• Home
• About Dr. Park
  • Dr. Park’s Bio
  • My Mission
  • Testimonials
• My Practice
• Articles
• Sleep Apnea Basics
  • Obstructive Sleep Apnea – A Primer
  • Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome
  • Surgery For Snoring & Sleep Apnea
  • Usual and Unusual Ways to Stop Snoring
• Expert Interviews
• Blog
• Press Room
• Resources
• Contact Us

Subscribe: Email RSS 

Want To Be A Rock Star? Sleep On It

If you're a Guitar Hero addict, sleep researchers at the American Professional Sleep Society 2010 meeting are saying that the more you sleep, the better your chances are at winning at this popular video game. Not too surprising, since getting better quality sleep can help with almost every aspect of your life. 

A similar study that was presented found similar levels of improvement with football players at Stanford University. This was also the same sleep team that found in previous years that tennis players that got more sleep had more power, were more accurate, and had more stamina than those that slept less.

Not to diminish the importance of these studies, but I guarantee that you'll see more and more of these type of studies in the future. 

What's improved in your personal or professional life every since you started sleeping better?

An Interesting Series of Videos on Sleep

I finally had some time on my flight to and from LA during our family vacation to watch a series of videos called "Waking Up To Sleep 2007." The conference was held at the Salk Institute, and was presented by The Science Network. There are about 25 videos of pre-eminent sleep researchers on various topics including:

• Can sleeping on a problem create overnight insights?

• Will naps make you smarter?

• Are you getting enough sleep?

• How much sleep is enough?

 

It can be a little technical at times, but there are lots of areas that a layperson can understand and appreciate. I highly recommend that you browse through the various topics and learn as much as you can. Then sleep on it. The ones about memory and naps were especially interesting. Please come back to this post and give me your feedback on the various videos. What was your favorite topic?

Sleep And Grow Rich: 5 Steps to More Restful, Rejuvenating, Refreshing Sleep

Napoleon Hill, in his classic book, Think and Grow Rich, details the mindset changes that are necessary to achieve success at life, accomplish goals, and live a life of abundance. In a similar way, your ability to obtain quality and refreshing sleep also requires changes in how you think about sleep before you take the necessary physical steps.

Sleep Better, Live Better

Numerous research studies have shown that a good night’s rest is vital when it comes to your ability to focus, concentrate, remember, be creative, and various other mental and cognitive abilities. Your athletic abilities are also enhanced significantly when you sleep well. Needless to say, consistent, high-quality, refreshing, rejuvenating sleep can enhance almost every aspect of your emotional, mental, physical, sexual, and spiritual live. Unfortunately, in our fast-pased, information-driven, stress-filled modern lives, sleep is the first thing that’s sacrificed when we have too much work to do. The common corollary to getting that promotion or making more money is to work harder, and longer, and in the process, forgo even the most basic necessities. Forgoing a balanced meal, and substituting fast food instead, and sleeping less to work more, becomes the habituated norm for the success minded. Nonetheless, how can you enjoy the fruits of your success if you’re so tired and sick all the time?

Reasons For Your Sleep Deficit

Sleep deprivation can be so insidious and cumulative that you may not realize that your depression or anxiety may be from months or years of chronic low-grade levels of poor quality or quantity of sleep. Not only are we not getting enough sleep, our sleep quality has diminished significantly in modern times. In my book, Sleep, Interrupted, I explain how due to major changes in our diets and with the addition of bottle-feeding, our jaws are much more narrow with dental crowding. Smaller jaws leads to smaller breathing passageways, especially when we’re on our backs and in deep sleep (due to muscle relaxation). This leads to various degrees of partial to full obstruction, disrupting deep sleep, and preventing you from getting restorative, refreshing, and rejuvenating sleep.

Sleep Well and Prosper

Here are 5 habit and mindset changes that will help you to begin your journey towards a better nights’ sleep today.

1. Make an appointment with yourself at bedtime. If you had an important job interview or meeting, would you ever come late because you had some work left to do or you wanted to finish watching your TV show? Think of sleep as an appointment that’s just as important as an important meeting. Dr. Mao of AskDoctorMao.com recommends setting an alarm to go to sleep, as well as for waking up.

