A lot of people seem to downplay the role that sleep plays in our health and so the topic for this month's Med-Hive prompt has been "sleep and health" because they are very related.
But first I probably need to say this, making this kind of post doesn't come so easy, especially professional ones and it takes lots of time and research, I had this in my pad for days as I kept trying to add something more to it. It's mostly what I try to do at night just before bed, I go through and add what I need to, but I think we need to see it now before the month finally runs out.
I appreciate every added value to making this community what we all want it to be. Thanks to #hive for such an opportunity as well.
SLEEP IS A BLESSING
When you wake up that morning, you jump out of bed, leave your house in the morning and straight up to work, get things done, work off your body and you come back, you rest, hands off another day. That is a sweet life, isn't it?
But how about finding out that one day it's difficult for you to sleep, or the other day it's hard for you to have a long-lasting sleep or another day comes and you find yourself feeling very sleepy excessively and you sleep a whole lot more or another day comes when you practically couldn't get a bearing of your day at all because of lack of sleep.
Sleep is very important, it is you shutting down major processes of your brain and your body for it to be able to refresh and restore its capacity to maximum functionality whenever you're back up.
A lot of people do not think of it this way, they feel they sleep when they have to AND HUSTLE ON, but sleep should be regular for everyone for better functioning and good mental health.
I chose to give this post a title that seems to draw you and me close, to give some attention to sleep.
A Nigerian adage said in pidgin goes that says,
Pikin wey say him mama no go sleep, him too no go sleep.
It means "the child that says his mum won't sleep will not sleep".
We often use it to describe a situation where a child may have cried all night and the mum who couldn't sleep but would have to attend to her baby. They won't both sleep.
The meaning is clear, whatever gives trouble would have no peace, now you learnt that, but the topic is on sleep .. lol.
If anything takes your sleep it's got to have little peace. I guard my sleep and hope that you do too.
How much you all get to sleep matters to the proper functioning of society. If you don't sleep well, and you go out there and make a mistake or a wrong decision or something, someone somewhere may just be affected and not sleep. You must sleep well, for me 😅😅... You get the point.
Let's plunge deeper
Our lifetime on average of 80 years, we get about 25years to 35years of sleep, some even 40 years. Now I'm not saying this for you to reduce your sleep, it is important that it is optimal, and that you know it. As infants, we slept about 16 to 18 hours a day until age 5 to 7 years, then a gradual decline of those hours to about 7 to 9 hours or even less as adults.
Inability to fulfil these regular sleep demands is known as sleep deprivation and requires urgent attention as it could well be a symptom or a sign of something or self-willed.
Insomnia is another name for poor sleep and is often seen as an outcome of sleep deprivation too. It culminates into poor sleep patterns even when there may be no trigger for it.
There are some classical case-defined causes of insomnia.
Adjustment Insomnia is mostly due to a change in environment or an introduction of new stress, either heat, light, noise or even a new job. some people can have it after a relocation to a new house or after meeting a new person or sadly after losing someone close.
There is also primary insomnia which is insomnia due to a long duration of stress on both the psychological and physical aspects of a person.
Funny that needs to be shared that we also have something called paradoxical insomnia and this is when a person perceives himself to be awake even while asleep.
It could also be due to a medical condition, a drug or a mental disorder.
Be grateful if you get to sleep so easily some people have to do a lot to make them sleep, people have to take a shower so I might have t have a meal or drink milk some will have to listen to the song some may even sleep on the bare floor some may have to listen to a bedtime story even as old as they may be, some after sex a lot of people have found different ways to find sleep sadly some haven't found it. 🤔
So let's talk about the difficulties of finding sleep.
There are three types of insomnia, transient lasting less than a week, acute lasting about one month and chronic lasting more than a month.
When people are deprived of sleep, that could be either Total, partial or selective.
When partial means they couldn't fill their sleep hours within a night. Total occurs when a person stays awake all night long, and selective could be when some required stages of sleep are deprived of a person. Especially when someone is frequently waking up.
Adjustment Insomnia is one o the most common causes and mostly applies to most people chasing a deadline, watching a movie or even being busy Hiving.
A Live Queen story and My Experience
I have had to counsel a few people on TikTok to stay off the app live at night and get good sleep, they often cover their sleep bags with makeup and keep getting the app's benefits while growing accounts. This lady had began to notice funny changes in her body and even notice some weight loss and elevated blood pressure, she had been staying online through the nights for 4 consecutive days which has gotten her worried.
By the way, I've not come to write like I have not also had my fair share of sleep deprivation. I have. Let me share a bit, the med school was known to be filled with super high anxiety levels and trying to meet up with demands, ward rounds and even tests but I must say that I was probably lucky and it all paid off well. Moment in my life, I have most been deprived of sleep a few days ago while I was still working several shifts which included night shifts as a doctor in a private facility.
Some nights were not promised, one would have to stay awake to ensure monitoring and managing of the patient was going on smoothly, and God be with you, get an emergency case just at the nadir of your sleep. Hehehe.
The quick snapping into reality and then into rapid activity and fast thinking is crazy.
Well, I guess it comes with the job. But I had to switch it because it was telling on my sleep and mental health and there are other things to do with my cognition than just being a Doctor on the night shift. I resigned and took a long break, two weeks or so, where I slept so much and rested off the stress accumulated.
Then I regained my sleep rhythm and made for a new job.
When sleep is not enough
Well, that was me, now it's time to hear what the consequences of poor sleep could be.
Well to start with the bad side so we can end on a good note, sleep deprivation has been proven to reduce cognitive activities in the brain. Research h cording to this study showed that people made more mistakes simulating driving after having been deprived of graded hours of sleep. The body has been deprived more of the significance of mistakes they made.
Sleep-deprived people are also known to have issues with storing data in their memory. They would forget things much more than those who slept well.
Sleep has also been found to aid glucose metabolism and hence deprivation resulting in poor glucose management, especially in type 2 diabetes. Here
It also has accumulated mental stress culminating in easy fatigability, depression and mood swings.
For the good sides, well the reverse is almost always the case.
A FEW HEALTHY TIPS
On a final note, I would like to give a few tips and how to deal with sleep issues.
But first I must say that medication should not be the first step to take when you're not sleeping well. The moment medication is involved it could be complicated most of the time.
Here are the tips.
Ensure a calm and quiet clean environment when it's almost bedtime.
Keep to your bedtime and always stop whatever you're doing to sleep.
Avoid eating too close to your bedtime, it makes your tummy rumble and unsettled which may cost you your sleep in the long term. Some people feel sleepy after a heavy meal, however much sleep I get is almost always not refreshing enough.
Avoid caffeinated beverages and alcohol as well as coffee as these may deprive you of sleep.
Use the bed only for sleeping and nothing else, leave the bed when you are doing anything else, associate the bed only to sleep.
This may sound funny but for you to get sufficient sleep at night you probably need to avoid taking a nap during the day too to your circadian reading for the long night.
And finally from me and my friend
in her post here, some kinds of exercise can help you get a good sleep at night.
References and further readings
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