Trying to pull together two seemingly unrelated concepts lately: the importance of a good night's sleep (heck, any decent sleep would be a good idea) and heart health, let's look at this longish quote from an interesting and worthwhile book, The Cortisol Connection: Why Stress Makes You Fact and Ruins Your Health -- and What You Can Do About It, by Shawn Talbott, Ph.D.
Essentially the background here is that high cortisol levels are both common in veterans with PTSD, and implicated in the literature with increased risk of death from heart disease. It's also thought that cortisol causes other problems, including weight gain, diminished libido, increased blood pressure, and other topics of interest to veterans and their families, some of whom struggle with all these issues.
By writing a whole book about cortisol levels and their effect on health, Talbott is able to isolate the importance of some things we might not ordinarily think about (as well as suggest improvements). Says Talbott on cortisol levels and sleep:
"If you’re like most people, you understand that stress management can be used effectively to help with stressful events. After reading the previous chapters, you now know that effectively managing your stress response will help you maintain your cortisol levels within a more normal range. What you may not know, however, is that as little as a night or two of good, sound, restful sleep may do more for controlling your cortisol levels and reducing your long-term risk for many chronic diseases than a whole lifetime of stress-management classes. Here’s why:
When you were just a few months old, a mere babe, your brain had you programmed to sleep about 18 hours a day – not a very stressful existence. Upon reaching adulthood – say, about 20 years of age – your nightly allotment of sleep had been slashed to less than seven hours (six hours and 54 minutes, according to the National Sleep Foundation.) That’s around two hours less than the eight to nine hours recommended by sleep experts for optimal physical and mental health.
Progressive changes in your body’s internal clock (the suprachiasmatic nucleus), combined with alterations in your patterns of hormone secretion, have you going to bed later, and waking up earlier with each successive decade, resulting in nearly 30 minutes less sleep per night with each passing decade.
By the time we reach our thirties and forties, we’re getting 80% less time in the most restful “slow-wave” period of sleep (as compared to our teenage years), and by the time we hit our 50s and 60s, we get almost no uninterrupted deep sleep. (We still get some deep sleep, but it tends to come in short fragments that do little in terms of recovery and repair for mind and body.)
What does this lack of sleep mean for your cortisol levels? It means that the average 50-year-old has nighttime cortisol levels more than 12 times higher than the average 30-year-old – yikes! Perhaps the worst piece of news is that not only will an inadequate quality or quantity of sleep result in elevated cortisol levels, but high cortisol will also limit both your ability to fall asleep – and the amount of time that your mind spends in the most restful stages of deep sleep. This sets you up for a vicious cycle of poor sleep, elevated cortisol, and subtle changes in metabolism that lead you down the path toward chronic diseases. So get some sleep!"
-- Source: The Cortisol Connection: Why Stress Makes You Fact and Ruins Your Health -- and What You Can Do About It, by Shawn Talbott, Ph.D.
You'd have to read Talbott's book -- and you should -- to learn more about the relationship between high stress, cortisol levels and disease (as well as his recommendations for what to do about it). However, even several items we've got linked to this blog are possible suggestions, among others, for getting a better night's sleep. Not to pun, but most experts' recommendations on this topic often sound like a "real snore," they're so basic (practice sleep 'hygiene,' set a regular bedtime, warm milk for tryptophan, don't exercise within several hours of bedtime, etc.) What's of greater interest to me at least is what items can we use to de-stress or relax more completely so that we can sleep. Some suggestions:
Sleep Soundly CDs, by Steven Halpern; The Delta Sleep SystemDVD, by Dr. Jeffrey Thompson; and, of course, the highly-recommended Pacific Light DVD, by Thomas Day Oates, Jr. And of course the restful, soothing lavender sleep pillow, which you can make yourself; or if you're really lucky, a massage.
Happy Zzs...
