Sleep Well

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We all love our pets. We treat them like family members, and in many ways, we treat them better than people.

But can they cause you misery where you least expect it? Yes, indeed. Snoring pooches in our bed can wreak havoc on our sleep. And we’re not always as inclined to kick them out as we would a snoring spouse.

I was reminded about the trials of sleeping with a snoring dog when I read an amusing blog called “Fully Vetted.” The author and veterinarian Patty Khuly, brought up a few interesting points:

• If you suffer from insomnia aside from your snoring bed partner, then your problems finding sleep are even more challenging — especially if you awaken in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep, thanks to the nasally roar of your neighbor.

• The same physical issues experienced by humans when they snore (airway obstruction) must also affect snoring dogs. Dogs who snore are almost certainly experiencing some degree of respiratory compromise that affects their waking lives too. (So yes, I guess dogs can be victims of sleep apnea just like humans.)

• But unlike humans, dogs don’t sweat; they regulate their body temperature through panting — using their tongue and airway as a cooling mechanism. Dogs who are unable to move air efficiently are not only more likely to suffer heat stress, they’re also less likely to move enough air into their bodies to oxygenate their blood efficiently. Which helps explain why snore-prone breeds can suffer from chronic fatigue.

• Dogs that endure a lifetime of poor breathing can end up getting hiatal hernias, which can be life-threatening. So yes, something as seemingly harmless as snoring can instigate other health troubles that create a domino effect down a dangerous path. But then again, the same can be said for humans who snore due to something like obstructive sleep apnea, which can trigger respiratory and circulatory distress farther down the line.

All this brings to mind a recent headline about dogs who die while traveling on planes. It turns out that short-snouted dogs are most likely to die on planes–bulldogs, pugs and similar breeds made up about half of deaths in past 5 years. Short-nosed breeds — known as “brachycephalic” in the dog world — have a skull formation that affects their airways. They can’t cool themselves off so easily and are prone to heat distress and, in severe cases, death.

Luckily, humans have similarly-shaped nasal passages. What distinguishes those who snore and may suffer health consequences from those who don’t is usually related to something other than the shape of one’s nose. Body weight (especially neck circumference) is one such factor. The thicker your neck, the higher your risk for snoring among other health challenges.

But it’s interesting how the problems that plague our four-legged friends aren’t all that different. Dogs and humans share more than meets the eye. In addition to sharing beds, they can share a bad night’s sleep.

Which is why I always advocate that people and pets keep separate bunks. And watch out: letting your pet have a piece of your slumbering space might be a hard habit to break once they’ve gotten used to it. Something else to keep in mind: your allergies. Over time it’s quite easy to develop allergies to pets and not realize it. If you wake with a stuffy nose every day, put Fido or Fluffy in their own space. While that may mean off the bed, it could just mean a special space on the bed that they can call their own. This way you both can get a good night’s rest.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com

Time to ‘fess up. Do you let your dogs or other pets sleep in your bed? Tell us who’s keeping you up at night on the Sleep Disorders Community.

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Anyone who has a family member suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s knows how difficult and heartbreaking these illnesses are. And it’s often anyone’s guess as to what ultimately causes dementia in a given person. What about sleep habits?

Well, it turns out that we may have clues now to a link between the development of dementia and a sleep disorder known as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (let’s call it RBD for short). The facts:

• With RBD, the paralysis that normally occurs during REM sleep is incomplete or absent, allowing you to “act out” your dreams. Translation: you’re not experiencing typical REM sleep that keeps you in a normal cycle of sleep.
• These dreams are often vivid and violent, compelling you to talk, punch, kick, scream, and even jump out of bed. Translation: you’re not getting the restful sleep you need.
• RBD is usually seen in middle-aged to elderly people, and more often in men.

The researchers of this latest study found that 63 percent of people who experienced RBD developed dementia with Lewy bodies or Parkinson’s disease in later life. In some cases, the disorder was detected up to 50 years before the neurodegenerative condition developed. It’s not too surprising that RBD is also linked to Parkinson’s, as 30 to 60 percent of people with Parkinson’s disease develop dementia.

