What Patients & Practitioners Are Saying
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How many hours did you sleep last night? For many of us, the answer is not enough.
Lack of quality sleep negatively impacts the way we think, the way we feel and our ability to manage physical, mental and emotional stress. Sleep deprivation can even reduce our reasoning, ability to concentrate and reaction time, in a similar way to that of excessive alcohol consumption.
Sleep is vital to our quality of life and also to our health, but for many of us good quality sleep is towards the bottom of our priority list; muscled out by other considerations like work, family obligations and social commitments.
Good quality sleep allows our minds to rest and recalibrate, and our bodies to heal and repair. Without sleep our immune systems cannot work efficiently and ongoing sleep deficiency can result in the body being unable to fight off common infections.
According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, “…. sleep deficiency alters activity in some parts of the brain. If you’re sleep deficient, you may have trouble making decisions, solving problems, controlling your emotions and behavior, and coping with change. Sleep deficiency also has been linked to depression, suicide, and risk-taking behavior.”
Matthew Walker, director at University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Human Sleep Science links sleep deprivation to a range of serious health issues including diabetes, Alzheimer’s, obesity, and poor mental health.
He describes the implications of long term sleep deprivation as being “catastrophic”.
We experience the deepest slumber during the first three hours of getting to sleep. This deep sleep is called Slow Wave Sleep. After this initial period of deep sleep we enter a period known as Rapid Eye Movement sleep, or REM. It’s during REM sleep that we have vivid dreams.
Throughout the night we alternate between, Slow Wave Sleep and REM sleep in cycles of approximately 90 minutes. If we don’t get enough uninterrupted amounts of both slow wave and REM sleep, we wake feeling tired and irritable.
According to the Australian Sleep Foundation, how much sleep we need depends on our age. Toddlers for example need between 11-14 hour, while primary school-aged children need between 9-11 hours. Teenagers need 8-10 hours while adults should aim for between 7-9 hours a day.
So why do some people have so much trouble falling asleep, while others can nod-off on a hard bench in the middle of Flinders Street Station? There are obvious causes of poor sleep – too much coffee, stress, illness, a snoring partner or a newborn baby in the house – however there are other reasons that might be preventing you from a long visit to land of nod:
How we can help
If you’re experiencing difficulty falling asleep and/or staying asleep first speak to you doctor about what might be causing the problem. In some cases it may be as simple as changes to diet and lifestyle. In other cases cognitive therapy or medications might be recommended.
National Custom Compounding can make up sleep disorder medications in specific doses tailored to your needs – as a tablet, troche or liquid if you’d prefer.
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“We have been with a compounding pharmacy since 2000 in South Africa and Australia. You are the 2nd in Australia and the quickest and best, Thank you We currently order & collect at Oxenford Amcal”
“I post scripts to NCC and phone to have repeats filled and despatched. It all works well.”