2. Plan your activities well during the day so that you can fall asleep quickly and stay asleep. What you do during the day has significant effects on how well you sleep at night. Exercising in the morning exposed to early morning sunshine can strengthen your internal sleep clock. Eating healthy meals with lots of fiber and multi-colored vegetables will not only keep you regular, it can also affect the the type of foods that you’ll crave, since your appetite, weight and sleep are all inter-related.

3. Set SMART goals. Commit yourself to goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, reasonable, and timely. Rather than just saying, "I want to sleep better," say something like, "I’m going to eat 3 hours before (8PM) going to bed (at 11PM) for the next 7 days," or "I will get up at 6 AM to jog 3 miles on Tuesday and Thursdays for 4 weeks. Yes, getting better sleep is your bigger goal, but it’s easier to succeed if you break it down into small bite-sized chunks that have SMART features.

4. Be mindful of how well you sleep in relation to your diet, activities, and your sleep times. The best way to is document this by writing everything down in a sleep journal. Short of doing this, be more aware of how you feel in the morning or during the day after you went out to have a late dinner, or during the weeks when you exercise. Which foods make you feel better and which make you feel more tired or sluggish? Bare minimum, make a quick mental note of how well you slept when you first wake up and how you felt during the day as you’re about to fall asleep.

5. Unclutter your mind just before you sleep. Turn off all forms of electronic stimulation such as your computer, TV, and radio at least one hour before you go to sleep. Watching the news is the worst thing you can do, since not only is it stimulating, but also disturbing stories and images that you don’t want cluttering up your subconscious during sleep. Read a relaxing book, do some light stretching, breathing or meditation before going to bed.

There are plenty more tips I could list here for you, but all of this is a moot point if you can’t breathe properly at night while you’re sleeping. Any by definition, all modern humans are susceptible to breathing problems while sleeping to various degrees. This is the one major flaw with Western medicine as well as alternative and complementary forms of healing. Everyone naturally assumes that you’re able to breathe properly at night. But this is not true. You can do everything I listed in this article, as well as every sleep hygiene recommendation that’s mentioned in thousands of books, articles, and reports, but if you’re not able to breathe well, you can only get so far. Lack of inspiration can definitely hinder your brain’s ability to think at all, let alone sleep or grow rich. Something to think about.

6 Natural Tips for Deep Sleep

by Dr. Maoshing Ni

Would you like to sleep like a baby without taking drugs? Americans spend upwards of 3 billion dollars a year on sleep medications, but to avoid the side effects, there are a number of natural remedies you can try first. To get a good quality night’s sleep, try these 6 tips from my new book Second Spring.

1. Relaxing Rituals to Rest Easy

In Chinese Medicine, nighttime is yin time—or, simply, when the body takes care of itself instead of your desires.  Proper sleep is required for your body to repair itself and regenerate. To reach deep, restful sleep, your spirit and heart must be calm. Excessive worry, anxiety, and depression can all disturb the spirit and activate the mind—making it near impossible to fall asleep and stay asleep. Rituals to sooth your spirit and induce a sleep response before bed include soaking your feet in Epson salts for 15 minutes, writing all of your thoughts in a journal to get them out of your head, and practicing relaxation before bed, like the Stress Release meditation below.

2. When Food Disturbs Sleep

When you eat late, you wake up tired. Your body will be busy digesting your dinner while you are trying to sleep, so you won’t feel rested in the morning. Do not eat anything for at least three hours before bedtime.  Also, cut back on eating bacon, cheese, chocolate, ham, potatoes, tomatoes, and sausage, especially before bed. These foods contain tyramine, which inhibits neurochemicals like norepinephrine and can cause insomnia. And, of course if you have sleep problems, caffeine should be cut out.

Eat for sleep! Try eating more grains at dinner; carbohydrates tend to make people sleepy. Another snooze snack is a warm cup of milk; because milk is rich in the amino acid tryptophan, it can sometimes aid in deep sleep. Mix in natural vanilla flavoring for a soothing snack. Or if you prefer, eat 1 cup of natural yogurt an hour before bedtime.

