Sleepless sleep

Sleep isn’t merely a time when your body shuts off. While you rest, your brain stays busy, overseeing a wide variety of biological maintenance that keeps your body running in top condition, preparing you for the day ahead. Without enough hours of restorative sleep, you won’t be able to work, learn, create, and communicate at a level even close to your true potential. Regularly skimp on “service” and you’re headed for a major mental and physical breakdown.

At the Sleep Disorder Center of the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, a study was conducted among college graduate students between 18 to 30 years old. It was discovered that 20 percent of them, who averaged seven to eight hours of sleep, still fell asleep quickly during the day when they were allowed to be in a dark room. When one hour was added to their sleep, they improved noticeably on performance tests measuring reaction time and other skills.

It is now believed that the “quality of our sleep directly affects the quality of our waking life, including our productivity, emotional balance, creativity, physical vitality, and even our weight.” Sleep is therefore an essential human need, not a luxury, because it is in this state of rest that our brain oversees the great work of biological maintenance to keep our bodies running in prime condition.

Mild sleep deprivation does not cause serious impairment but chronic deprivation does. The range of impairment varies from feeling sleepy and irritable to having headaches, feeling unmotivated, suffering body aches and pains, and generally feeling “stressed out.” Chronic sleep loss affects our cardiovascular health, our energy balance and our ability to fight infections.

A sleep-deprived child does not appear sleepy

Unlike an adult, a sleep-deprived child does not always appear to be sleepy during the day. In fact when children are tired, they often appear to be hyper and prone to tantrums. Thus, we attribute the child’s obnoxious behavior to “Inaantok na ‘yan. Pagod na siya” (The child is sleepy. He is tired). Children should ideally go to bed early enough so that they wake up in the morning on their own volition, feeling fully rested. The early “retirement” of babies, toddlers and preschoolers is the envy of grown-ups.

Before the baby walks by himself at age one, he easily falls asleep at seven in the evening and wakes up at five in the morning. As he becomes more active during the toddler age of one to two, his bedtime moves up to nine and his wake up time to seven. His rapidly growing body still consumes the same 10-hour sleep allowance.

Many working parents tend to break this pattern, keeping their children up late at night after a long day’s separation. Families nowadays experience “togetherness” only late in the evenings.

Solve your child’s sleep problems

Director for Pediatric Sleep Disorder Richard Ferber, MD of Children’s Hospital in Boston wrote the book, “Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems,” especially for parents of “night wakers” – a complicated case of babies and toddlers who wake up at around one o’clock in the morning, wanting to play, talk, watch television or even go for a drive.

He explains that all of us wake up during the night. Even if we adults do not have any sleeping disorders, we still wake up, roll over and go back to sleep. Sometimes we rely on the “pacifier” of our childhood to go to sleep. Remember the children’s habit of thumb sucking, hair twirling or hugging an abrasador (long sausage-shaped pillow, otherwise called “Dutch wife”)? Young adults still resort to these “pacifiers” to get to sleep. I know of a 20-year-old lady who still twirls her hair at the center of her head while sucking her thumb.

Parents feel uncomfortable if their child is left to cry at night. They seek to discover the technique to reassure the child so that he can go to sleep by himself. One woman recalls that her two-year-old son kept calling her and her husband throughout the night for two consecutive days, which reduced them to zombies the following morning in their offices. She finally placed a sleeping bag on the floor alongside their bed, which did the trick. A few months later, the boy was sleeping in his own room.

Develop good sleeping habits

While you are curing your child’s sleep problems, here are some measures you can take to help your own sleep-deprived self.

According to Robert Watson, PhD, director of the New Haven Sleep Disorder Center in Connecticut, it is better to develop good sleeping habits – by which he means developing regular sleeping habits that are synchronized with your natural circadian rhythm. “It is most effective to go to bed early,” Watson says. “The closer you can come to doing that every night, in keeping with your own body clock, the more rested you will feel.”

Also, if you are lucky enough to be able to fit a nap somewhere in your schedule, it will be most beneficial if it corresponds with your natural body clock as well. “There is a biological dip that occurs in the afternoon that may occur anytime between one and five o’clock,” Watson reminds. “If you are going to take a nap, try to schedule it for one of those times when the body is more naturally open to it. You will find it more restorative.” It is also a good idea, if you have trouble falling asleep at night, to curtail caffeine intake after 4 p.m.

The first stage of the 10-minute sleep

If you do not have any of the above options, learn the secret of a baby’s sleep: The Sleepless Sleep.

The Filipino custom of taking a siesta has been curtailed by the speed of modern life. The one-hour break allowed in offices or schools is used for lunch and freshening up. In spite of this time limit, you can still take a ten-minute sleep as follows:

Draw the shades of the office or classroom to darken it. You may do this individually or in groups of four. Sit comfortably in a chair. The first stage of the exercise is Yoga-style breathing. Inhale and exhale deeply first with the stomach, then with the stomach and chest, then with the stomach, chest and shoulders.

As you inhale, watch your stomach expand fully and hold it full for a few seconds; then exhale fully while you continue to watch your stomach deflate. Do this four times at a normal, relaxed pace.

To breathe with your stomach and chest at the same time, simply watch both of them expand and deflate fully. Do this four times more. By now you will feel a bit nauseated.

For the final set, your stomach, rib cage and shoulders should simultaneously expand so that the shoulders automatically rise. Before you exhale, your head will fill up too, and you will feel somewhat dizzy. By this time, your whole body is energizing.

The second stage

The second stage allows you to put yourself to sleep. Remember the principle: as one closes his eyes and think of any part of the body (forehead, cheek, etc.) the particular muscle psychologically “isolates” itself, and it will relax and loosen up.

Sit down with your feet flat on the floor with both your hands straight on your sides. Think of your head and let go of its “tightness”. Next, think of your forehead. Let go until the muscles relax. Now, think of your eyes. You will feel their tightness slowly loosening. Feel your cheeks and let them soften. Do the same with your nose.

Next, focus on your mouth. Open it slightly. Then, focus on your chin. While doing all this, be sure you are breathing in a very relaxed way.

As you think of your neck, the same thing will happen. Follow this with your left and right shoulders simultaneously, left and right upper arms, left and right lower arms, then your left and right wrists and hands.

Go back to your chest, waist, buttocks and hips, as well as your thighs. Continue with your left and right knees, left and right legs and finally your left and right feet.

Sleeping like a baby

By this time, you should be sleeping (some even snore) like a baby. Enjoy this for ten to 15 minutes. It is equivalent to a full siesta, which readily energizes one for the rest of the day.

To wake up from your “sleepless sleep,” slowly stretch your arms to the fingertips. Do the same with your body down to your legs and toes. You will begin to yawn. This is called the “cat’s stretch.”

Develop this into a daily habit. You may do this even in the middle of the morning, as well as when you are riding back home from the office in a vehicle. With your eyes completely in the dark, you will realize that you are actually entering the slumber of your soul, which Yoga enthusiasts equate with spiritual meditation. This allows the body to follow the natural rhythm of the universe in the timelessness of space.

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