This blog contains my latest writings
on Brain Fitness; specifically, the power of sleep to impact a wide array of
our physiological and neurological health systems. I’m convinced that in an “always on,” “do
more with less” world, the problem of work-life/stress-sleep
balance is both epic (and epidemic) in nature. For example, Sunday, while watching the
football games at Champs Restaurant and Bar, during commercials I would do some
final editing of the attached manual. On
both sides of me, 30-something guys asked what I was doing. Once I mentioned the subject matter, the
verbal and emotional floodgates opened up.
All acknowledged the challenge of getting sufficient sleep, and its
impact on performance and productivity as well as social civility.
I’ll soon be sharing a companion
module on napping, meditation, visualization, guided imagery, and dreaming.
I think you will find the both modules
thought-provoking and “hands on” regarding tools and techniques for better
sleep hygiene and brain fitness. And,
naturally, your feedback is much appreciated.
Sleep on it, at least! Thanks.
Mark
301-875-2567
P.S.
Of course, if you know of companies, organizations, or groups that might
be interested on a dynamic, thought-provoking, interactive, and FUN
presentation on “Sleep Hygiene” or “Stress and Brain Resiliency,” just email or
call.
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The Science and Art for Better
Sleep: A Stress Doc Guide
Stationed at a week-long health fair
“Brain Fitness” vendor table provided the opportunity for sober learning about
modern day living: most Baltimore, MD
city employees – I’d say close to 75% – are not getting seven hours or more of
sleep on a regular basis, and about half are getting less than six hours. Why was I so concerned? Hey, can’t you just catch up on sleep with a
“catnap” or hibernate on a weekend? (Of
course, there are different perspectives and solutions on sleep problems. For example, I recall my warehouse work as a
20-year old. In that setting, for some individuals,
poor sleeping conditions meant there were no empty bins in which to hide and
snooze.)
Actually, most of the folks coming to
the vendor table were also concerned. I
was encouraged that many seemed hungry for the information on sleep and other
dynamics for “Natural SPEED” (see below).
Let me illustrate my professional and personal interest on the nexus of
sleep and mind-body fitness.
Almost two decades ago I discovered
that disturbed and disrupted sleep doesn’t just affect powers of concentration,
productivity, and personal safety, but it also has implications for heart
health. For one year in the early ‘90s, at
a 24/7, 6,000 person inner city Baltimore US Postal Service Processing &
Distribution Plant, I was a half-time Stress and Violence Prevention Consultant
(when the expression “Going Postal” was just coming into vogue). The Plant Manager wanted me to be the
“friendly Social Worker on the beat.” I
walked the cavernous work floors and warehouses and engaged employees on all
three shifts. And believe me, I met all types
and had all kinds of encounters: a) exhausting
emergencies, like an employee having a heart attack on the work floor surrounded
by colleagues in shock, b) the post-traumatic stress of a postal carrier being
accosted by a robber with a knife, and c) poignant grieving, helping a normally
stoic supervisor mourn the loss of her son and her husband within a two month
span. The son had died of AIDS; the
father of an impaired and fractured heart.
But without doubt, personally, the
greatest challenge and source of mind-body stress was that once/week “graveyard
shift” – from 9pm to 6am. This weekly circadian
upheaval definitely threw my “biological clock” out of whack. (How I facilitated a weekly, highly contentious
one hour upper management-frontline supervisor meeting, with twenty
deadline-driven and distracted individuals, at 3 in the morning…today, defies
mind-body credulity.)
For
Whom the Stress Tolls
Shortly after a one year “tour of
duty,” (budget cuts impelled my release despite all levels of in-house protest)
for the first time, in my mid-forties, I was exhibiting high blood
pressure. Despite ferocious dietary and
exercise efforts to recover normal readings (and to temper a “this shouldn’t be
happening to me” blow to a middle-aging ego), after several months I had to
accept my new medical diagnosis – hypertension! Most likely, the “always on” pressure of the
postal experience – especially the jarring graveyard shift – had brought out a
family pattern of “basic hypertension.”
Reluctantly, I began taking blood pressure medications, a regimen I
continue to this day.
And after doing some reading, I was
less surprised. For many folks, working
against your natural awake-sleep cycle rhythm can have an array of adverse
health consequences, including reducing one’s life span.
