Some highly successful people thrive on little sleep. Others are tormented by it.
- 38 COMMENTS
- The Australian
- RUTH OSTROW
It’s the night of the walking dead in my house. I’m sitting here again at 3am, unable to sleep.
Insomnia is a terrible thing that affects one-third of the population (and 50 per cent of us at some time in our lives). Women are three times more likely than men to suffer from it.
I’ve had it for a few weeks now, the result of a hormonal imbalance my doctor is trying to sort. What I get up to in the wee small hours is just a huge embarrassment. Infomercials. I like the documentary on the Roomba vacuum cleaner.
The history of how robotic vacuum cleaners developed makes me feel more intelligent than listening to the multiple uses for a blow-up couch (which I nearly bought in eggshell blue, god help me, in sleep-deprived derangement.) I already have a juicer, but it’s nice to see all the varieties of healthy juices I’m never going to make. I like watching people build their abs, and conveniently there’s always the back-brace on the next channel if I ever attempt it.
Of late, I have taken to watching The All Time Greatest Country Songs From The 60s, 70s, 80s & 90s. To my horror, I found myself weeping at Glen Campbell’s By the Time I Get to Phoenix, singing along to Johnny Cash and, worse, to Kenny Rodgers and Dolly Parton’s Islands in the Stream. Just shoot me.
I’ve joined the prestigious club of nocturnal zombie-vampires: breastfeeding mothers, worriers, depressives, menopausal women, shift workers, parents with sick children or a new puppy, jet-lagged souls, or those with flu, or with broken bones or hearts. And the ol’ regulars who’ve worn a path down their hall.
Insomnia is either transient (short-term, passing), acute (a longer bout but limited) or chronic (ongoing). It can also be secondary if due to another illness. Insomnia can be defined as: trouble falling asleep; trouble remaining asleep; waking too early. In all instances, it’s when you never feel refreshed or have enough hours of deep “quality” sleep.
A journalist at this newspaper told me that during a break-up he put out a “Hello is anyone out there?” on Facebook at 3am, and was surprised at how many people were awake. They started a chat group. His TV drug of choice was Air Crash Investigation. An aching heart and insomnia were better than falling out of the sky. But then again, lack of sleep can be just as lethal, with a plethora of diseases attributed to it.
In fact, the importance of not missing sleep is enough to give anyone nightmares. Recently a journalist from the Daily Mail, John Naish, conducted an experiment, reducing his sleep from eight hours a night to five, to see how it affected him — he sat up watching cop shows from the 70s to keep himself awake.
Apart from physical ailments starting to spring up — such as gout (insomnia can cause inflammatory diseases) and other nasties — his emotional world turned upside down. Insomnia interferes with levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, and the amygdala, the centre of emotion. Studies have found those who sleep fewer than five hours each night are three times more likely than normal sleepers to become psychologically distressed. “I was suddenly gripped by the fact that my pet cat was at the end of his middle years and one day he wouldn’t be with us at all,” Naish writes.
“I was overtaken by despair, an intense desolation that quite destabilised my temperament. I felt utterly inconsolable … Everyday upsets could send my morale plummeting: the story of a vandalised bus shelter in my local paper, or finding that all the pens on my desk had dried up. Sometimes it took nothing at all to set me off, just … the question: ‘What’s the point of anything?’ ”
Incidents of mental illness increase in sleep-deprived people. We must not panic if we have a short bout of insomnia, but chronic lack of quality sleep can be associated with heart disease, diabetes and memory loss. People who sleep less than five hours a night for five years have a 300 per cent increased risk of hardened arteries, says Charles Czeisler, a professor of sleep medicine at Harvard. Less than six hours regularly can lead to inflammatory disease and compromised immune system, some cancers and obesity.
A study by the University of California, San Francisco, found an association between poor sleep quality and reduced grey matter volume in the brain’s frontal lobe, which helps control important processes such as working memory and executive function, and turning off mind-wandering.
It’s estimated that in the US billions of dollars are lost each year because of poor performance due to insomnia, but it isn’t all bad news for the economy. According to Business Insider, a small group of between 1 and 3 per cent of the population are among the “sleepless elite” who are able to thrive on just a few hours of sleep.