FYI: Lewy body dementia is a rare form of dementia whereby small round clumps of normal proteins called Lewy bodies (named after their discoverer) become abnormally clumped together inside brain cells. Whether the Lewy bodies directly cause gradual damage to the brain cells, impairing their function and eventually killing them, or are only a marker of some other destructive process is not known.

Scary? We’ve already seen that sleep loss causes brain loss. And when you look at the risk factors for dementia — eating a healthy diet, engaging in regular exercise — both of which have been shown to reduce the risk of developing dementia by up to 60 percent, is there any surprise that getting a good night’s sleep is just as important?

Clearly, we need more studies done to help us understand the associations between sleep habits and our risk for illness later in life. We also need more information on associations that go beyond just rare sleep disorders like RBD. The statistics are far too breathtaking:

• One in three people over 65 will die with dementia.
• Twenty percent of us don’t get enough sleep — banking less than 6 hours of sleep on average.
• Heart disease, diabetes, and obesity have all been linked with chronic sleep loss.

So what can a lifelong battle with insomnia, for example, do to you in your golden years? Insomnia, by the way, is the most common sleep disorder, affecting approximately 64 million Americans regularly each year. Will a seemingly “harmless” struggle to get a good night’s sleep in your prime position your body for ill health later on?

Unfortunately, studies increasingly are pointing to YES. Sleep matters. Today. Tomorrow. And long into our futures.

The single most important thing you can do today to safeguard your health tomorrow might not be just what you eat and how you move. It must also include how well you sleep.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com

Are you getting enough sleep at night? If not, how can you improve your sleep habits? Post your comments on the Sleep Disorders Community.

Donald Miralle

It’s the bottom of the ninth. The bases are loaded with two outs. Your favorite MLB team is pitching. Who do you want on the mound? A recent research study would indicate that you should take his sleep habits into account before answering.

A recent study presented at the 24th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Society looked at just this question. The results indicate that there appear to be two big factors for that pitcher on the mound:

• Is he a morning lark or a night owl?
• Is it a day or night game?

The researchers found that pitchers who were morning types (“early birds”), as indicated on a special questionnaire, performed better than those who are “night owls” overall. In the early games, (those that began before 7 p.m.), the ERA for pitchers who were early birds was 3.06, while the ERA for the night owls was 3.49. However, if the game was in the evening (7 p.m. or later), night owl pitchers were only slightly better with an ERA of 4.07, then early bird pitchers with an ERA of 4.15.

This research also reinforces the thought that peak physical performance is typically best for most athletes between mid-afternoon and early evening (before 7 p.m.). The study involved eighteen pitchers from five MLB teams including: the LA Dodgers, NY Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, SF Giants and the Tampa Bay Rays. The researchers used data from a total of 1,573 innings pitched during the 2009 season, and were able to account for jet lag (i.e. time zone change).

So what does this mean for the Boys of Summer? Well, not only does the early bird catch the worm, but he also seems to strikeout the batter!

Want to know if you are an early bird or a night owl? Check out my chart below from my book Beauty Sleep:

Whether you are an early bird or a night owl, just knowing will help you plan your days for your best performance in whatever you do.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com

Are you an early bird or night owl? How do you schedule your day to maximize performance? Talk about your preferences with the Sleep Disorders Community.

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Does this scenario play out in your home before bed time?

“But Dad, I can’t save it in the middle of my level?”

“And I just got the superpowers to shoot cupcake bombs from my turtle machine gun!”

“How could I possibly turn this off and get ready for bed?”

“How about 20 more minutes and then I will get ready? Or better yet can you bring my PJ’s and toothbrush in here?”

There are many parents who ask me about video games before bed: are they harmful for sleep? And with the transition from summer vacation, where bedtime rules are often more relaxed, to back to school with bedtime stresses, I am getting this question frequently.

