I will admit to being an insomniac all of my life.  Since I was a child I had problems sleeping through the night.  My mother would ensure we were in bed early but I would invariably wake up during the night and if I could get away with turning a light on and grabbing a book or magazine, I would read until I felt sleepy.  Unfortunately, I was not always able to get away with turning lights on and reading books, my mother would often wake up, enter my room and tell me to turn the light off.

I will never forget the time I found this little battery operated light at the corner drug store.  I thought it the answer to all of my prayers.  I purchased the cheap little light, took it home and when I awakened — typically at 3:00 a.m.  — I grabbed my little light, a book or magazine, and read under the covers.  That too was short-lived because my mother discovered me one day and told me to stop with the undercover reading.

During my teenage years, the 3:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. sleeplessness was horrible.  Without something to do I would lie in bed looking stupid until I finally fell off to sleep.  There were days when the sun came up before I had a chance to return to sleep.  As a young adult, the problem only worsened as I found myself unable to sleep, averaging about 3 to 4 hours of sleep a night.  My brain just wouldn’t shut down.

What’s With The 3:00 a.m. Wake Up Call?

I have heard two schools of thought on waking at 3:00 a.m.  One school — and admittedly the most common one — has a lot to do with the paranormal.  It is said that psychic phenomena peaks at this hour.   I have also heard from some in the medical field that people tend to die at this hour.  Then there is the Holy Trinity stories I’ve heard and references to the time of Christ’s death on the cross — but I thought that was 3:00 p.m.   Anyway, I don’t know why I found myself awake at 3:00 a.m. on the dot but, just like my noticing the clock at 11:11, the 3:00 a.m. phenomenon in terms of spiritual awakenings, the occult or whatever else never made sense to me because I never saw anything or anyone.

Another school of thought has more to do with the liver and kidneys.  As an adult, I consulted a nutritionist to combat my overwhelming feeling of fatigue.  I thought changing my diet would rid me of the pain and fatigue I was experiencing at the time — pre diagnosis with lupus — and during one of our consultations I told her about my waking at 3:00 a.m.  She referred to this time as the liver meridian — I won’t tell you how I remembered this but it has a lot to do with a town in Mississippi.  In acupuncture, the liver meridian is the channel or avenue of energy upon which the liver thrives.  She told me that at about 3:00 a.m. this area is active.

Her advice — and I just did a little research and found this book — was to either drink warm milk before retiring for bed or soak my feet in warm water.  Since I am a bit lactose intolerant, I chose soaking the feet and it worked, for a time, and then I was up again at 3:00 a.m.  Either I have some very insistent spirits/ghosts hanging around me or my liver is angry.

Two Hours On / 30 Minutes Off

In my 30s, I hit the two hours on 30 minutes off annoyance and it didn’t matter what time I went to bed.  I could go to bed at 10:00 p.m. and find myself awake at midnight.  After 30 minutes of wandering around the house or reading, I would return to sleep at 12:30 a.m. only to awake at 2:30 p.m. exactly.  Another 30 minutes wandering and I would awake at 5:00 a.m.  This nonsense has plagued me for years.  I might get in a full nights sleep once or twice a week if I’m lucky.  When I’m really unlucky, I will get no sleep whatsoever no matter what I do.  No amount of reading, warm milk, soaking of the feet, nothing, will allow me sleep.

Admittedly, a good deal of my insomnia comes from my brain’s inability to shut itself off, particularly if I have a creative idea stirring.  However, what good is a creative idea when you cannot implement it due to lack of sleep?  Typically, when I cannot sleep I have found the only way to find peace is to write it down.  Once I’ve done this my body drops into a deep sleep as if satisfied.  I don’t know what this is or why it is, it just is.

Added to this nonsense are lucid, fluid, or active dreams that wake me and demand I record the information.  Thankfully I follow these because whenever there is a change in my life the information is given to me months in advance.  For instance, my current job came to me in a dream in the form of five numbers.  I got up, wrote the numbers down and stupid me, played the lottery with them — nope, didn’t even win a rock.  I was not looking for a job then and I was quite happy with my current employer.  However, 8 months later after being plagued with a ruckem, suckem, frickem, frackem recurring dream to act on something I had no knowledge of, I did land another job and just in time too.  Those five numbers turned out to be the first five numbers of the phone extension at my desk.  Yeah, to think I played the lottery with those numbers.

Needless to say, trying to make peace with my body or my brain has been quite the daunting task.  At 51, I have yet to figure out a fool-proof way of managing this insanity.