Donald Trump sleeps three to four hours, as do chief executives at corporations including Twitter, PepsiCo and Fiat.
Leaders who thrived on little sleep included Margaret Thatcher; Condoleezza Rice and Benjamin Franklin. And famous inventor Thomas Edison regarded sleep as “a heritage from our cave days”.
When I interviewed entrepreneurs for my business book The New Boy Network, I found most of them slept no more than five hours a night. One, a very successful corporate player I’m friendly with, has microsleeps and might even drop off for a minute during our conversations.
Research conducted by Britain’s Loughborough University shows that a timely and deep nap of less than 20 minutes can equate to an extra hour of night sleep. Meditation does the same due to the way it affects brainwaves.
But for the rest of us, seven to eight hours of restful sleep is optimal. In fact, there’s a risk in oversleeping, too. Regularly sleeping more than eight hours a night is associated with disease and increased risk of death. It’s a bit like Goldilocks and the Three Bears — best to get it just right.
So how do we do that? According to the sleep experts, it’s mostly about fixing our natural circadian rhythms. The best medicine is having enough good light to help serotonin production in the day, and a darkened place to stimulate the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin at night.
A half-hour stroll at lunchtime can provide much of the light needed, but light-therapy with artificial boxes can also help. Melatonin supplements can be useful.
A no-no is exposure to computer screens and blue light before going to bed, which is known to suppress the release of melatonin. Avoid screens at least an hour before going to bed (which will also help switch off the busy brain). And catch the melatonin wave! Go to bed the minute you are drowsy. Sleeping tablets are OK temporarily but can interfere with the deeper sleep we need for memory consolidation. Exercise and good digestion are important.
Sydney therapist Jo-Anne Baker, who herself has struggled with insomnia, recommends writing a to-do list before bed, so as to empty the mind of such thoughts. She encourages creating comfort through meditation, relaxation, or a warm bath. Me? I’m just going to bore myself to sleep watching infomercials and bouncing on my new, plastic, blow-up couch.
Editor’s note: The author submitted this piece at 1.23am.
Stay up until you fall asleep in your favourite armchair and then go to bed. It seems to reboot by circadian rhythm.
i suffered during my working days and found the best way to get back to sleep was to take your mind to your favourite place and just think about it !! Then wake up in the morning ready for work !! believe me it works just try it
When life is stressed and/or depressing… when looking at your textbook or the un-ironed clothes stacked up.. many people get tired. But tis is not real sleepiness, this is just being uninspired.
So they go to bed, sleep. But tomorrow they have had plenty of sleep, and they are still uninspired. So you go to bed early again.. and hey presto… no sleep!
This isn’t insomnia, it is just that you can’t sleep when you are not tired.
Most insomnia is just a lack of ‘tiredness’.
Just repeat to yourself “I’m not tired, just uninspired!”
Might I suggest a sure-fire cure for insomnia? A financial accounting textbook. Works a treat on my students. Whenever I ask the class to read even a short passage, a veritable tsunami of yawns travels around the entire lecture theatre.
(Melbourne Molly)
Valerian from Blackmores seems to be a herbal fix I have used
@Consv8ive doesn’t work for everyone!
Years ago there was a TV show which examined in detail the history of the development of Penicillin. I had a tape of the soundtrack, and used it for ages as a “get me to sleep” relaxant. These days the overnight BBC via News Radio or RPH is good enough most nights to just distract the brain for long enough to get back to sleep, rather than start thinking, which is the wrong thing to do. TV is a no-no.
Insomniacs can get very desperate and try anything, out of all I tried the medication Remeron coupled with oprah and deepak medidation stream and would be asleep fast with 7 or even 8 hours. Lifesaver.
Sometimes caffeine is the culprit. Caffeine’s half-life can vary from 3 to 7.5 hours perhaps even more depending on many factors, alcohol ingested,liver damage,grapefruit juice. Many medicines which use the same enzyme as caffeine to be metabolised slow up the metabolic process.
So in a case of 7.5 hours half-life that means 15 hours later you still have quarter the amount of caffeine in your system. 30 hours later you would have one-eighth still in the system. These figures also have to be multiplied if you have several coffees,teas,cola drinks.
