JEDDAH, 18 August 2004 — When disasters, such as the Exxon Valdez oil spillage in 1995 and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger occur, it becomes imperative to look into the underlying causes of these outrageous human tragedies and scientific and environmental devastations. To the surprise of many, both disasters were attributed to human error resulting from severe sleep deprivation on the part of the Exxon Valdez third mate in control of the tanker and the NASA control room managers.
Such disasters caused by sleep deficiency may happen to be the costliest catastrophes, but what about the ones that happen everyday? Car accidents take place everyday and lives are lost due to sleeping or sleepy drivers at the wheel. We cannot undo past disasters but we can do something about sleep deficiency and stress effects on people.
Sleep is not only an essential body demand but also vital for quick mental and physical reflexes and reactions. Many of us tend to neglect this aspect of health. Sleep loss is cumulative and your brain keeps accurate count of this debt until you replace it with adequate amount of sleep. Hours of sleep are individualistic, but 7 to 8 hours of night sleep are recommended by most sleep scientists. Apparently, the less hours you sleep the poorer is your performance the following day. Consequently, you become sleepy and your energy, mood, and cognitive skills undermined.Serotonin through the hormone melatonin controls the efficiency of your sleep. When overstress depletes your body of its serotonin reserve, the quality of your sleep is diminished. Insufficient sleep interferes with your immune cell repair and the stimulation of your immune fighter cells, impairing your defense mechanism against infection and disease.
I genuinely advise you to be attentive to your sleep needs, because restful and adequate sleep is a biological requirement. We should strictly adhere to our sleep patterns to achieve health, alertness, and quick physical reflexes and mental responses in order to avert disasters and spare lives. Quality sleep relieves tension and enhances mood, energy, thinking ability, memory, focus, and other cognitive skills. Allah, in the Holy Qur’an, emphasizes the importance of sleep.
There are other ways for you to reduce stress. Think of effective strategies to manage your family, work, financial, and other daily pressures. Express your feelings and emotions with family or close friends. Close bonding with people around you can be helpful in relieving your emotional load. Interact with your working environment; being pleasant makes you feel lighter. Try to have a comfortable office setting; it lifts the mood. Deal positively with irritants, like anger and traffic jams. Anger, hostility, and aggression are destructive behaviors to both body and mind. Organize your life and work; time management, task planning, and good communication can spare you a lot of annoyance and misunderstanding.
Our bodies and minds are interconnected. Our brain and nervous and immune systems are intricately inter-wired by neurotransmitters released by the sympathetic nervous system. Even though Eastern style mind/body relaxation methods, such as Yoga and Zen Buddhist meditations, are newly introduced to mainstream medicine, these practices are becoming more and more applied for stress management with success. Studies have shown these techniques to be effective in decreasing oxygen consumption by the reduction of heart and metabolic rate producing relaxation in their subjects similar to restful sleep.
Basma, a fifty year-old mother and wife, suffered mild migraine headaches for 20 some years. Her life and health turned topsy-turvy due to family conflict ten years ago. Her migraines became more and more severe (almost everyday) among other health problems. Pain-relievers became stronger and stronger and part of her normal daily diet. Recently they have become almost ineffective. By chance, three months ago she met a German stress therapist who taught her meditation and stretching exercises. Basma applied this method and managed to reduce her migraine attacks to once a fortnight. Stress reduction therapy has resulted in changing her life and dependence on powerful pain-killers.
Meditation is not difficult for you to apply. There are four steps to the procedure. Start by finding yourself a comfortable position, a quite place, free of distraction. Close your eyes. Choose a rhythmic soothing word or phrase. Repeat them while exhaling. The continuous repetition helps you enter into a state of meditation and relaxation. This procedure elicits physiological changes in your body and brain alike. This was seen in the case of Basma.
Therapeutic and relaxing body massages are also effective stress relievers. This technique soothes muscle tension and spasms, enhances blood and lymph circulation, and releases body water retention. Massage therapies come in different forms. I particularly find muscle relief from Shiatsu, a Japanese massage method that applies finger pressure on certain acupressure points located in the body to free your energy flow. Touch therapy, like Reiki, is practiced in America by some nurses for healing. Prayer has shown therapeutic benefits through transcendental meditation in the East. This technique of healing is not unknown to us Muslims, since Prophet Mohammed practiced it effectively and taught us Quranic verses and prayers that relieve pain and stress. Finally, I urge you to commit yourself to an active healthy lifestyle that would decrease your stress symptoms, as well as give you a sensation of well-being and wellness. Exercises, like brisk walking, swimming, and other aerobic workouts relieve your mental and physical pressures, while improving sleep and stamina.
Keep happy, smile more often, and interact socially, but remember whatever you do, be moderate and limit all sorts of excessive behaviors, as they are destructive to your health and life.
— Mariam Alireza is a holistic science specialist. Send comments to [email protected]