3. A Peaceful Place for Sleep

Your sleeping environment makes a huge difference to the quality of your sleep. Do everything you can to create a quiet and cozy atmosphere. Ideally, your bedroom should be located in the quietest area of your home. Keep the décor minimal. Lighting should be dim and any music that is played should be soothing. Research has found that lavender, vanilla, and green apple are among the best scents to help lower anxiety and induce sleep, making these smells a good choice for a scented candle or heated essential oil. Try to limit your pets to outside of the bedroom because their movements will keep with your body from fully relaxing into deep R. E. M. sleep. As much as possible, your bedroom should be only for sleep.

4. Exercise Enables Sleep

People with regular exercise routines often sleep better and have fewer incidents of insomnia than those don’t get regular physical activity. Exercise promotes sleep and improves sleep quality by altering brain chemistry. Exercising moderately for 20 to 30 minutes three times a day, combined with meditation or tai chi in the evening, will not only help you fall and stay asleep, but will also increase the amount of time you spend in R.E.M. sleep. In fact, for some people, exercise alone is enough to overcome sleep problems. Exercise in the morning or afternoon, but do not exercise for at least two hours before bed.

5. Herbs to Sleep Tight

A calming tea before bedtime can ensure a good night’s sleep. Drink valerian or passionflower (or passiflora) tea before bedtime every night for one month. Simply steep 1 to 2 tablespoons of the dried herbs in one cup of hot water and drink just before bed.

Or look for one with the traditional Chinese herbs zizyphus or jujube seed, bamboo shavings, and oyster shell, which soothe the mind and spirit. 

You might also try Calm-Fort/Sleep formula with useful herbs like lily bulbs, polygala and turmeric that help manage stress and calm the spirit while relieving restlessness and insomnia.

6. A Sleep-Friendly Meditation

I had one patient with insomnia who also felt anxious and even a little depressed. In addition to acupuncture and herbal therapies, I decided to teach her a stress release meditation that she could do before bedtime to help with her anxiety. I am happy to report that she is now sleeping like a baby.

Try this Stress Release meditation, which works for the majority of my patients who have sleeping problems:

Sit comfortably or lie down on your back.  Slow your respiration to deep, abdominal breathing.  Utter the word “calm” in your mind with every exhalation. Focus on relaxing each area of your body in sequence, from the top of your head to your toes.

Starting with the top of your head, inhale and then exhale while visualizing your scalp muscles relaxing.  Say “calm” in your mind.  Repeat this with each body part as you move down through all body parts, front, back, and sides, in succession: your face, throat, chest, arms, stomach, abdomen, thighs, knees, legs, ankles, until finally you reach your feet.  When you’ve relaxed your feet, visualize all the tension in your body leaving through your toes as dark smoke. Practice this for at least 15 minutes before bedtime. 

It will have you sleeping in no time. If you do better with meditative visualizations that are narrated, try my Stress Release CD.

I hope you find the ways to resting easy and waking up refreshed!

—————————————————————————————–

Dr. Maoshing Ni is a doctor of Chinese medicine and an authority in the field of Anti-Aging Medicine. Known simply as ‘Dr. Mao’ to his patients, he has lectured internationally on various topics including women’s health, sleep medicine, longevity medicine, diet and nutrition, herbal therapy, stress management, meditation, lifestyle enhancement, and much more. Click here for more information on Dr. Mao or to access his interview with Dr. Park, 10 Tips for Better Sleep: A Chinese Medicine Doctor’s Perspective.
 

Ulcerative Colitis, Chron’s, and Sleep Deprivation

Here’s more evidence that sleep deprivation can exacerbate inflammatory bowel disease, which includes ulcerative colitis and Chron’s disease. A study was published in Sleep Medicine where rats who were given a substance to induce colitis (DSS, dextran sodium sulfate). Control rats that were deprived of acute sleep deprivation or chronic sleep deprivation had no signs of colitis. Rats on DSS developed colitis, but acute sleep deprivation showed histologic signs of additional inflammation on histology, but showed no clinical symptoms such as weight loss. However, rats subjected to chronic sleep deprivation showed increased histologic inflammation, as well as clinical symptoms. This study is a follow-up to a previous study that showed that patients with inflammatory bowel disease had significantly more sleep disturbances.