Try different sleep cycles. If I go to bed at 9 I sleep till 6. If I go at 10.30 I wake up at 4 and that’s it….. makes absolutely no sense to it but works for me. Also Google for tennis ball on shoulder blade pressure points, often helps as well.
don’t look at the clock when you wake.
Try a sugar (honey)hit before retiring..
I literally cannot hit 8 hours because I’ll be late for my next day of work If i do. I think i’m running pretty smoothly on 6 atm, but that is my own opinion. But from my days as an actual insomniac.. I learn’t that exercise was the key.
Hard core pawn is great if you want to get to sleep. As in Cash Converters, EBay, Trading Post, Gumtree.
After 15 minutes all those bargains become one big yawn.
Forget all that, get NETFLIX. No more infomercials and you can be suitably entertained. The remaining comments in this blog are somewhat missing the point that you could cash in using insomnia. Imagine working 20 out of 24 hours, 3 times more production. Simply more cash. Enjoy
@Jim
The number of times it’s been 3 in the morning and the dreaded “the next episode will start in 10 seconds” comes on. Netflix is worse than the world cup for sleep! 🙂
Try exercising in the morning before work. I wake up before the alarm most mornings between 3 and 4 am however am in bed by 8pm. Leave for work around 6 and get home around 6. Weekends are for socialising and watching tv, weekdays are for routines.
@Mutchu Now what sort of exercise are you referring to?
Knowing I’m not the least alone is only a very small comfort. Waking up at 3am is dreadful and I do it all the time. I tried reading, listening to music and yes of course – walking to the lounge to watch all those tv shows. All to no avail. I have also attempted some scotch at 3am but I know that’s no long term solution so I gave that up. It’s dreadful and I’m sincerely hoping this is transient – this started when I took up a role in Canberra, away from home in Melbourne, earlier this year.
Ruth, as a dentist who has an interest in sleep issues I would suggest you have a sleep study to rule out a sleep issue, be it sleep apnoea or upper airway resistance syndrome, which is particularly common in women in menopause ( not sure if that applies to you!).
Your doctor can refer you for an overnight study. If the problem is in the lower range your dentist ( best to see someone with a particular interest in this area) may be able to fit you with a sleep appliance.
Google physiologic approach.com.au and you will be able to find a dentist that may suit you. Good luck. Sleep rules.
@Susan At least with insomnia you know you’re not sleeping. I have sleep apnoea and the test revealed that even though I thought I was sleeping through the night my brain was waking every 2 minutes to make me breathe. I now use a mandibular splint and feel considerably better – the CPAP masks were another nightmare!
tried it all and nothing works…..its like my brain is stuck in an endless (usually simple) thought loop. So frustrating. Where I have troubles is the getting to sleep…once there its a solid night. It seems to me to be just when dropping off if I am disturbed or realise I am dropping off I come back from the brink and its 2-3 hours before I will start to drop off again.
My wife falls asleep in a couple of minutes tops (so jealous) so no amount of explanation helps there either. Pills leave you sleepy the next day but after 4-5 nights of seemingly no sleep you get desperate enough. Melatonin does help but don’t take too much……overly vivid dreams.
I have found over the past 25 odd years of insomnia that when you finally decide it isn’t happening and you try to meditate at least it removes the frustration, if not the tiredness.
Good luck!
I have chronic insomnia and have battled with it for 50 years. It hasn’t killed me but I believe it has severely limited my achievements and contribution to ‘life’ . It is a terrible affliction that doesn’t have any ‘glib’ solution.
Apart from the effects of the blue light, electromagnetic fields from computers and TVs can disrupt the secretion of the sleep hormone melatonin. It’s not only screens, what about the microwave electromagnetic fields from all your wireless gadgets, your neighbours’ and transmitters like mobile base stations around? There is a lot of scientific evidence of changed activities in the brain due to microwaves (high energy radiowaves) exposure. These lead to neuro-behavioural symptoms. There are a many studies that confirmed these effects. Russians knew about these for a long time and bombarded the US embassy in Russia with a broadband microwave beam for a bit over 20 years from 1953. As a result, people who worked there had these symptoms and various other ailments. That was before microwave emitters were marketed as everyday gadgets. People have no idea that their fancy smart phones and various smart gadgets, not to mention cordless phones and baby monitors are actually bombarding them with microwaves – disrupting circadian rhythm, preventing a good night’s sleep essential for body repair functions. Moreover, while the repair is low, they increase the cellular damage like DNA damage – it’s more than double trouble! Read the bioinitiative report if you have a scientific background to see the evidence of harm. It can increase cancer and heart disease risk as well.Not to mention dementia (forgot to include that one!)
