Smoking and Sleep

Some people make it a habit of taking a puff or two before going to bed. And this is precisely something that should not be. A smoke or two before going to bed is the worst thing you can do when your brain is just preparing for the much needed rest. The nicotine that you inhaled goes straight to the sleep centers of your brain and then everything goes hay wire. The result is that you have a bad night’s rest.

In the morning you wake up feeling any thing but refreshed and the only way to take away that feeling is by having that smoke again. Below I am going to discuss sleep in general and when you alter your life style and habits it would be good if you could include these pointers in your sleep routine as well. You see, everything is connected; your eating patterns, your sleep patterns and every thing. So if you are not doing any of these tings right, you might just bounce back into becoming a smoker.

The National Sleep Foundation reports (2002) that America is on the verge of a poor sleep epidemic, characterized by the following eye-opening statistics:

·         64% of American adults get less than the eight hours of sleep that experts recommend is required to maintain optimal physical, mental, and emotional health.

·         One-third of the US population says they get less sleep now than they did five years ago

·         One-half of Americans have experienced insomnia (sleeplessness)

·         Drowsiness due to a lack of a proper night of sleep interferes with the daily activities of 37 percent of all adults.

Amazed? Well, you should be. Sleep has become a critical issue as far as most adults are concerned.

The following is an excerpt from "Sleep: Essential for Optimal Health" by Drs. Robert Goldman and Ronald Klatz.

"Don't slight sleep. It's when you're tired that you tend to overwork. When you're rested you can finish the work without strain and still have energy and time left over for the rest of your life. Research shows that workers who get less than six hours of sleep a night are prone to costly accidents, poor concentration and poor performance. Without sleep depression, anxiety and anger increase. The quality of sleep is just as important as number of hours. If you have trouble sleeping, try going to bed earlier, before 10:00. This usually creates a deeper sleep. Prepare for deep sleep by avoiding TV and computers in the evening."

You know what is funny about sleep? Most people believe that sleep is something that the body will take care of by itself. They feel that their bodies will give them signals when it wants sleep. That maybe true, but the question here is, do these people know how to read or sense these signals that the body is trying to give them.

If such people think that the tendency to nod off to sleep while working or driving is the signal that their bodies are going to give them, then they are mistaken. The body starts by giving subtle signals like dark circles around the eyes, listless eyes, a general lethargy, a lack of interest in everything, unwarranted yawns, poor performance and so on. But of course, most of these ‘symptoms’ can be washed away with a cup of coffee or a puff of nicotine.

Again let us go back to the lower animals. Look around you and you will find that most of the animals sensible enough to get the sleep that they want. Whether it is horses, or cows or dogs or cats (cats the most) they sleep when they want to, and that is probably why they are more wiry and energetic than humans.

You won’t find a dog sitting up half the night to watch a ball game, nor would you find a cat browsing the net all night long. An important point that most people do not know is that our bodies are influenced or governed by what experts call circadian cycles. These are cycles of sleep, rest and activity that are in fact governed by sunlight and darkness.

You might have seen certain plants that let their leaves droop their leaves in the night to revive them when it is day. Just like this, our bodies too are influenced by light and darkness. For every stimulus there should be a response. Here the stimulus is darkness so the response must be to sleep. Thankfully however, our bodies do not really need 12 hours of sleep.

Experts tell us that adults need 8 hours of good sleep to become fully functional. If you cannot manage eight hours, try to make it at least seven. Anything below that is not good for your body, and is going to take its toll at some time or that other.

Similarly think about all those activities that are constantly going on in our bodies. Think of your heart that never stops pumping blood not even for a couple of seconds. Think of those lungs that help you breathe in and breathe out and the various other parts like you digestive system, your organs and you sense organs. Don’t these wonderful systems deserve some rest? They certainly do. And I have news for you.

Experts have found out that when the human body is in a state of sleep, all these functions slow down (they can’t stop of course) and get carried out at a much relaxed pace. This is the only rest that these parts of our bodies get. So don’t you think that it is highly unfair to deprive them of the rest that they really deserve? Often we use the brain or the muscles as a measuring stick. When these parts are tired we decide that we need to rest.

And so we relax with a book, or plant ourselves in front of the idiot box, or listen to some music. Ah, but that is just rest, it is not sleep and when the body needs sleep, you should give it sleep itself. When a cat is hungry you cannot give it dry oats or raw carrots.

Of course there is another extreme where some people need more than eight hours of sleep. Such people sleep too much. But that is altogether a different issue, which I cannot address here. In such cases all I can say is that such people might have a physiological condition for which they might require medical assistance.

Other people can never sleep properly and I was one of them. I used to go to bed in the night and wake up in the morning feeling no way better for my “sleep.” Phrases like sleep like a baby or sleep like a log were completely alien for me. But now I have over come this completely and on most days I do sleep like a baby.

Below, I have included some pointers that really worked for me. Try them out I’m sure that they will work for you as well.