10 Solutions for Better Sleep

 

During my residency, there was a kind of unstated competition, to see who went the longest without sleep, or who worked the most number of hours per week. It was routine practice to go over 140 hours per week on some surgical rotations, and sometimes we had to work through two straight nights, without any sleep. These days are long gone, now with new residency work hour mandates requiring no more than 80 hours per week.

Chronic sleep deprivation is known to significantly increase errors in judgment, focus and memory capacities. You don’t need any studies to prove this, when most of us can attest to this first hand (Read about pregnancy and sleep deprivation in this month’s Ask Dr. Park by clicking here) Yet, sleep is still given low priority and the first thing to be sacrificed when someone is short on time.

The Importance of Sleep

Studies come out daily about the benefits of good, quality sleep, as well as the health consequences of not getting enough good sleep. I can’t emphasize enough how important sleep is, in terms of both quality as well as quantity. I’ll even go as far as to say the you should center your life around good quality sleep.

You may be asking by now, with all of life’s stresses and distractions, how can one sleep better? The answer to this simple. Don’t try to accomplish everything all at once-take it one step at a time.

Take Mini Steps

Below a list of 10 steps you can take to improve the quality of your sleep. To be successful, begin with implementing only one or two strategies at most into your nightly routine. Moreover, do this consistently for 30 days before trying anything else.

Some options need only one action step, whereas others are daily habits. Since habits are not something that’s formed overnight, I emphasize again the importance of implementing one strategy at a time and repeating it over 30 days. If you can master these sleep disciplines, I guarantee you’ll not only sleep better, but also feels better during the day, with much more energy, productivity, and increased quality of life.

                                 The 10 Easy Steps for a “Do It Yourself” Sleep Makeover

1. Try not to eat anything within 3-4 hours of going to bed. There are many good explanations for why this helps you sleep better, but one simple explanation is that any lingering stomach juices can regurgitate up into your throat, causing inflammation and swelling. Since most modern humans are susceptible to intermittent breathing obstruction while sleeping, eating just before bedtime can aggravate this process, causing you to keep waking up.

2. Avoid alcohol close to bedtime. Drinking a nightcap may help you to fall asleep after a stressful day, but because alcohol is a muscle relaxant, it can aggravate obstruction and arousals, worsening your quality of sleep even more. It’s OK to have 1-2 servings of wine or beer with an early dinner.

3. Don’t watch TV, use the computer, or play video games within 1-2 hours of bedtime. Stimulation of the brain and information overload will definitely prevent you from getting a good night’s sleep.

4. Don’t read, eat, watch TV, surf the internet, or talk on the phone while in bed. Leave your bed exclusively for sleep and sex.

5. Set your room temperature slightly cooler than normal. Colder temperatures promote sleep.

6. Avoid eating or drinking anything that’s stimulating close to bedtime. This includes anything caffeinated (coffee, tea, sodas), chocolates, or ginseng. Certain cold medications that contain decongestants can keep you awake.

7. Exercise regularly outdoors in the sunlight. Your eyes need natural bright sunlight to stimulate the sleep-wake cycles. If you can’t exercise in the mornings, make every excuse to go outdoors in the middle of the day.

8. Make your room as dark as possible. Many of the newer LED lights on electronic devices are super bright. Cover them with black electrical tape. Get light-blocking curtains or shades.

9. If your nose is stuffy for any reason, take measures to start breathing through your nose again. If you have a simple cold, or even allergies, nasal saline can act as a mild decongestant. This also works for people who have chronic nasal congestion. A Neti-pot or any other device that vigorously sprays nasal saline into your nose on a regular basis will help you to sleep better.

