Sleep Health

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From Medical News Today

Stages of sleep

When people sleep, their body goes through four stages of sleep.

 

Three of these stages are non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, with each stage a progressively deeper sleep. The final stage is rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, where dreaming mostly occurs.

 

The body cycles through each stage around four to six times over the course of a night.

 

Stage 1 NREM (Light sleep)

This is the lightest stage of NREM sleep, where a person transitions from wakefulness to sleep.

 

In this stage, a person’s brain waves, heartbeat, breathing, and eye movements slow. Their muscles also relax, with occasional twitching.

 

A person usually spends only 5% of their total sleep time in stage 1, which typically lasts several minutes at a time.

 

Stage 2 NREM (Deeper sleep)

In this stage, a person’s heart rate slows and muscles relax further. Their body temperature drops and eye movements stop.

 

A person’s brain-wave activity slows but they experience brief bursts of electrical activity, known as sleep spindles. Studies suggest sleep spindles help with memory consolidation.

 

People spend most of their total sleep time in stage 2 (about 45%). This stage typically lasts around 25 minutes in the first cycle, with time increasing in each cycle.

 

Stage 3 NREM (Deepest sleep)

This is the deepest stage of sleep, also known as slow-wave sleep (SWS), and accounts for about 25% of total sleep time.

 

A person’s heart rate, breathing, and brain waves slow to their lowest levels, and muscles completely relax. This stage is the hardest to awaken from, and when sleepwalking, bedwetting, and night terrors occur.

 

In this stage, a person’s body repairs itself, regrows tissues, strengthens the immune system, and builds bone and muscle. A person needs this stage of sleep to wake up feeling refreshed.

 

Stage 4 REM (Dreaming)

This is the stage of sleep where dreaming and nightmares mostly occur. It usually begins about 90 minutes after a person falls asleep.

 

A person’s eyes move rapidly from side to side with eyelids closed during this stage, and heart rate and breathing increase.

 

Brain activity becomes closer to that seen in wakefulness, but arm and leg muscles become paralyzed to stop a person from acting out their dreams. Experts believe a person needs some REM and non-REM sleep for memory consolidation.

 

People spend around 25% of total sleep time in REM sleep, with each cycle lasting from 10 minutes to an hour.

 

Tips for improving sleep:

Avoiding sleeping in when you have had enough sleep.

Going to bed around the same time each night.

Spending more time outside and being more active during the day.

Reducing stress through exercise, therapy, or other means.

 

Dr. Birken recommends a combination of a GABA supplement with melatonin – both are available in our office.

Also, Dr. Douglas Kasper offers telemedicine consults regarding prescriptive cannabis for sleep at https://woodlandscannabisclinic.com/

 

Mediterranean Diet and Health Benefits

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Mediterranean diets have long been associated with benefits to cardiovascular health. In the mid-20th century, the Seven Countries study showed that dietary patterns in the Mediterranean and in Japan in the 1960s were associated with low rates of coronary heart disease and all-cause mortality.

Since then, research has shown that this type of diet not only benefits cardiovascular health, but it also reduces the risk of many other health conditions.

And recently, evidence has been increasing for the wide-ranging health benefits of following a Mediterranean diet. But what makes Mediterranean diets so healthy, exactly?

“The Mediterranean diet is characterized by high fruit and vegetables, high fiber, high levels of ‘good fats,’ moderate intakes of fish and meat, low amounts of high processed foods and sugary treat foods,” noted Dr. Eamon Laird, a visiting research fellow at Trinity College, Dublin, in Ireland.

“These food components give high amounts of fiber, good fats, antioxidants, polyphenols, vitamins and minerals — choline, vitamin C, potassium, B-vitamins, vitamin D from fish, etc. — [and] proteins which give health benefits throughout a large number of organ and tissue systems,” he explained.

Although the exact mechanism by which the Mediterranean diet benefits health is unclear, there is increasing evidence that the diet can have five main effects:

Lowering lipids

Protecting against oxidative stress, inflammation, and platelet aggregation

Modifying hormones and growth factors involved in cancer pathogenesis

Restricting specific amino acids

Influencing the gut microbiome to produce metabolites that benefit metabolic health.

Omega-3 fatty acids, phytosterols, resveratrol, vitamins, and polyphenols may contribute to lower levels of inflammation, and may improve endothelial function. By reducing levels of inflammation, improving blood flow, improving insulin sensitivity, and improving lipid metabolism, by default you are also reducing some of the major risk factors for CVD, cognitive decline, cancers, and diabetes.

To read more about incorporating a Mediterranean Diet, go to the following link:

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324221

Protein Intake In Older Individuals

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From NYTimes

Whether you get your protein from supplements or from whole foods, it’s best to spread your intake across the day, rather than consuming the bulk of your protein in one meal, so your body has time to absorb it. You should focus on getting your protein from whole foods like fish, dairy, meat, eggs and poultry, a nutritionist said. You can also get it from plant foods like nuts, beans and lentils. If you can’t get all the protein you need from whole foods, then it’s fine to boost your intake through protein supplements, Whey protein is a particularly good source of protein because it’s rich in amino acids — the building blocks of protein — and the body absorbs it nicely. It’s also been shown in studies to be particularly beneficial for muscle health when paired with exercise. But for people who are vegan, supplementing with soy, pea or hemp protein products can work as well.

 

“The standard healthy adult who is eating a healthy diet does not need a protein supplement,” the nutritionist said. “But if they can’t get their protein needs through food, then that’s when supplements can be helpful.”

 

If you need help determining your daily protein needs, try visiting the protein intake calculator at Examine.com, a large and independent database of nutrition research. The calculator takes into account your sex, weight and activity level to help you figure out how much protein you need. If your goal is to minimize your risk of sarcopenia, then combining an adequate level of protein intake with regular physical activity will do a lot to protect your muscle mass as you age, said Bill Willis, a scientist who studies muscle protein synthesis at Ohio State University and a researcher at Examine.com. Resistance exercises like push-ups, squats and lifting weights or using resistance bands are best. But studies show that even low-intensity forms of physical activity like walking, gardening, lawn mowing and grocery shopping can help to offset the loss of muscle with age.

 

The take-home message for people 65 and up is that you should make sure you consume enough protein and, number two, be active.