Myths of Sleep

Myths of Sleep
1. Insomnia illustrated as difficulty of falling asleep.
Difficulty falling asleep is one of the main symptoms of insomnia. With waking up too early, feeling drained when awakens and unable to resume sleeping after awakening are among other symptoms. If one of these occurs few times a week, please consult a general practitioner.

2. Awaken middle of the night, it is recommended to 'force' yourself back to sleep by all means.
Not intoxicating with alcohol to make your sleepy, or counting the black sheep but relaxing with music or by reading and heading back to bed when you are sleepy. Maybe an unattractive book to make your fall asleep while reading would help.

3. "Cheats" on the amount of sleep.
We always have the mentality of sleeping less today and 'pay back' in future with accumulated sleep deprivation hours. Thus this practice adds up to a huge amount of 'sleep debt' that links health problems such as hypertension, decreased productivity, emotionally disturbed and obesity.

4. Snoring is common among men but harmless.
Claims of it being harmless but it is a symptom of a sleeping disorder which can be life threatening called sleep apnea. Experiences of severe daytime sleepiness, gasping for breath during night awakenings and hypertensions are all risk of the disorder. Consult a physician if snoring continues and louder than usual.

5. Brain rests during sleep.
The body rest, instead the brains are getting 'recharged' and still controls body functions. When we sleep, we drifts into two sleep states of REM (rapid eye movement) and non-REM, in 90-minute cycles. REM sleep is an active sleep where dreams occur and our breathing and heart rate increase indicating the brains are still active.

6. Sleeping teens are undisciplined and are /or lazy.
Teens needs more sleep due to their active lifestyle and metabolism rate. Their biological clock complies with late evening alertness and sleep in the wee hours of mornings. Class begins early, thus most are still in the stage of 'semi-consciousness'. Alertness resumed at mid morning.

7. Daytime sleepiness represents not enough sleep.
Daytime sleepiness (extremely sleepy, drowsy, or not alert) even after sufficient hours of sleeps indicates a sleeping disorder for the individual. It is risky to have such disorder and need extra consultation from physicians.

8. Blasted radio, fresh air, or chilled temperatures are effective to keep alertness while driving.
Best to take a short nap of 15 - 45 minutes before resume to driving as these aids might counter-fire for individuals' safety and leads to road hazards.

9. Health problems are unrelated to amount and quality of a person's sleep. They are in fact related, in example, insufficient of sleep induced growth hormone secretion to decrease with chances of weight gains. Interrupted sleep during 'deep cycle' leads to hypertension and cardiovascular problems. Thus, sleep is as essential as it is a healthy life style to prevent health problems attacking.

10. Less sleep needed as you grow older.
This myth went amok as we still need the standard 7-9 hours of sleep regardless of age of an adult. Only naps are frequent among seniors to promote wakefulness after the nap.