Miss a good night's sleep?

It may be due to medical or emotional issues.

People with sleep problems tend to work less efficiently. They have unexplained bouts of sleepiness in the daytime that become extremely disruptive.

Numerous psychiatric and emotional problems are also associated with sleep disturbances. Depression and anxiety both produce drastic changes in sleep patterns.

One sleep researcher calls sleep "the window of mental health", and the examination and treatment of sleep problems can be a first step in helping depressed and anxious people.

How much sleep is normal?

The amount of sleep varies with each individual, with the average being 7.2 hours.

Some extremes have been recorded of people requiring no more than 4 to 6 hours of sleep (Thomas Edison was one). Others have been known to require 8 to 10 hours (such as Albert Einstein).

By ages 15-19, we begin to establish our lifetime average. The amount of sleep required stabilises once we reach adulthood.

Among the elderly, the amount of sleep remains the same, but the quality of sleep may deteriorate, with sleep becoming less efficient, lighter and less restful.

The best way to establish your individual sleep requirements is to keep careful track of the amount of sleep you get over one month (See box) through a sleep log.

Two biological clocks

Your biological clock helps to determine your sleep-wake schedules. There are actually two biological clocks:

- One that responds to light and activity;

- The other that responds to the production and breakdown of chemicals in your body.

- From about the 6th to 14th month of life, our built-in "clocks" are activated. They run very close to a 24-hour cycle. Thus, children get up easily most mornings and fall asleep at about the same time each night.

- In the teen years, the clock slows down so that it is always slower than the actual time, actually on a 26 to 30 hour cycle for clocks one and two, respectively. Consequently, adolescents have trouble going to sleep at night since their clock says, "It's only 9pm" when your watch says it's 11pm. Similarly, they find it hard to get up at 7am since their internal clock registers only 4am! For about 10 years, adolescents and young adults endure the constant and biologically imposed struggle of getting out of bed and going to sleep on time.

- Thankfully, the clock speeds up again when we reach our early 30s, so we regain a 24-hour cycle.

Insomnia: Why can't I just go to sleep?

At times, the biological clock seems to suffer a breakdown. You lie down but cannot sleep, or you sleep but wake up far too early, or have multiple awakenings at night. Why do people suffer from insomnia?

1. Medical reasons: Allergies, congestion, coughing, pain of any kind, and even indigestion can initiate insomnia. Other medical conditions such as obesity, muscle convulsions while sleeping, snoring and sleep apnea also disrupt sleep patterns.

2. Emotional causes: Depression and anxiety are major causes of insomnia. Examine the thoughts that seem to persist when you are unable to sleep. Depressive thoughts or excessive worrying seem to occupy a great deal of those wee hours of the night. Even worrying about being unable to get enough sleep to handle the next day contributes to the emotional tension.

3. Dreams: Often, anxiety can express itself through dreams and nightmares. Typically anxiety dreams include being chased, running but not escaping, being trapped etc.

4. Lifestyle causes: Stress in class or at home, smoking, drinking coffee, tea or colas in the afternoon or evening or too much television are potential causes of insomnia.

DISRUPTED SLEEP PATTERNS - WHAT CAN I DO?

Disrupted sleep patterns must be dealt with as soon as possible since the problem doesn't usually just go away. It usually gets worse.

1. RESETTING MY CLOCK

We have discussed in the main article the existence of two internal clocks that determine our sleep schedule. Imagine you are wearing two watches that run at different speeds, both out of sync with real time!
If this situation persists for even three or four days, you will become totally confused about your sleep-wake schedules. Insomnia and other sleep disturbances actually compound the problem. The only way you could hope to function normally is to reset the watches each morning, and let them run the course of the day. To reset your biological clock:

(a) Determine a regular wake-up time. Even if you did not get a good night's sleep, drag yourself out of bed at a predetermined time each day. When evening arrives, allow yourself to go to bed earlier;

(b) Expose yourself to light and activity. Remember the first clock? Researchers have pinpointed this neurological clock located in the brain as a nucleus of nerve cells close to where the optic nerves come together. So this clock is strongly influenced by the availability of light. When your body wants to sleep when you want to be up, going out into the sunlight and moving around can give you a very powerful stimulus that resets the clocks.

2. LIFESTYLE CHANGE

Reduce coffee and cola intake. Less of TV and computer; instead read up on relaxation.

Sleep disturbances are terribly disconcerting. Though we may not know all there is to know about the mechanism of sleep, there is help available for the sufferer. Don't be afraid to look for it.