I’ve had chronic insomnia since I worked as a baker in my youth doing the 10 PM to 6 am graveyard shift. These days I’ll mostly get to bed around 2:30- 3am and wake up around 7 am. Even though I am an office worker around 70% of the time now. One gets an appreciation of high doses of coffee.
But the truth of the matter, at least for me and I am not sure of how many this may be applicable, I would rather not have to sleep at all. I consider it dead time. I occasionally catch up with a long extended sleep, which may be up to 15 hours or more. I can certainly vouch that extended periods on a computer screen are a negative for sleep, often going to bed with a square of bright light burnt into my vision when I close my eyes.
I wonder how much of this is a modern problem that given sufficient time we will adapt to? In the mean time coffee is king.
How is the computer screen any different to the TV screen? Maybe watching TV when you wake up should also be a no-no if you are trying to get back to sleep.
@Leigh
I think it’s about intensity, you tend not to sit as close, and nor is a TV as intense. I also think that it’s the fact that a computer is not a passive activity like a TV is. I frequently fall asleep watching tv, and rarely do while on the computer. Though it does happen!
@Leigh Both are disasterous in getting you to sleep again
I’ve found that deep breathing gets the best results. Breath in for a count of 4 or 5 then hold the breath for a few seconds then breath out until you feel there’s no breath left in your lungs. Do this a couple of times and, I’ve found, it’s guaranteed to work.
@Nahida This seems to work for me as well but my timings are 3-4-4. I guess these figures could be varied to suit the individual. The key, I think, is doing this gently both on the inhaling and the exhaling, as softly as possible. Try not to be anxious and use your imagination to follow your breath, in and out; this would distract your brain from random thoughts. Good luck!
An excerpt from a Mothers’ Union piece that has been on my fridge for many years (of course “God” can be interpolaed with whoever it is that a person believes is their higher power) ;
“How often do you find yourself awake between 2am and 4am, particularly during busy periods of your life?
Many people toss and turn, make cups of tea, watch television, or generally worry about not being able to sleep.
A great remedy fr this problem is to spend the time in prayer to God.
You can praise him, you can give him your problems, you can ask for help, you can sing hymns, or you can just pray for you family and friends.
Praying can be done silently so as not to disturb others, or it can be done out loud if you are alone, but it is a beautiful way to pass the time, then pass into restful sleep, waking up refreshed for the new day, with the business ahead.
It solves the problem of how to fit God into a hectic day’s schedule.
So next tie you wake up in the early hours, ask yourself if it is God giving you a nudge to get your attention, and give you the time to ‘chat’ with him
@Catherine Can’t sleep? Don’t count sheep. Talk to the Shepherd!
(Melbourne Molly)
One thing I’ve tried is something to eat just before bedtime preferably protein. It seems to help me and definitely in bed by 10.30pm.
Not drinking any alcohol at all during the day and evening before you go to bed certainly helps a lot. Drinking alcohol is directly related to a lot of sleeping issues.
@Peter So we should drink alcohol in the mornings instead?
I sleep only a few hours at night but do not find it a curse. On waking refreshed around 2 – 3 am I find that it is a marvellous “thinking time”. Before I retired, many solutions to work problems, or new ideas, came much more easily to mind.
Ruth, you could try no caffeine after 3pm., early dinner and a warm glass of milk half an a hour before retiring If possible, retire to bed the same time every night and remember, the best quality sleep happens before midnight. Best of luck.
@Robyn
“the best quality sleep happens before midnight”
Doesn’t that depend on when you go to bed? 10pm to 6am should be no different to 12midnight to 8am on a regular basis.