Cartoon by Lisa Wyman
Sleeping
Dartmouth Health & Beauty
Into The Night
We talk about sleep a lot. Sleep must be one of the most popular subjects for superficial social interaction coming in just behind the weather. Did you have enough last night? When did you last have a good night’s sleep? I slept like a baby. I did not get a wink of sleep, etc. The word is found over and over again in literature and drama to describe various states of action or inaction. Sleeping with the fishes to describe death is a particular favourite of mine!
Sleep has featured in many film titles – ‘While you were Sleeping’, ‘The Big Sleep’ and ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ to name but a few. Songs about sleep are popular from lullabies to pop anthems.
When we talk about something wonderful happening we often describe it as being a dream come true. ‘To sleep perchance to dream’, wrote Shakespeare, exploring the idea that dreaming is a perfect state and less trouble than real life for most. We can be anything we like in our dreams whether they happen at night or during the day when we drift off in boring meetings and gaze out of the window. Sleep is the same for all people, whether they are rich or poor, old or young, living in the town or living in the country it makes no difference, at some point you will shut your eyes and drift off.
Sleep is often coupled with the word Beauty. It’s the hours before midnight that count, say wise old sages. The fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty shows us a girl asleep and beautiful in a suspended state making her particularly alluring to passing Princes who can not resist waking her up with a kiss. Other fairy tales to reference sleep are Rip Van Winkle and Snow White with The Princess and the Pea being the ultimate story of the value of a good mattress.
When we have children we spend the first few years of their lives trying to get them to sleep and the last few years they are under our care moaning that they don’t get out of bed until noon or in my son’s case rather later than that . . .
Sleep is a natural state of bodily rest with regular sleep being essential for survival.
When sleep eludes us or is denied to us it becomes a really dangerous and significant problem as you quickly become clumsy and muddle-headed unable to perform simple tasks efficiently. Sleep deprivation is a tried and tested torture technique – ask any new Mother - she would be willing to tell her captors anything they wanted to know from the launch codes to where the chocolate is hidden for a good night’s sleep. This is known as ‘sleep debt’ – the effect of not getting enough sleep and rest – large debt causes mental emotional and physical fatigue or as the media like to call it ‘baby brain’.
When the day has been tough, the thought of getting into bed and sleeping is foremost on our minds. Equilibrium will be restored by the morning and things that seemed overwhelming as you fall into bed will be more manageable in the light of a new day.
The hours needed by different ages are often updated by government studies but, as of today, adults are recommended to have 8 – 9 hours in order to get maximum benefit in alertness, problem solving and health while a newborn baby needs 18 hours with a sliding scale for other ages.
Sleep is controlled by inner body mechanisms that work in the same way no matter what is happening on the outside of the body. Humans also control sleep by willed behaviour such as regular bedtimes, darkened rooms and cosy bedding.
When we finally fall to sleep we describe it in two distinct types.
1. REM rapid eye movement with the body at low muscle tone so we are totally relaxed making up about 70 – 80 per cent of our sleep.
2. NREM is relatively short and is when we dream.
Sleep is also measured in stages with Stage 1 and 2 being light sleep and Stage 3 and 4 deep sleep or slow wave sleep. During these later stages there can be limb movement and this is when sleepwalking happens.
Processes such as growth and rejuvenation of immune, nervous, muscular and skeletal systems mark NREM stages. This is why it is said you grow when you are sleeping.
How to get a good night’s sleep seems to depend on many factors with those we can control being temperature, ambience and comfort.
Things that do not enhance your chances of getting that ubiquitous ‘shut eye’ include exercising manically or eating heavy rich foods just before bed along with drinking excess alcohol – comfort now or comfort later that is the question - and of course no caffeine from mid afternoon onwards thank you very much.
Pondering a problem or feeling stressed also add to the scenario of lying wide eyed as the clock ticks round and dawn breaking without a wink of sleep being had.
Things that do help are thickly lined curtains to cut out the light. Enough sleepwear and bedclothes to feel warm. Leaving a window slightly open is better than an excessively heated room. Eating or drinking foods that contain tryptophan, an amino acid that contributes to sleepiness, such as milk, turkey or carbs helps. Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone that regulates sleepiness, which is made in the brain whereas ingested tryptophan is converted into seratonin, then into melatonin, which is released at night by the pineal gland to induce and maintain sleep
Try not to do any work in the bedroom and ban computers/TV’s. Replace your pillows yearly if you can and turn the mattress regularly so you are not lying in a hollow!
Beauty treatments that lend themselves to night time ritual are myriad starting with any bath soak such as mixing a handful each of Epsom salts, bicarbonate of soda and sea salt with a trickle of olive oil and a few drops of lavender, which is known for its sleep inducing properties, then adding the mix to a warm, not hot, bath and soaking for fifteen minutes or so then hopping straight into bed. This combination is soothing, relaxing, deodorizing, anti-bacterial and moisturising. Pat the skin dry; do not rub vigorously as this will speed up your circulation when you are trying to slow everything down.
You could do your pedicure an hour or so before bed as polish that has eight hours of drying time before shoes are worn really is rock hard and will last longer.
Apply hand creams, cuticle creams and neck cream nightly so as to give them all the ultimate soaking in time. If you are being really good then apply a thick body lotion to your feet and sleep in cotton socks but not on the same night as the pedicure.
You need to sleep well in order to enjoy being awake and if you can become more groomed and beautiful without moving a muscle then that clearly is a dream.
Happy Trails, Readers, Happy Trails.
First published May/June 2013 By the Dart
