Charles Thomas: Why sleep is so Important for our health

When I was in college, I was lucky enough to be able to work as a research assistant for one of my psychology professors. Dr. Bijkerk was a brilliant and fascinating man who ran the sleep lab at my college. Students who were chosen to work in the lab served as both lab technicians who monitored the EEG machine during the night, and as subjects of said machine as well. 

While I learned a great deal from Dr. Bijkerk during my semester in the lab, the most striking thing I learned about sleep came from the experience of staying up all night monitoring EEG’s. My lab ran on Thursday nights and students were required to stay up all night when they were not the sleeping subject. As luck would have it, I was scheduled to attend a photography class on Friday mornings at 8 a.m. that semester. That meant I stayed up working all night every Thursday for an entire semester, and after the lab work was done, I went straight to my photography class.

Within a couple of weeks of working in the lab, I learned that sleep deprivation is a very powerful thing indeed. Even all these years later, I have a vivid memory of staring up at the ceiling tiles after not sleeping for a night and watching the tiles pulsate as if they were alive. Lack of sleep also negatively affected my performance in my photography class. I got one of the lowest grades of my college career in that photography class when it should have been an easy A. 

Sleep is serious business and problems with sleep can have devastating consequences for not only the people struggling to sleep, but also to their family members, friends, and employers. Unfortunately, long term issues with sleep, called chronic insomnia, are a common problem. In fact, approximately 6% to 10% of adults have insomnia that meets the diagnostic criteria for chronic insomnia.

Why is lack of sleep such a big problem? Because sleep is critical to our health and wellbeing! While we don’t know exactly what the purpose of sleep is, there are many theories around why we humans spend a third of our lives sleeping. Sleep allows our bodies to heal and our tissues to be restored during a period of rest. It also helps us consolidate our memories of the day and regulate our moods. There is research that suggests sleep helps us tolerate pain better, and it can help remove cellular garbage in the brain called amyloids which are linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

But that’s not all. Many suicides happen during times when people would normally be sleeping. If we can help people sleep better, it should also help to lower the suicide rate. As a sleep psychologist once told me, it’s not good to be awake when your brain is offline. There is even emerging research that good sleep may help the body maintain better blood sugar levels, reduce blood pressure, and enhance immune function.

But how can those of us who struggle with sleep improve it? A behavioral treatment called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia, or CBT-I, has been shown to be effective for between 60% and 80% of patients with chronic insomnia. Patients who complete CBT-I also tend to enjoy treatment effects that last over the long haul as well. Seventy percent of patients who complete a course of CBT-I maintained their sleep gains two years after treatment.

CBT-I is so effective that the American College of Family Physicians recommends CBT-I as a first line treatment for chronic insomnia. While sleep medications work great in the short term, there are serious concerns about dependency if these drugs are taken over the long term. While full CBT-I treatment is complex and multifaceted, if you are struggling with sleeping today, there are a number of things that you can do to improve the chances of getting the sleep you need. First among them is to practice good sleep hygiene. 

Sleep hygiene refers to the habits that we have around the process of going to bed and under what conditions we sleep. Good sleep hygiene is an important component in CBT-I, and one you can implement without paying to work with a therapist. 

What makes for good sleep hygiene? Having a regular bedtime and wake time (even on weekends!) is great for sleep as is maintaining a cool bedroom. It’s also a good idea to not do anything but sleep and have sex in your bed. That means removing the TV and making your bedroom a phone free zone. It can also help to keep your bedroom as dark as possible and to avoid drinking alcohol in the evening. 

Poor sleep can be a serious health risk. Harvard Medical School has noted that chronic poor sleep can have “profound consequences on our long term health.” While we often think that non-physical factors do not play a significant role in our physical health, research suggests otherwise. Things like stress and poor sleep do affect how susceptible we are to diseases of all types. 

Clinical research has shown that an investment in improving your sleep today can pay the dividend of a longer and healthier life down the road. 

Charles D. Thomas is a writer and psychotherapist who made Three Rivers his home for over a decade. Feedback is welcome at Charles@charlesdthomas.com. 

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Any views or opinions expressed in “Big World, Small Town” are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Watershed Voice staff or its board of directors.