A new study published in The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (2010) may be able to shed a little bit of light on the subject.

Previous research indicated that presleep video game play was in fact disruptive to preteen sleep. Currently the research would suggest that stimulating, nighttime video game playing by adolescents leads to:

• Later bedtimes
• Insufficient sleep
• Increased daytime tiredness

But these behaviors are also consistent with being a teenager, so more detailed information was needed to better answer this question.

Research groups decided to look directly at the effect of presleep video-game playing on adolescents’ ability to fall asleep, but the results were mixed. One group reviewed 11 adolescents (average age: 13) and found that playing video games for 1 hour between 6 — 7 p.m.,  on average, lead to a 22 minute increase in the time it took them to fall asleep, versus a group of adolescents who did not play video games.  Another study reviewed a group (average age: 25) and found only a mild increase in the time it took to fall asleep (2.3 minutes) after playing video games for 2 hours and 45 minutes, however these participants went to bed at 2 a.m. and were almost two times the age of the first group! So it easily could have been their age or that the late bedtime was what made them so sleepy that they fell asleep so quickly.

This most recent study’s results were in fact the opposite of what you might have expected. A group of 13 male adolescents (average age: 16) was asked to either play a video game (Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare) before bed or watch a DVD (March of the Penguins), used as a control condition.  The research showed:

• Video gamers fell asleep on average in 7.5 minutes, while the same teens fell asleep on average in 3 minutes when watching the movie before bed
  • This was not a tremendous difference, as expected from previous research
  • Video gamers reported that they felt less sleepy after playing the video game, versus when they were watching the DVD
    • I think several kids actually fell asleep while watching the video – this speaks to either a boring movie, or teen sleep deprivation!
    • The heart-rate of both groups remained the same during the experimental conditions, within normal resting limits
    • The cognitive alertness of both groups remained the same during experimental conditions; both showed mild increases
    • REM sleep and slow wave sleep in both groups remained the same during experimental conditions

So what does this mean for us as parents?

We already know that teenagers like to stay up late and sleep late due to their internal biological clock (circadian rhythm).  As a result of their new “Night Owl” status they have some time to fill, and since electronic media is so prevalent, many will choose to play games, talk, or text late into the evening. The effects of presleep video game playing seems small in this group (remember these were 16-year-olds). The experiment was limited in that it did not review other activities that could be sleep promoting: reading, meditation, listening to soft music, etc.

The jury is still out and the science is mixed on video game use before bedtime – so my advice:

1) Try to keep your teens on a regular bedtime schedule, this will always help with better sleep

2)  Try to find activities that are more sleep promoting before bed in this age group, since you are fighting an uphill battle with their biology anyway.

3)  If it is a huge battle which can cause emotional responses before bed, it may be better to either find another time for the video games –  or you could place a timer on the TV so that right before bed is just not an option!

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com

Do you have problems with kids who would rather play games than get their zzz’s? How are you handling it? Talk with the Sleep Disorders Community.

As summer is coming to an end, and fall is right around the corner, for many parents it is that time of year again: back to school.

If you are a parent, and your child is getting ready to return to school after a long stretch of vacation time, you know that that the first week is typically a serious struggle. Ever wonder why? A few reasons:

• If you have a teenager, their body clock naturally wants to stay up later and sleep in later so you are really going against nature on that one.
• If your child had a later bedtime over the summer than during than the school year, their sleep pressure (like hunger, but for sleep) is less earlier in the evening rather than later, and going to sleep at their “school year” bedtime will be harder.
• Finally, remember there is always an adjustment period to any big change and it is often pretty painful.

So how much sleep should your child get?

• Toddlers ( 1-3 years): 12-14 hours of sleep, once they reach 18 months, naps will decrease to once per day
• Preschoolers (3-5 years): 11-13 hours, they usually lose their nap by age 5
• School-aged kids (5-12 years): 10-11 hours
• Teens (13-19 years): 9-10 hours

Here are a few tips and tricks I have used with my patients over the years to make the transition from summer to school a bit smoother:

• About 2 weeks before school starts, have your child go to bed 15 minutes earlier than they normally do, then after three days of this make it 30 minutes and so on, until they are within 30 minutes of what should be their normal bedtime.