10. If you snore, or feel tired and unrefreshed no matter how long you sleep, see your doctor and get it taken care of. If your bedpartner snores and it bothers you, get that taken care of as well, so that you can sleep better (click here for a complete list of medical and non medical snoring solutions)

Bonus tip: Learn proper deep breathing techniques as taught in yoga or tai chi. Do it for 5-10 minutes just before bedtime, and especially every few hours during the day for a minute or two. This helps to calm your nervous system, which helps you not only to sleep better, but will also help you to remain calm, focused and more productive in whatever activities you engage in throughout the day. (Click here if you’d like to sign up for a FREE audio download (worth $45) of my live workshop on how to breathe better with Yoga expert, Deborah Quilter)

If you’re thinking that many of those steps are just impossible to implement given your hectic life and work schedule, think again.  If you’re not putting sleep at the top of your list of priorities, it won’t be too long before your body functions will start shutting down making you incapable of doing much of anything.  If it’s deemed risky for medical residents (who are used to being on call) to go without sleep, think how much more risk you’re taking by doing so yourself. Just something for you to sleep on.
 

The Twilight Series & Sleep Deprivation: Be Warned!

One of the hottest new books is Stephenie Meyer’s series called The Twilight Saga. My sister-in-law gave my wife a copy of the first book in the series and for three straight days, she couldn’t put it down. She was going to bed about 1-2 hours later than her usual time, and when my wife is sleep-deprived, even a little bit, we all pay the price. Furthermore, she’s now 8 months pregnant! 

 

Going to bed at a regular time, along with practicing good sleep hygiene (such as not watching TV or eating in bed) should be practiced by everyone. Of course things happen and you can’t always go to bed at a regular time, but choosing a particular book to read is one thing you have control over. Especially now that I’ve waned you. 

 

Consecutive nights of even mild sleep deprivation have been shown to diminish memory, mental acuity, and reaction times, not to mention mood changes and irritability. Imagine if you went through all three of Ms. Meyer’s books. Depending on how quickly you can read, most women (since mostly women are reading these books) will probably lose anywhere from 1-2 hours of sleep on average for about 1-2 weeks. In our already sleep-deprived, stressed-out society, additional sleep deprivation is the last thing we need.

 

I rarely put my foot down on any issue with my wife, but on this issue, I insisted that she stop reading further books in the series.

 

Are you currently reading one of Stephenie Meyer’s books, and if so, how much sleep are you losing?

Why Your Lack Of Sleep Can Make You More Creative

 

It’s a known fact that sleep is essential for proper cognitive functioning, retention, concentration and mental acuity. Now, according to recent research, sleep may even enhance your creativity. According to the article in The New York Times which cites the study, those who slept more showed improved mental agility including the ability to make novel connections between disparate ideas by as much as 33%. As a result of findings like this, corporations that hinge on innovation such as Cisco Systems and Google have installed ergonomic sleep stations called EnergyPods in their corporate facilities.

 

But what about those people who sleep more than 9 to 10 hours and still feel exhausted and groggy? Why aren’t these sleep mongers waking up wide eyed and bushy tailed, bursting with creative energy? The answer to this seeming disparity depends on where these people lie on the sleep-breathing continuum. 

 

Why Some Need More Sleep While Others Can Do Without

 

If you are one of those people who wake up refreshed and recharged after a good night’s rest, then your sleep quality is probably the kind that the researchers are pointing to when they say that sleeping more can make you more creative.  

 

However, there are many more people who sleep longer than the usual number of hours (like 9 to 10 hours) and still wake up feeling groggy and exhausted. For them it’s a major chore to get through their day, let alone have the energy to innovate and come up with new ideas. For those of you who find yourself in this situation, it’s probably not the amount of sleep but the kind of sleep you’re getting that’s impinging on your creativity. Here’s what I mean:

 

Sleep is composed of six stages: awake, stage 1, stage 2, stage 3, stage 4, and REM (rapid eye movement). Stage 1 and 2 are known as the "light" stages of sleep, REM as the "dreaming" stage and stages 3 and 4 as the "deep" or delta stages. We need a good distribution of all the sleep stages to get the proper restorative sleep we need to be creative.

