritable and them guilty. And two insomniacs are definitely not better than one.

Don’t say you have a bad night too, just because you only got seven hours instead of your usual eight. Missing the odd hour or two occasionally is not the same as only getting two or three hours for nights on end.

Don’t accuse them of not being romantic, affectionate or positive. It’s hard to be anything other than a shadow if you haven’t slept for weeks.

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