Sleep
Disturbance-Diabetes Connection
And the second nail in my sleep
awareness coffin occurred about two years ago.
I was watching a show on Sixty
Minutes about the importance of sleep and the country’s looming sleep deprivation
epidemic. What really caught my
attention were the effects on sleep study subjects that were blocked from
reaching deep levels of sleep. Upon
exhibiting “deep” levels of brain waves and eye movement, subjects would be
gently shaken as they slept. This
procedure prevented subjects from sustaining deeper levels of unconsciousness. This is critical as many of the major
restorative functions in the human body like muscle growth, tissue repair,
protein synthesis, and growth hormone release occur mostly, or in some cases
only, during the deepest stages of sleep.
And, in fact, within thirty-six hours, these deep sleep-deprived subjects began
revealing incipient signs of pre-diabetes symptomatology, a warning indicator
of two national epidemics – sleep
deprivation and obesity.
As, noted in the attached manual, Stress Doc’s Better Sleep Guide, diabetes
and sleep problems often go hand in hand.
Diabetes can cause sleep loss (e.g., frequent nightly urination to
excrete high blood sugar), and there’s evidence that not sleeping well can
increase your risk of developing diabetes.
The body's reaction to sleep loss can resemble insulin resistance, a
precursor to diabetes. Insulin’s job is
to help the body use glucose for energy.
In insulin resistance, cells fail to use the hormone efficiently,
resulting in high blood sugar. Diabetes
occurs when the body does not produce enough insulin or the cells do not
properly use the insulin. When insulin
is not doing its job, high blood sugar levels build in the body to the point
where they can harm the eyes, kidneys, nerves, or heart.
Dr. Lynn Maarouf, RD, the diabetes
education director of the Stark Diabetes Center at the University of Texas
Medical Branch in Galveston, says high blood sugar is a red flag for sleep
problems among people with diabetes for another reason. “People who are tired will eat more because
they want to get energy from somewhere,” she says. “That can mean consuming sugar or other foods
that can spike blood sugar levels.” The
key is eating properly throughout the day (e.g., moderate amount of food intake
throughout the day or “grazing”) and getting blood sugar levels under control
to sleep better at night. (Denise Mann,
“The Sleep-Diabetes Connection,” WebMD
Feature.)
From
Health Fair to Brain Fitness Manual
Partly in response to the need and
interest discovered in the above-mentioned health fair, I’m developing a “Brain
Fitness” manual and workshop program in conjunction with a national
organizational wellness company headquartered in Baltimore. Sleep is the first component of my Stress and
Brain Resiliency Formula – Developing
Natural SPEED: Sleep, Priorities-Passion-Empathy-Exercise-Diet. Eventually I will be bringing out a “Natural
SPEED for Brain Fitness” book.
Until then, I have pasted a Training Objectives
and Outline of “The Science and Art for Better Sleep” and have also attached
the actual manual/program guide. I hope
it helps you and/or others you know take a more careful and candid look at
personal sleep patterns. (Of course,
your feedback on my work is always appreciated.) Without a doubt, your sleep regimen affects
myriad organ systems, in addition to the heart, hormones, and brain.
The five major segments of this module
begin to convey the wide-ranging criticality of sleep:
Ø
Three
Theories of Why We Sleep
Ø
The
Four Stages of the Sleeping Brain
Ø
Sleep
Requirements and Seven Benefits (and Cost Deficits) of Sleep Patterns
Ø
Insomnia,
Chronicity, and Maladaptive Coping
Ø
Sleep
Hygiene and the Dynamic Dozen for Better Sleep
A vital sleep regimen truly is one of
the keys to mind-body health, productivity, and living life to the
fullest. And it is surely necessary to
help one and all…Practice Safe Stress!
The
Science and Art for Better Sleep:
Program Objectives and Outline
In a 24/7, “always on,” “do more with
less,” TNT – Time-Numbers-Technology
– driven and distracted world, is it any surprise how wide-spread the struggle
to get sufficient and nourishing sleep?