 

As I point out in my book, Sleep, Interrupted, many people who suffer from sleep breathing problems like obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), or upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS), are often unable to get past stage 1 and 2 let alone stay long enough in REM or stage 3 and 4 sleep stages to get the kind of quality sleep they need to feel truly rested. The reason why this happens is because their airway is constantly in danger of closing off or obstructing. These people’s airways are smaller than most, which is the result of various factors like having a floppy palate, larger than average tongue to jaw size ratio, or having chronic nasal congestion, just to name a few. (For more information, listen to my podcasts on OSA and UARS)

 

These are usually the people who feel tired even though they may have slept more than 10 hours. For them, the reason why they’re feeling so unproductive is not because they need more sleep but because they lack the necessary amount of deep restorative sleep they need to feel refreshed and rejuvenated.

 

The one exception to this rule are those people who are often categorized as the creative class.  For these type of people, sleep deprivation is not only a requisite component of their lifestyle but a vital by product of their creativity.  Many sculptors or painters will say that a 4 hour session can seem only like one hour. For them, a bout of inspiration can help them forgo all sorts of physical constraints, even sleep. In fact, more than one painter or sculptor have even told me that when they are unproductive, they intentionally sleep deprive themselves mildly to rev up their creativity.

 

So, you may be asking why is there such a wide discrepancy between those whom the sleep experts say need more sleep to be creative, and those who need less sleep to maintain their creativity? Again the answer to this mystery lies in how well you’re breathing at night while you sleep and how well your body can adjust to the constantly fluctuating sleep deficit.

 

Sleep Less, Get More Creative

 

Whenever I see patients who work in traditionally creative occupations, I find, more often than not, that many of them have narrowed upper airways, leading to easier collapse of either the throat or tongue structures while in deep sleep, leading to multiple arousals and inefficient sleep. Many of them also keep erratic sleep schedules, working without sleep one night, and sleeping in all day the next. Yet, many creatives will tell me that they thrive under these kinds of stress and pressure. They say that this is when their senses are most heightened and when they’re the most productive. 

 

This is very similar to what happens when people undergo a mild to moderate form of sleep deprivation. What happens in these situations is that a low-grade physiologic stress response occurs. In fact, the lack of sleep can actually induce hyperactivity of the sympathetic nervous system therefore enhancing not only their sense of smell, hearing or intuition, but also heightening emotions and creativity. It’s not all that surprising then that many creative types tend to either consciously or subconsciously shift back and forth from getting too much sleep to no sleep at all to maintain their creative drive.

 

This may be also why those who tend to be creative are often attracted to work that’s not constrained by the typical  9-5 work schedule. According to Richard Florida, in his fascinating book Rise of the Creative Class, this is the reason why so many creative types congregate in metropolitan areas like New York (the city that never sleeps). He suggests that creatives work independent of traditional work conventions, and why innovations like telecommuting, mobile work stations, and global networking, have become so popular in this modern day economy. Florida further argues that this new "creative class" is any person or group of people that uses their intellect and creativity to enhance their work, which includes both the traditional creative types, like actors, writers, and musicians, and even the non-traditional creatives like doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers, techies, architects, and interior designers. They are at their best when their time for work, rest and play is shaped by no other standard than their own. Not surprisingly, these creative types won’t or can’t adhere to the good old fashioned 8 hour sleep paradigm. This may be another reason why some people get more creative when they sleep,  and some get less creative when they sleep too much.

 

The Final Word On Sleep

 

Of course, prolonged sleep deprivation, for anyone can have detrimental effects on your health and physical well being. It’s imperative that if you have a sleep breathing problem to have it treated so that you are getting the requisite amount of deep sleep needed to maintain proper cognitive functioning. 

 

Yet, if you consider the way that the human airway anatomy developed, you’ll see that we are the only mammals that are susceptible to the kind of sleep-breathing problems I describe. This makes me wonder if this isn’t the very reason why sleep makes us more productive and at the same time, be more creative than any other mammal alive. Just something to ponder the next time you have to pull an all-nighter. 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2008 Doctor Steven Y. Park, MD | New York, NY | Integrative Solutions for Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome, and Snoring · Design by Fervent