• Begin to limit or eliminate caffeine intake by about 2:30 p.m., many people do not know that caffeine can stay in your system for 10 hours (this includes energy drinks as well).  Check the label on some vitamin waters – they may have caffeine.

• Even if you cannot get your children to go to bed any earlier (which you really should try) get them waking up closer and closer to their school time wake up time. This will help provide an anchor to their already shifting biological rhythm.

• Exercising each day will certainly help their sleep, so keep them outside as long as you can (use sunscreen) and in the pool so they will be nice and tired (particularly for younger children) for bed.  Remember to make the bedroom dark, as in many cases you may be asking them to go to bed before the sun has completely set.

• If they are into electronics in the evenings, start to have them “unplugged and powered down” an hour before bed. Have them relaxing, reading, and getting back into a bedtime routine.

Next blog: Pre-sleep video game playing…

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com

Have you had trouble getting your children back on a school sleep schedule? Do you have any tips that have worked to ease the transition for your children? Share your ideas with the Sleep Disorders Community.

John Foxx

There are lots of drinks that are marketed to do something healthy for you. Drink orange juice if you’ve got a cold. Cranberry juice to keep your urinary tract healthy. Pomegranate juice for a dose of age-defying antioxidants. Milk with calcium to build strong bones.  And that doesn’t include the multitude of vitamin waters, drink mixes and others.

But what about a daily drink to help you sleep? Something made from fruit? And something other than the mythological “night cap” that entails sleep-disrupting alcohol?

Tart cherry juice might be the answer, according to a new study by a team from the University of Pennsylvania, University of Rochester, and VA Center of Canandaigua.

The researchers looked at the sleep habits of 15 older adults who drank 8 ounces of tart cherry juice in the morning and evening for two weeks. Then they drank a comparable matched drink with no tart cherry juice for another two-week period. The results? A significant reduction in reported insomnia severity during the weeks when they drank the cherry juice. The adults saved about 17 minutes of wake time after going to sleep, on average, when drinking cherry juice daily compared to when they were drinking the other non-cherry beverage.

So what’s the magic in cherry juice? Cherries contain melatonin, a natural antioxidant with a well-documented history of helping to regulate the sleep-wake cycle. Produced naturally by the body in small amounts, melatonin plays a role in inducing sleepiness at night and wakefulness during the day. Though melatonin is marketed as a supplement to help people fall asleep, I’m not a big advocate of going this route without a doctor’s supervision. But getting natural melatonin from whole foods like cherries is clearly another story. Our body is likely to use that very natural ingredient from a fruit in a much different way than it would via a pill.

After all, we need solutions for better sleep:

• More than 40 million adults and another 20 million experience occasional sleep disruptions, putting their health and well-being at risk.
• Americans spend more than $84 million on over-the-counter sleep aids each year.

If a glass or two of tart cherry juice (assuming you enjoy the flavor) does in fact help reduce insomnia, then this study is good news for insomnia sufferers. Drink up!

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com

Would you try drinking cherry juice to fight insomnia? Tell us what you think on the Sleep Disorders Community.

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Early risers might get the worm, but they would do well to get to bed early, too, or they might start missing that worm.

If you’re among the millions who get up before dawn or worse, arrive at work before dawn because your shift starts between 3:00 am and 4:30 am, then chances are you don’t get to bed early enough to make up the difference in sleep time. More than one in 10 people occasionally wake up before sunrise to go to work. About two percent of people do it all the time. What time are these people going to bed? According to a new survey published in the journal Chronobiology International, early risers rarely go to sleep early enough. Those who report to work extremely early are sleeping less than 5 hours per night.

And for the vast majority of people, that’s clearly not enough sleep time. No wonder some workers surveyed admitted to being dissatisfied with work, fatigue and feelings of not being well rested.