For too many, all manner of stress ominously hover and swoop like birds
in a Hitchcock movie; at the burnout battlefront, is that incoming yet another
email or an e-missile? Surely, achieving
work-life/stress-sleep balance has become the elusive if not unimaginable,
modern day holy quest. And this rampant stress-sleep
crisis appears to be linked with many health issues and may be fueling another
health epidemic – obesity – along
with associated diseases such as diabetes!
Training
Objectives
Day-to-day, of course, ongoing lack of
sleep disrupts concentration and problem-solving performance, not to mention
jeopardizing personal-professional safety.
Inadequate sleep may also adversely impact your capacity for short-term
and long-term learning along with memory recall and the overall neurological-physiological
functioning and fitness of your brain-body?
This workshop will illustrate how
sleep hygiene and brain fitness are critical for both individual and
organizational wellness and productivity.
The benefits and costs of sleep dynamics – surplus and deficits, and overall
patterns will be outlined. Finally,
participants will gain skills and strategies, tool and techniques for
strengthening sleep hygiene. Critical
learning areas include:
Ø
Three
Theories of Why We Sleep
Ø
The
Four Stages of the Sleeping Brain
Ø
Sleep
Requirements and Seven Benefits (and Cost Deficits) of Sleep Patterns
Ø
Insomnia,
Chronicity, and Maladaptive Coping
Ø
Sleep
Hygiene and the Dynamic Dozen for Better Sleep
Program
Outline
A. Three Theories of Why We Sleep
1.
Energy Conservation Theory
2.
Restorative Theory
3.
Brain Plasticity Theory
B. The Four Stages
of the Sleeping Brain
Stage 1: Falling Asleep
Stage 2: Light Sleep
Stage 3: Deepest Sleep
Stage 4: REM Sleep
C. Sleep Requirements and Seven Benefits (and
Cost Deficits) of Sleep Patterns
1)
How Much Sleep Do You Need?
2)
Benefits (and Cost Deficits) of Sleep Patterns
1.
Learning, Memory, and Performance:
Attention, Children/Students Athletes, and Creativity
2.
Metabolism and Weight
3.
Safety
4.
Mood
5.
Cardiovascular Health and Stress
6.
Disease and Inflammation, Diabetes and Alzheimer’s
7.
Longevity and Quality of Life
D. Insomnia, Chronicity, and Maladaptive Coping
1.
Definition of Insomnia
2.
Is It Acute or Chronic?
3.
Maladaptive Coping
a. Drinking alcohol to make you sleepy
b. Big meals at night
c. Watching TV till you get sleepy
d. Paying bills before bedtime
e. Taking sleeping pills daily
E. Sleep Hygiene and the Dynamic Dozen for
Better Sleep
1.
What Is Sleep Hygiene?
2.
The Dynamic Dozen for Better Sleep
1)
Keep a Regular and Ritual Sleep Schedule
2)
Naturally Regulate Your Sleep-Wake Cycle
3)
Reduce Screen Time before Bed
4)
Bedroom-Bedtime Environment
5)
Exercise to Enhance Sleep
6)
Eat to Enhance Sleep
7)
Fight After–Dinner Drowsiness
8)
Nap to Make Up for Lost Sleep
9)
Relaxation Techniques for Better Sleep
10) Getting Back to Sleep after
Awakening During the Night
11) Coping with Shift Work Sleep
Disorder
12) Know When to See a Sleep Doctor
Mark Gorkin, MSW, LICSW
The Stress Doc ™
301-875-2567
www.stressdoc.com
stressdoc@aol.com
Google blog:
http://www.blogger.com/home
Mark
Gorkin, the Stress Doc ™, www.stressdoc.com, acclaimed Keynote and
Kickoff Speaker, Webinar Presenter, Retreat Leader and Motivational Humorist, is
the author of
Practice Safe Stress and
The Four Faces of Anger. A
former Stress & Violence Prevention consultant for the US Postal Service,
the Doc leads highly interactive, innovative and inspiring programs for
corporations and government agencies, including the US Military, on stress and
brain resiliency/burnout prevention through humor, change and conflict
management, generational communication, and 3 "R" -- Responsible, Resilient
& Risk-Taking -- leadership-partnership team building. Email
stressdoc@aol.com for his popular free
newsletter & info on speaking programs.
Stress Doc Mantra: "Think out
of the box, perform outside the curve (the Bell Curve) and be
out-
rage-ous!"
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