The science of sleep is fascinating – our body undergoes tremendous regeneration and healing as well as helping us to mentally and emotionally process our experiences. One only has to become a little sleep deprived to gain insight into the importance of sleep. The link between lack of sleep and disease is very strong and I really want to encourage you to find ways to both improve your sleep as well as to enhance it, thereby maximising your own health potential and helping to prevent the onset of serious illness and disease.
In my clinic about 20% of my clients have issues with their sleep and I usually see the best results with herbal, nutritional or homoeopathic medicine. Of course there are often other health-related issues going on as well and so when treating insomnia, recurrent nightmares, unrestful sleep etc. a holistic approach is essential if you really want to address underlying health problems. Finding effective ways to reduce stress and tension are often (but certainly not always) an important part of the formula for improving sleep.
If you are not sleeping well you may be at risk of the following diseases:
1. Alzheimer’s Disease
In the JAMA Neurology, 2013, Spira AP, Gamaldo AA, An Y, et al. (1) found that deficient sleep is associated with Alzheimer’s as well as influence the progression of the disease. It had been known that sleep enabled the central nervous system (which includes the brain) to ‘cleanse’ itself neurological ‘waste’ that contributes to dementia. The marker for Alzheimer’s is beta-amyloid and this molecule was found in higher concentrations in people that were sleep deprived.
2. Blood Sugar Irregularities, Diabetes & Obesity
Obesity and diabetes are closely linked and lack of sleep is also associated with obesity. One of the issues here is the amount of fatty acids in the blood and it was found that in men who had four hours of sleep over 3 days, had highly elevated levels of fats in their blood, 15-30% more than men who had 8 ½ hrs of sleep a night. Now I realise it is an extreme situation to have such little sleep, but the point is that under this stress, the blood fats were adversely affected and the question is whether less degrees of sleep deprivation will adversely affect lipid levels. It was also found that insulin resistance increased with higher fatty acid levels and this is a driver of diabetes.
3. Cardiovascular Disease
A Russian study involving 657 men showed a strong correlation between heart attacks and sleeping disorders – almost 2/3 of the men in the study had both heart attacks and a sleeping problem. The men were 2.6 times more likely to have a heart attack and 1.5 times more likely of having a stroke.
4. Suicide
A study from Stanford University of Medicine involving 420 people over a 10-year period looked at the incidence of suicide and sleep problems. It was determined that those suffering regular sleeping problems were 1.4 times more likely to commit suicide. In this study, the more vulnerable people were white men over the age of 85 with other health issues as well as increased stress levels.
5. Ulcerative Colitis
Both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are associated with sleep deprivation and indeed over-sleeping and addressing these sleep issues is often part of the treatment plan for my clients with these potentially devastating illnesses of the digestive system. The ‘right’ amount of sleep is needed to help control the inflammatory processes that play become over active in these digestive disorders.
One study of women (2) has shown that 6 or less hours of sleep increases the risk of the diseases while more than 9 hours per night of sleep also had a similar effect.
6. Prostate Cancer
A study involving 2,425 men from Iceland (3), it was found that the risk of developing prostate cancer rose 60% if they had difficulty getting off to sleep. The risk doubled for those having trouble staying asleep. This observation was attributed to levels of melatonin, a hormone known to suppress tumour growth.
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References
(1) Spira AP, Gamaldo AA, An Y, et al. Self-reported Sleep and β-Amyloid Deposition in Community-Dwelling Older Adults. JAMA Neurology. 2013.
(2) Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) I since 1976 and NHS II since 1989
(3) 2013, Journal Cancer Epidemology, Biomarkers and Prevention.
http://theheartysoul.com/5-diseases-your-lack-of-sleep-could-be-causing/?t=DrM
More references available on request