Living with Mild Cognitive Impairment by Anderson Nicole D.;Murphy Kelly J.;Troyer Angela K.;

Author:Anderson, Nicole D.;Murphy, Kelly J.;Troyer, Angela K.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

SLEEP

Getting a good night’s sleep is also very important to your ability to feel more positive. In chapter 8 we told you that sleep patterns shift as we age and that people with MCI often report experiencing difficulty either falling asleep, staying asleep during the night, or waking up too early. We also pointed out that sleep is a critical component to your physical and emotional health and to your memory functioning.

Given the importance of sleep to health and well-being, we wanted to make sure you knew about some simple things that can help improve your ability to sleep at night. See Box 9.4 for guidelines to improve your sleep habits or sleep hygiene, as well as the recommended reading by Silberman listed in chapter 8. These involve controlling aspects of your environment and your behavior that can impact your sleep. In order for these techniques to work, you have to be disciplined about doing them; you can’t just do them when they are convenient. If you are committed to making these simple changes, though, you should soon find that you are sleeping better at night and waking up feeling more refreshed.

It is recommended that adults get at least seven hours of sleep per night, though some individuals may need more and others can manage with a bit less. You may ask yourself, What can a good night’s sleep really do for me? A lot. When you are asleep your body is engaged in many restorative functions that include producing proteins that repair cell damage and producing chemicals. Examples of these chemicals are melatonin (a hormone involved in sleep-cycle regulation and immune-system function among other things) and serotonin (a hormone with many functions, most importantly enabling communication between nerve cells, but also regulating your mood state, with low levels of serotonin being associated with depressed mood). If you don’t get enough sleep, then your body is stressed (it has to carry an increased burden) because it doesn’t have enough time to take care of all the daily wear and tear. When your body is stressed due to lack of sleep, more stress hormones are released, like cortisol. As a consequence, regulation of your blood pressure and cholesterol, your mood, and how effective you are at responding to stress, is not as efficient. We told you in chapter 8 that your memory also doesn’t function as efficiently when you haven’t had enough sleep. Lack of sleep reduces your body’s effectiveness at performing all the restorative functions, and this can make you more prone to medical conditions like heart disease and stroke and to mood problems like depression and anxiety. In short, sleep acts like a buffer to help your body and mind function optimally regardless of what the day throws your way.

Box 9.4 The Dos and Don’ts of Good Sleep Habits

• Do eat a light snack before bedtime if you would otherwise be hungry, but don’t eat a large meal just before bedtime.

• Don’t drink alcohol right before bedtime. Alcohol may induce sleep, but it will disrupt sleep later in the night.

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