All this sleeplessness has larger repercussions: loss of productivity, moodiness, unhappiness, sloppy work, and yes — even difficulty sleeping.

Though these early birds would do well to crawl into bed before 9 p.m., that seems unrealistic for many, given family obligations and distractions like television, computers, friends and perhaps a spouse that wants some attention as well.

So what’s an early riser to do? I’ve written numerous times about tips for dealing with the sleep stresses of shift work, and many of these can be used to keep an early riser happy and well-rested:

• Avoid caffeine within eight hours, if possible, of your bedtime. That can be as early as noon for the early riser.
• Watch out for caffeine lurking in other products, like headache medicine, chocolate and energy drinks.
• Think about going a little lighter on the caffeine if you’re older than 40. It appears that the older you are, the more caffeine will interrupt your sleep.
• Get treatment for any sleep disorders. If you’re a snorer (ask your partner!), then you may have sleep apnea. Untreated sufferers of sleep apnea never feel fully rested, which can result in chronic sleep deprivation that can be life-threatening. They will also threaten your livelihood during the day.
• Explore ways of reducing the effects of their challenging schedules. For example, taking restorative naps — meaning a nap either 20-35 minutes in length or 90 minutes long — about 8 hours after you wake can be very effective. Anything in the 35-90 minute range could actually make you sleepier!
• Plan your day around your sleep. Try to eat dinner early, and avoid heavy meals that can keep you up with indigestion. Get some exercise in and experiment with the time of day that helps you sleep better at night.

And lastly, be more mindful about building boundaries into your life. Don’t start watching a movie or reading a thriller at 9 o’clock at night if you know it will keep you up late. Avoid pushing the limits of your bedtime when there’s no limit to be pushed in the morning. Think about it: you have more control about what time you can go to bed than what time you have to get up.

I know, getting all that we need to get done within a 24-hour day is tough. But so is trying to get anything done while sorely sleep deprived. And a sleep debt can actually add up faster than other kinds of debt — and its repercussions will be far reaching.

Lesson: make your work schedule work for you. Translation: Make your sleep schedule work for you!

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com

Are you an early riser that’s constantly tired? What sleep strategies do you employ? Post your comments on the Sleep Disorders Community.

It’s a simple question that you’d think would have a simple answer. We know that sleep has restorative effects on our bodies down to the cellular level, but how it all works from a biological perspective has been somewhat of a mystery.

Now we’ve got more details to help tell the story of just what exactly goes on. New research suggests that during the initial stages of sleep, energy levels increase dramatically in brain regions that are active when we’re awake. The scientists behind this latest study believe that this surge of cellular energy may replenish the brain’s processes that we need to function normally during the day.

“Energy,” by the way, refers to ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which is our body’s chief energy molecule. It’s also the same energy currency in other animals like rats, which were used in the study. The researchers found the following:

• ATP levels increased in four key brain regions that are normally active during wakefulness when the rats were in non-REM sleep.
• During this time, however, an overall decrease in brain activity occurred.
• When the animals were awake, ATP levels remained steady.
• When the rats were gently nudged to stay awake three or six hours past their normal sleep times, there was no increase in ATP levels.

What does all this mean?

The authors concluded that sleep is necessary for this ATP energy surge, as keeping the rats awake (depriving them of sleep to mimic a sleep-deprived human) prevented the surge. The energy increase may power restorative processes absent during wakefulness, because brain cells consume large amounts of energy just to perform daily waking functions.

Indeed, there’s a lot to do when we’re awake. In addition to all the tasks we complete consciously, think about all the things we do practically subconsciously like breathing, think about things we do almost on autopilot: surfing the net, walking the dog, sometimes even driving a familiar route. All this activity requires — you got it — the ATP energy that appears to be produced by a good night’s sleep. And a good night’s sleep is exactly what the doctor ordered to prepare us for the rigors of our day. No sleep, no energy expended in the brain to help us recover from the day and, in essence, recharge our minds for the next adventures of the next day.

