Sleep Dynamic Therapy

Archive for the ‘Sleep Deprivation’ Category

Let’s see, why do people fall asleep when they’re supposed to be working? Hmmm, I wonder.

“A growing number of the teenagers…complain of similar symptoms: exhaustion, headaches, stomach problems, depression and irritability, a consequence of so little free time.” Might they have ended the sentence with “so little sleep time.” Interesting article, read it all, but you won’t see any mention of sleep until the 3rd paragraph from the bottom.

Infant abuse numbers are reported in this article, but one of the missing links here is likely to be sleep-related. When infants don’t sleep well, they cry more or they are simply awake when parents want to be asleep. The extreme sleep deprivation in the parents increases their chances of engaging in inappropriate and impulsive behavior.

The author’s article suffers from a specific and very serious flaw with respect to her disdainful comments about sleep.

The flaw shows up in two related ways. First, she only discusses sleep in the context of “quantity,” based on the so-called need for more hours of sleep. But that model itself is flawed, because what people really need is greater “quality” in their sleep, because “sleep quality drives sleep quantity.”

The second flaw derives from the first. By focusing on sleep quantity, she avoids the most important advances in the field of sleep medicine–advances that have already saved lives and dramatically increased quality of life.

For example, she reports on the connection that sleeping more hours might prevent car accidents, and as a sleep specialist I concur that it might. But, a much more powerful way to prevent accidents would be to find out why the individual is sleeping less than they supposedly should be sleeping.

The answer to this question, more than 70% of the time is that the person suffers from undiagnosed and untreated sleep apnea. The author may believe she is not dissuading someone from doing something about their sleep deprivation. But, the tone of the article dismisses a lack of sleep as another thing we needn’t worry about.

In fact, a lack of sleep is an excellent marker for people suffering marked sleep fragmentation caused by physical sleep disorders such as sleep apnea.

Thus, a very useful and cost-effective approach to healthcare in the case of sleep disturbance strongly supports a proactive stance to diagnose sleep disorders early to avoid not just accidents but also to reduce morbidity associated with strokes, depression, diabetes, heart disease and daytime fatigue and sleepiness.

To do so requires going well beyond the superficialities embedded within this author’s commentary.

Furthermore, as I propose on my site, “aggressive treatment of a sleep disorder is one of the cheapest health insurance policies you can buy!”

This author’s misleading commentary about sleep will steer people in the wrong direction and lead to greater health care costs and worse outcomes.

Maybe after a good night’s sleep, she’ll reconsider!

Gee, I wonder whether any of these guards have sleep disorders.