Chapter 14 Helping and Hurting Sleep

Pill vs Therapy

The Sad True About Pills

1. Sleeping Pills target the same system in the brain that alcohol does – the receptros that stop your brain cells from firing – and are thus part of the same general class of drugs: sedatives. Sleeping pills effectively knock out the higher regions of your brain’s cortex (p. 283).

2. In addition, the brain waves that sleeping pills produce is different from natural sleep. And thus, lack the benefits of real sleep. (remember we discussed about coma state is different from sleep state? I guess it’s the same here.)
3. Both the placebo and sleeping pills reduced the time it took to fall asleep. But the change was not statistically different between the two (p. 285).
4. If anything, sleeping pills tend to cause more harm than benefit. They can create a vicious cycle, including rebound insomnia and other side effects. Numerous studies have shown that even occasional users of sleeping pills were 3.6 times more likely to die during the study period than non-users (p. 288).

Naturally Induced Sleep

1. Going to bed and waking up at the same time of the day no matter what.
2. Some studies show that exercising regularly can increase quality of NREM sleep. It is also worth noting that sleep may have more of an influence on exercise then exercise has on sleep. (Sleep increase the performance of exercise)
3. One controlled study found that a diet high in sugar and refined carbohydrates but low in fiber was associated with reduced deep NREM sleep and more frequent nighttime awakenings (p. 295).