It’s also worth noting that the precise mechanics of the brain also remain a mystery to some degree. There’s no doubt that the brain requires a lot of energy to function as the body’s master of ceremonies. We already know that sleep loss can actually result in brain loss. In fact, the obligations of the brain may be the only reason we need sleep: because without a brain the body isn’t worth much. And it certainly can’t do much.

In addition to food, water and oxygen, the brain clearly needs sleep. If only sleep deprivation were as compelling of a sensation as feeling famished or thirsty. We always seem to be able to put off sleep. But eating or drinking, well…

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com

Do you get enough sleep at night to recharge your brain? Share your comments with the Sleep Disorders Community.

Any new parent who has tried to get an infant to sleep knows about the secret spell of a swing. There’s something magical about the rocking motion that a swing or even human arms can provide to put a baby to sleep. It also explains why a ride in the car or a train can be equally as tranquilizing.

So why couldn’t the same or a similar technique help an adult insomniac?

A new technology that has been developed may do just that.

The device is designed to simulate the gentle, soporific swaying sensation that seems to be the key factor in lulling babies (and adults) to sleep. And this can be achieved without the need for an actual bedroom swing to accommodate an adult. (Or asking your partner to do something impossible!)

It’s about the size of a MP3 player and is connected to the mastoid bone behind the ear using a sensor cable, which sends electric pulses into the vestibular system. This stimulates the balance centers in our middle ear to create a gentle swaying or rocking sensation. If it sounds too good to be true, or if you’re already feeling seasick at the thought of being artificially rocked to sleep as if lying on a sailboat, listen up.

The device was researched and developed in Australia by Philips Respironics, and according to tests performed in sleep labs in Sydney and Melbourne, it was found to decrease 67 percent of severe to moderate insomniacs down to a level of no clinical significance.

That’s huge. That means the cure for some insomniacs may be just a drug-free device away rather than another pill or strong-willed attempt at bedtime meditation.

Though I’m not quite sure there’s any substitute for a piece of technology that, at the touch of a button, can make you feel like you’re being rocked to sleep like a baby, there are other low-tech ways to “rock” yourself to sleep. Try these three techniques instead:

• A warm bath before bedtime.
• Listening to relaxing music with a good pair of headphones on after getting into bed.
• Keeping your bedroom cool, quiet and low-lit.

These strategies won’t necessarily make you feel like you’re swaying, but you can add some visualization to conjure that rocking, swaying sensation. With your music playing, close your eyes and just imagine safely floating on a raft or inner tube while drifting in the ocean. It’s actually not too difficult to visualize.  And it might just take the “difficulty” out of falling asleep.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com

How do you cope with restless nights? Does visualization help you fall asleep? Share your tips with the Sleep Disorders Community.

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Jetting off for a vacation before the summer ends? The anticipation of taking a time-out and getting away from the rigors of daily life can be exhilarating… until you get to your destination feeling tired, tense, and touchy thanks to jet lag.

Crossing multiple time zones can play funny games with your circadian rhythm. If you are traveling from New York at 8 a.m. to California and it’s a five-hour flight that crosses three time zones, that means you land at 10 a.m. L.A. time. But it’s really 1 p.m. your time back in New York and starting an afternoon romp through Disneyland with the kids works out great. Consider the reverse, however: Say you leave L.A. at 5:30 a.m. to get to New York for a 1 p.m. meeting in downtown Manhattan (without the kids). If getting up that early is not normal for you, you would do well to take a nap on the flight so you’re refreshed by the time you land in New York. Or leave later in the morning from L.A. and schedule the meeting for the following day so you have time to adjust.

Adjustment. That’s the key word when it comes to jet lag, and for good reason. When your internal clock doesn’t match the external clock, it can be– and feel — like World War III in your body. The problems that arise with jet lag are a clear example of how external influences can disrupt our internal body clock.

