Rewire Your Brain: Think Your Way to a Better Life

Medical Conditions Associated with Insomnia 
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Fibromyalgia
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Cancer
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Huntington ’ s disease
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Asthma
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Kidney disease
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Hypertension
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Hyperthyroidism
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Heart disease
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Parkinson ’ s disease 
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Bronchitis
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Epilepsy
•
Arthritis
Some medications have been found to cause insomnia. Unfortu-
nately, many physicians do not take the time to warn their patients 
that insomnia is a side effect of the medications they prescribe. 
Some Medications That Contribute to Insomnia 
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Decongestants
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Parkinson ’ s medications
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Corticosteroids
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Asthma medications
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Diuretics
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Appetite suppressants
•
Heart medications
•
Kidney medications
Sleep Hygiene 
There are several methods for improving sleep, including exercise, 
proper diet, light exposure during the day, and a cool bedroom. 
Researchers at Stanford University studied the effect of exercise on 
sleep in adults ages fi fty - fi ve to seventy - fi ve and found that those 
who exercised for twenty to thirty minutes in the afternoon reduced 
the time that it took to go to sleep by one - half. Two meta - analyses 
have shown that exercise can increase overall sleep quality. These 
studies showed that exercise promotes not only an increase in sleep 
time but also an increase in slow - wave, deep sleep. 
Exercising three to six hours before bedtime enhances sleep 
because it elevates the heart rate and the body temperature but also 
allows time to return to baseline before bedtime. Aerobic exercise 
has a calming and antidepressant effect that also promotes sleep. 
Similarly, it ’ s a good sleep - promoting practice to keep your body 
temperature cool at night. A cool bedroom promotes the deepest 
sleep. Warm bedrooms, in contrast, promote light sleep. Hot baths 
can be helpful as a winding - down activity. The body temperature is 
raised in the tub, but it drops sharply by bedtime. 
Diet also has a major effect on your sleep. Foods rich in 
L - tryptophan (an amino acid that converts to serotonin) contribute 
to sedation, whereas protein - rich foods (such as fi sh) make you less 
sleepy. Protein increases the plasma - rich, large, neutral amino acids. 
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Simple carbohydrates (such as white bread) are not helpful for 
those who have sleep problems, but complex carbohydrates (such 
as whole - wheat bread) are helpful. This is because simple carbohy-
drates increase insulin, lead to a brief increase in L - tryptophan, and 
ultimately increase serotonin, but the conversion of L - tryptophan 
to serotonin is on a short - term basis only. Simple carbohydrates 
result in increased blood glucose and may awaken you during the 
sleep cycle. Complex carbohydrates, in contrast, trigger serotonin 
conversion on a long - term basis and create a slow and sustained rise 
in glucose. 
Vitamin and mineral levels can also affect sleep. Defi ciencies of 
B vitamins, calcium, and magnesium can inhibit sleep. Taking a 
calcium - magnesium tablet at night will promote relaxation and help 
with leg discomfort ( “ restless leg syndrome ” ). 
Since your brain is geared to pay attention to novelty, try to mini-
mize nonrepetitive sounds. The television should be turned off well 
before bedtime, because it will periodically grab your attention and 
wake you up. White noise, in contrast (such as the noise of a fan), 
is monotonous and makes a good screen for other noises, such as a 
barking dog or a car alarm. Some people keep a fan on all night long 
just to provide white noise. Good - quality earplugs can also fi lter out 
noises.
Sedating Insomnia 
The American Sleep Disorders Association lists the following symp-
toms of primary insomnia: 
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A problem initiating and maintaining sleep
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Daytime fatigue associated with the sleep disturbance
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Signifi cant distress in or impairment of one ’ s social life or 
occupation
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Duration of more than one month
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Frequency of three or more nights a week
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A sleep latency, or time awake after sleep onset, longer than 
thirty minutes
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Waking more than thirty minutes before the desired time
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A total sleep time of six and a half hours or less
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A sleep effi ciency lower than 85 percent
These indicators of primary insomnia are also associated with 
general anxiety and some forms of depression. Indeed, a signifi cant 
number of people who are depressed and/or anxious seek treatment 
for insomnia. Ironically, excessive worry about the lack of sleep con-
tributes to anxiety - related insomnia. 
You may mistakenly believe that because insomnia is such a wide-
spread problem, physicians are prepared to help. However, most 
physicians are not well - trained in sleep studies. In a congressionally 
funded study, the pioneering sleep researcher William Dement 
found that most medical students receive an average of just forty 
minutes of training in the study of sleep. 
This void in training is refl ected in the inadequate treatment of 
patients with insomnia. In millions of medical records that were 
surveyed, no reports of insomnia were found. Perhaps 95 percent 
of sleep problems are undiagnosed because physicians don ’ t usu-
ally ask about the issue. When doctors do hear complaints from 
their patients about insomnia, they typically prescribe sleeping pills, 
despite the fact that most medical journals recommend a nondrug 
approach to insomnia. 
People who are depressed often experience early - morning awak-
ening, and this occurs during REM sleep. Too much REM sleep 
contributes to depression, and REM deprivation has been shown to 
alleviate depression. Sleep - deprived people generally recover about 
half of the REM they ’ ve lost, and REM rebound occurs only after 
regaining slow - wave (deep) sleep. 
You probably feel worse when you awaken from a sleep - deprived 
night. You generally feel better as your body temperature rises, as 
you ’ re exposed to light, and as you move around. The way you think 
about your sleep deprivation, however, will affect how you feel the 
rest of the day. If you think the loss of sleep is a major problem, your 
mood will be dampened and you ’ ll continue to feel bad. 
There have been numerous studies on the effects of sleep loss. 
Since most sleep research takes place at universities, we know much 
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about the cost of sleep deprivation on college students. The students 
who were sleep - deprived but managed to have at least fi ve hours of 
sleep a night suffered no signifi cant drops in cognitive functioning. 
However, if they got less than fi ve hours of sleep a night, their cogni-
tive abilities dropped measurably. 
More support for the fi ve - hour hypothesis was raised by a promi-
nent sleep researcher and avid sailboat racer who assessed the 
performance of around - the - world racers. He found that the sailors 
who slept less than fi ve hours did poorly in the race because they made 
navigational mistakes. However, the racers who got more than fi ve 
hours of sleep also did poorly, because they weren ’ t awake enough to 
make the important navigational changes. The racers who had exactly 
fi ve hours of sleep did better than either of the other two groups. 
Many researchers now regard fi ve hours of sleep as the minimum 
biological requirement. For this reason, fi ve hours is sometimes 
referred to as