My intention to write this series of articles on sleep is to emphasize its importance physiologically and psychologically to the human body and brain. Sleep is not only meant for resting after a long exhausting day, but also for repairing our bodies from daily wear and tear and healing from viruses, bacteria, and other diseases as well as recovering from injuries, bolstering the immune system, and resetting the brains in order to continue living disease-free, healthily and energetically with joie de vivre.

As Dr. Michael Galitzer, cancer expert and integrative anti-aging doctor, puts it, without sleep, cancer (or even illness) cannot be completely cured. According to him, “Melatonin potentiates the chemo[therapy] and helps people sleep. If you don’t sleep, nobody gets better, and once you lose the ability to sleep, health deteriorates, but it’s important to allow people sleep naturally. Melatonin does that.” “Naturally” is a keyword here. Not only melatonin is a natural hormone that helps sleep, it is also an antioxidant that promotes healing.

To put more emphasis on sleep, another research indicates that sleep deprived people “are more than twice as likely to die of heart disease.” Seriously, we should pay close attention to these two statements. They hold the key to healing speedily and effectively and preventing illnesses.

Last week, I spoke extensively about the health-harming habits and foods to be avoided in order to enhance the quality of your sleep. Now, I would like to continue discussing other factors that could interfere with restful sleep and good health.

Apart from conflict, deadlines, mental and work pressures and automatic negative thoughts (ANTs), some factors can become disruptive influences on the quality of your sleep and peace of mind. Some can produce disturbing effects on the mind, the psyche, and consequently the body.

Watching violent and horror movies or even exciting and challenging television shows can be arousing and stressful on the nerves and body, resulting in excitability, fear, shaky nerves, and finally arousal that makes sleep a far-fetched urge. In result to that, researchers believe that “The emotional centers of the brain overreact more after sleep deprivation […] to “negative emotional stimuli.”

Computer games, late work, negative emotions and thoughts, excitement, high performance physical activity and even small arguments produce a similar outcome on sleep. The brain over-reacts to such stimuli and the nerves convey the effect to the body, making it tense and agitated. Pain, back and joint aches, digestive problems, snoring, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, and obesity can also lower the quality of sleep. Sleeplessness and its causes could be symptoms of future disorders brewing to becoming full-fledged illness. Hence, all these signs should be recognized and addressed to prevent grave physical or mental disorders.

Now, I shall show you healthy ways to energize you in the morning as you wake up and to maintain your vitality throughout the day or at least stabilize your energy and mood.

After a restful night or even sleepless night, your body wakes up yearning for water as it has been deprived of fluids for the six to eight hours of being in bed; in other words, your body results in low grade dehydration. To jumpstart your day, health experts recommend, at least, one large glass of room-temperature water or even two, first thing in the morning even before brushing your teeth. I also suggest a squeeze of lemon with water to alkalize your body, cleanse it, energize it, and boost blood flow to reach the brain and organs, especially the kidneys and liver to help detoxification. Why is room temperature or warm water preferable? That is to prevent shocking the digestive system with cold water. Don’t forget your body temperature is after all 37 degrees and your system has been in a fasting mode for 8 hours or more.

Another important activity to do during the day is to expose parts of your body to the morning or afternoon sun. Walking in the sun with 25 percent of the body bare for 15 to 20 minutes prevents skin burning. When the sun hits the skin, the rays are converted into vitamin D, necessary for multiple functions, including the brain. The nutrient is unfortunately not easily available in everyday foods to substitute for sunlight. We, in this country, are very privileged to have the sun shine day in day out, whereas Northern countries are deprived of this blessing. Despite that, many of us are still vitamin D deficient due to being covered all the time.

We require the sun for other functions, too. We need sunlight to go into our eyes; it is a healthy wake-me-up, superior to caffeine. Not only does it reset our circadian rhythm, our biological clock, to help us wake up, sleep well at night, and adjust the digestive system, appetite, and other internal functions, it also provides enough vitamin D to protect us from many health issues like skin diseases, diabetes, bone loss, mental disorders, and even cancers.

Unfortunately, people have become vitamin D deficient and more due to the scare that relates skin cancer to sun exposure, which happened during the latter part of the last century. Low vitamin D levels lead to sleep disruption, mental disorders, heart disease, low-bone density, osteoporosis, and even cancer. Studies have shown that cancer patients are more likely to be deficient in this vitamin.

Exposure to sunlight has yet another advantage for the brain. When the sun touches the surface of skin above the veins, phosphorus is synthesized. This mineral is much required by the brain. That is probably why Alzheimer’s disease patients are found to be deficient in vitamin D.

Because, not many foods contain vitamin D, the nutrient should be supplemented most of the time. Vitamin D3 is the best form of the supplement, when you do not get enough sun exposure. It is more bioavailable to the body than the other types. Before taking it, you are required to have a blood test to check your level of the nutrient. Eggs, salmon, and cod liver oil are among the very few foods to contain D, but of course, 15 to 20 minutes of direct sunlight is also necessary for your health. Seniors and children do need the supplement (read my previous articles on vitamin D). It is critical for them and their bones and growth.

We have just seen that sleep is not just a luxury for the few, but also a daily necessity to all beings. It is a behavior that should not be sacrificed for any task or assignment, even though, in our modern day of competitiveness, sleep has become a “rare” commodity. People barely have the time or the “luxury” to observe it. We need to pay more attention to this “fundamental biological issue,” as Dr. Charles Czeisler, the Baldino Professor of Sleep Medicine At Harvard Medical School, expresses it.

Unfortunately, sleep is often not respected. It is even overlooked because of work demands, deadlines and tasks required by universities, corporations, and organizations, even though sleep experts urge companies to assign for employees a time during work hours to take a power nap, known as a siesta (qaylulah).

Next weeks, there will be more on the subject, Insha’Allah.

References:

• “Body clock alters immune system” by James Gallagher

• “How Exhaustion Might Change the Way You Think,” by Amanda Woerner

• “Emotions Run Amok in Sleep-deprived brains, ” by Charles Q. Choi

• Ben Hirschler on sleep on Reuters

• “Good Sleep, Sociability may keep Grandma Healthy,” by Megan Rauscher for Reuters.

• The Science of Good Sleep: There is a reason You’re Always So Tired by James Clear in Wellness

• “The Science of Good Sleep: There’s a Reason You’re Always So Tired” by James Clear, March 24, 2015

• “4 Ways to Sleep Better Tonight,” by Andrew Katz, July 17, 2012

• Interviews of correspondent Lesley Stahl of CBS with Matthew Walker, director of the Sleeping Neuroimaging Lab at the University of California, Berkeley.

• “Six Senses” by Michael J. Breus, PhD ˂[email protected]>

• “5 WORST FOODS to Eat Before Bed…and Best” by Jesse Cannone

• www.higherperspectives.com

• Sleep Positions

• Dr. Michael Galitzer interviewed by Suzanne Somers’ book, Knockout

N.B.:

Individuals with medical conditions or on medication should consult their physicians when they decide to introduce anything new in their diet even if it is natural.

The previous Health Solutions articles are located at www. arabnews.com