Monthly Archives: June 2013

Sleep Well This Summer, Part 2: Keep Your Bedroom Dark

Hi, all!  This is the continuation of my short series how to sleep well during the warmer and longer days of summer.  As mentioned in Part 1, people generally find a dark, cool, quiet environment most conducive to sleep.  Today’s entry is devoted to improving your sleep by keeping your sleeping environment dark.

 

By way of background, light is an extremely potent outside influence on your “body clock,” which regulates the timing of certain biological functions of your body.  Exposure of your retinas to light stimulates a neurologic pathway through your brain, essentially telling your body clock it’s time to be awake.  As such, exposure to light shortly upon arising in the morning can cause you to feel more awake and alert, and bright light exposure late at night can cause insomnia.  Even relatively modest light can have a stimulatory effect.  It makes sense, then, that shielding your bedroom from bright light is important during the summer, when the sun often shines relatively late into the evening, carrying both light and heat into your room.

Here’s a couple of considerations to darken your room.

1.  Sleep in a room without windows.  If you can.  Basements are great for that, for example, and some of my patients simply migrate to a basement bedroom each summer to sleep better.

2.  Sleep in a room which has windows that don’t face westward.  The sun sets in the west.

3.  Cover your windows.  I recognize this seems obvious, but it’s amazing how many people sleep in bedrooms with bare windows.

4.  Cover your windows with something dark (preferably black) and thick, such as black curtains.  Venetian blinds generally don’t do a great job of shielding the room from light.

5.  Turn your bed away from your windows.

6.  Turn off all the lights and the television when you’re ready to go to sleep.  Again, I’m stating the obvious here, but many people sleep with lights and other electronics on.

7.  Turn around or turn off glowing electronics, like digital alarm clocks.  If you’re an insomniac, turning your nightstand clock around will have the added benefit of keeping you from the deadly habit of “clock-watching,” which I’ve written about in previous entries.  It would also be helpful to turn off the lights one night and simply look around the room, looking for electronic lights.  You might be surprised about how much glowing, blinking stuff coinhabits your sleeping space, from your DVR, stereo, laptop, cable box, or whatever.  Turn off or hide whatever light sources you can, even if they’re small.  Turn down brightness levels as well if possible.

8.  Reconsider your nightlight.  Some people have long slept with a nightlight without problems, but bed partners may be bothered by this.  Discuss this with your spouse or bed partner.  If a nightlight is absolutely necessary, consider getting one that can be dimmed.

9.  If necessary and if all else fails, sleep masks or even dark sunglasses can help.  Hopefully, however, you can keep your entire bedroom dark throughout the night.

Sleep well, everyone!  The third and final entry in this series:  how to keep your bedroom quiet during the summer.  Enjoy these months of warmth:  winter is coming.

It’s Not About the Nail!

In this video, a woman describes some difficulties she’s had recently:  a multitude of strange, bothersome symptoms, including problems sleeping.  Take a look.

I thank my great friend and former partner in crime, David B., for bringing this piece to my attention.  It’s absolutely hilarious, but this video short does illustrate a couple important and serious reminders for me, however.

First, for each of us, there may be times in which the underlying cause of a problem can be right under your nose (or in this case, nailed to your forehead) for ages before it’s realized.  I saw a woman in my clinic this morning, for example, for her insomnia.  She’s awakened at 3 a.m. every morning because her cat sits on her face.  She told me she then gets up to put the cat into the garage.  I asked her how often she does this.  Her answer:  “every night.”  Sooo . . . why not put the cat in the garage at the beginning of the night before bedtime?  My point is that we’re creatures of habit, and we’re used to what we’re used to.  Whether we’re talking about sleep hygiene or a nail protruding from your head, what you’re used to is your “normal.”

Second, though we docs are trained and conditioned to move quickly to act and save our patients from their medical problems, sometimes what is asked of us is to just listen.  Given the changes happening in health care at the moment, I fear that the doctor’s ability to spend the time to listen to our patients will become as extinct as the dinosaurs.  Many feel that it already is.  I hope that someday there will again be a place for more humanity in the administration of health care.

Have a great evening, everyone, and remember, “it’s not about the nail!”

Sleep Well This Summer, Part 1: Stay Cool

Hi all!  It’s getting powerful-warm out there now in most parts of the U.S., so today I’m starting a 3-part series on sleeping during the summer months.

People generally prefer sleeping in a dark, quiet, cool environment.  This can be a challenge in the summertime, when it’s sweltering at night, it’s light out late, and there’s always some loud party going on late near your home.

 

Today we’ll tackle the issue of the summer warmth.

Many of us recognize that it can be difficult to fall and stay asleep if it’s uncomfortably warm or hot in your bedroom.  The common-sense advice here is to do what you can to maintain a cool sleeping environment to the extent that you can, particularly during the first half of the night:  outside temperatures naturally continue to fall until just prior to dawn due to an increasing duration of absent direct sun exposure, and our bodies naturally cool (i.e., our core body temperatures gradually fall) the longer we sleep at night.  As such, it’s a good idea to concentrate on how comfortable you are with the room temperature at bedtime.

Some brief tips to sleep a little better in the summer:

1.  Use your air conditioner.  I understand the desire to save $ on your utility bills–I share that desire–but I suggest not skimping on the air conditioning (if you have it) if you’re miserable in bed night after night.

2.  Invest in a fan.  Large room fans can be inexpensive (particularly if purchased off-season), and the convective effect of the circulating air can make a big difference.

3.  Take a shower or bath prior to bedtime.  Using cool water may reduce your core body temperature.  For some, however, a warm shower or bath prior to bedtime makes your  bedroom temperature “feel” cooler by the time you get into bed.  Experiment to see what makes you most comfortable.

4.  Consider your bedsheets and pajamas.  This is very individually dependent, but you can obviously reduce the amount of body coverage in bed to cool things down.  The cloth materials you use can also make a difference:  you can be bothered by not only the heat, but also the degree to which you’re wet and sweaty in bed.  I suggest using materials that “breathe” and absorb or wick away moisture:  in general natural materials, like cotton, are considered better at this than synthetic.

5.  Sleep in the basement.  If you can’t do anything about the heat in your bedroom, migrating to a cool, dark underground basement may make all the difference during summer months.

6.  If you use CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) for obstructive sleep apnea, you can turn down your heated humidity and utilize as small a mask interface as possible.

Next up:  how to keep your bedroom dark.  This is more important than you may think.

Cheers all, and stay cool this summer!