Sleep and Healing

Sleep is important to healing and this is why I need to get at least get 7-8 hours of sleep a night.  I would even be happy with six straight hours of sleep.  Though in my youth I always said “who needs sleep, I can get sleep when I die” the truth is I needed the sleep because lack of sleep meant I would lose keys, lock keys in my car, lose or misplace my wallet, lock myself out of the house, or cause myself all sorts of cognitive calamities.  I needed sleep.  Today, realizing the importance of recuperative or healing sleep, I will take naps during the day and it works.  I once thought naps were for children but oh no, adults can benefit as well.

At eMedicineHealth.com, sleep is defined as:

a state of unconsciousness from which a person can be aroused. In this state, the brain is relatively more responsive to internal stimuli than external stimuli. Sleep should be distinguished from coma. Coma is an unconscious state from which a person cannot be aroused. Sleep is essential for the normal, healthy functioning of the human body. It is a complicated physiological phenomenon that scientists do not fully understand.

Historically, sleep was thought to be a passive state. However, sleep is now known to be a dynamic process, and our brains are active during sleep. Sleep affects our physical and mental health, and is essential for the normal functioning of all the systems of our body, including the immune system. The effect of sleep on the immune system affects one’s ability to fight disease and endure sickness.

Note “is essential for the normal functioning of all the systems of our body, including the immune system.“  You may not think sleep is very important in youth but not getting enough sleep might catch up with you when you’re older.   You can bounce back from a lot of things when you’re young but, as we age, there just ain’t enough elastic to go around.

In the same article at eMedicineHealth, they go on to describe how sleep is necessary for survival:

In humans, it has been demonstrated that the metabolic activity of the brain decreases significantly after 24 hours of sustained wakefulness. Sleep deprivation results in a decrease in body temperature, a decrease in immune system function as measured by white blood cell count (the soldiers of the body), and a decrease in the release of growth hormone. Sleep deprivation can also cause increased heart rate variability.

Going back to how I used to lock myself out of the house — more times than I care to admit — or locking keys in the car and more, sleep deprivation can also lead to impairment of memory and physical performance.

Hormones

During deep sleep, the production of growth hormone is at its peak.  Growth hormones speed the absorption of nutrients and amino acids into your cells and aids the healing of tissues throughout your body.   They also stimulate your bone marrow where — you guessed it — your immune system cells are born.  In addition, melatonin — the sleep hormone — is produced during sleep.  This hormone is vital as it inhibits tumor growth, prevents viral infections, stimulates your immune system, increases antibodies in your saliva, has antioxidant properties and enhances the quality of sleep.

Unfortunately, I cannot take the melatonin supplements.  They don’t work for me and they cause me all sorts of problems.

Parade Magazine’s The Healing Power of Sleep

Parade Magazine just did an article on the healing power of sleep and it talks about weight gain as another side-effect of sleep deprivation along with cancer, heart disease, and again, low immune response.  The weight gain may be up for debate but it does make me wonder:

Scientists still have not determined what lack of sleep has to do with putting on weight. Some cite inflammation reactions. The less you sleep, the stronger the trigger for inflammation. Others contend that those who sleep less have other unhealthy lifestyle habits, which may be partly responsible for their weight gain. Yet other experts focus on the activation of the hormones leptin and ghrelin in response to lack of sleep. These hormones can affect appetite and, as a result, increase the amount of food you consume.

Why Am I Talking About This?

No, it has nothing to do with Michael Jackson and, as noted above, there is a big difference between recuperative sleep and inducing a coma.  The real reason why I have chosen to talk about this was the realization that my hip problem — the reason for my walking with a cane lately — came and went depending on how much sleep I got.  This was made abundantly clear to me last Friday after falling asleep on the couch and not waking until 6:00 a.m. Saturday morning — I actually got seven hours of sleep.  I was surprised to one, find myself on the couch and two, when I got up I could walk without the cane.  Sure, I felt a tinge in my leg that said you have something going on there, but I could walk normally, without the cane.

The next night, I slept in my bed and returned to two hours on, 30 minutes off, two hours on — you know, that insanity.  Sunday morning, pain again.  I decided to not only bone up on my vitamins — Caltrate, D3, Omega 3s, etc — I started taking advantage of naps and different sleep positions — noting I slept on my left side on Friday night.  It worked, well for now but I don’t know exactly what worked.  It could have been a combination of supplements or finding the right and optimal sleeping position.  I do know I slept through the night last night and the night prior and I have very little pain which has allowed me to walk without my cane.

Bottom line, pay it forward.  Get your sleep now for optimal health later.  You might have exercised, you might have eaten all of the right foods, but did you get enough sleep?  If you did not, you might find yourself wondering why you have so many health issues when you hit 40 or 50.