I’ve blogged about biological clocks before. It’s a fascinating area of research that has so many applications to everyday life. Consider how much your internal clock determines the quality of your life. And if you don’t know what I mean by that, then here’s a quick summary of the role your internal clock plays:

• Your sleep/wake cycles.
• How refreshed you feel in the morning.
• How easy it is for you to fall asleep at night.
• Whether you can recover quickly from jet lag.
• The fate of a shift worker who has to be productive at odd hours.
• Whether you’re a lark or an owl.
• Your mood and energy level.
• The strength of your immune system.
• Your ability to ward off diseases, including cancer and Alzheimer’s.

It may seem hard to believe that your body’s clock can influence diseases like cancer, but it’s true. Think of your clock as your body’s central pacemaker — a means by which the body can remain balanced and, in medical speak, in a state of homeostasis. An entire network of molecular clocks found in the different organs coordinate the body’s various physiological processes ranging from the heart beat, temperature, sleep requirement and hormone balance to behavior. All of these clocks are controlled by the master pacemaker of the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN), which synchronizes all of the body’s “peripheral” clocks with the outside world. At the molecular level, all of the clocks are based on a handful of “clock” genes and proteins that regulate each other interactively and thus generate a molecular time signal in the form of a circadian rhythm, a term that originates from the Latin for approximately (circa) and day (dies).

Research continues to emerge helping us understand our clock — or even clocks. Just last month, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry published a study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation demonstrating (at least for mice), that the clocks associated with individual organs in the body adapt to the new time at different speeds. So while you feel out of whack once you reach a new time zone, it’s pretty much because your body’s physiological processes are no longer coordinated. And the adrenal gland plays a key role in this process. When the researchers switched off the adrenal clock or manipulated the synthesis of the hormone corticosterone by the adrenal gland, the rodents adapted more quickly to the altered circadian rhythm. These insights could pave the way for a new approach to the hormonal treatment of the effects of jet lag and shift work.

These findings surprised even the scientists. It marks the first time that anyone has systematically studied how individual “clock” genes and the internal clocks of the different organs synchronize with the new external time in the case of jet lag.

So what can you do to prevent the jet lag from making your trip a drag? How about setting your body clock to a new time zone before the journey? By using light therapy or an alarm clock that simulates dawn and dusk with techniques to induce sleep, you can reset your circadian body clock before a journey, thus preventing jet lag from the very start. If you are planning a trip across more than two time zones and want to get accustomed to your destination’s time zone quickly, this might be an approach to take.

Let’s say you have an important business trip for which you have to fly east. Before flying, you’d go to bed and wake up earlier each day while using a light box in the morning and winding down earlier in the evening. If you’re traveling west, you would expose yourself to bright light later in the day, go to bed later and wake up a little later in the morning.

If you don’t have the time or inclination to get a light box, then consider direct sunlight as the next-best alternative. Light boxes, while producing artificial light that mimics the sun’s intensity, don’t emit ultraviolet radiation. They are designed to produce those perfect wavelengths of light (peaking in the optimal “blue” wavelength range, or 460 nanometers) and the light gets directed angularly at your eyes for the greatest effect.

If you can shift your body clock naturally prior to departing, this can be a particularly useful technique if your trip doesn’t allow for much time to adjust before kicking into high gear and demanding your top performance.

Try and switch over to your new time zone right away by going to bed and getting up at the same time you would normally, but on this new time zone. So if you usually go to bed at 10 p.m. in L.A., do the same the first night you land in New York even though your body might think it’s only 7 p.m. Then, the next morning try and go for a walk outside, exposing yourself to light and movement that can help re-set your internal clock.

And take my Traveler’s Survivor Kit with you:

• Ear plugs
• Eye mask
• Favorite soothing music and head phones or a device like an iPod
• C-shaped pillow that fits around your neck

These strategies can also be used for shift workers. But that’s another story for another day.

Bon Voyage and Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com

How do you deal with jet lag? Tried adjusting to a new time zone before your trip? Share your tips with the Sleep Disorders Community.