Learning to sleep
20/07/16 05:19
The wife of one of my cousins commented that she had the best night of sleep in years when she was visiting our old home place for the wedding over the weekend. I know for a fact that that great night of sleep wasn’t caused by an expensive mattress. The cabin where she was staying is outfitted like the rest of the place, with significantly used furniture. There are plenty of other possible reasons for the good night’s sleep. I seem to sleep well in that place because I grew up with the sound of the river runny by and I really find that sound soothing as I am drifting off. I think I sleep pretty well when I am there. Another possible reason is that ours is a family of talkers and we are want to get going with conversation and stay up a bit later than usual so that when you do hit the sheets you are definitely weary. It could also be that being away from home puts one into a vacation mood and so you aren’t going over the lists of things to do in your mind as you drift off and wake from your sleep. There re a lot of possibilities.
Medical researchers report that sleep is critical for optimal health. Getting a good night’s sleep doesn’t grant immunity from disease, but study after study has found links between insufficient sleep and serious health problems such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity. In one study shift workers who were young and healthy showed increased blood glucose levels in as little as four days of low sleep levels. Another study revealed that participants who suffered from chronic pain experienced less pain when their sleep levels were sufficient.
I pay attention to some of these studies in part because I have never been a particularly good sleeper. When I was a child, I taught myself to wake and respond quickly. If I could wake, get dressed and get going with a small notice, I would get to go flying with my father, something I dearly loved. That ability to get up and get going was further rewarded when I was older and began delivering papers. Because I could get my papers distributed accurately before other paper boys in town, I found it easy to expand my route and increase my income. Later as a college student, being the one to open the library first thing in the morning gave me additional free study time as there were very few patrons in the building in the pre-breakfast hour. And, as a young minister, being the early shift DJ on the radio station was a job that I could do without interfering with my duties as a pastor. As a camp counselor I used to pride myself on being the last one to bed anthem first one up day after day.
Of course rising early isn’t incompatible with getting enough sleep if you go to bed early and, for the most part I do that in my current lifestyle. However, the skill of rising and getting going quickly, honed over years and years of experience, means that often when I awake in the middle of the night, I quickly become fully awake and have trouble getting back to sleep.
One thing I have discovered is that I sleep better when I use an alarm for waking. It seems counter intuitive, and I prefer not to use an alarm clock when I am on vacation. In my everyday life, however, I find that not worrying about oversleeping is very helpful. Knowing that there will be a gentle chime to wake me at the appropriate time saves me from waking to check the clock multiple times in the night. It doesn’t take much of an alarm to get me awake, and my spouse rarely hears the alarm before I’ve gotten it shut off.
In a manner that is similar to other blog posts, I am, of course, writing about something of which I am no expert. I think I have the motivation to develop better sleep skills: who wants to develop stroke, diabetes, obesity and heart disease? I certainly do not. I would like to do what I am able to maintain my health into my aging years. I have collected snippets of information from a variety of sources, including a bit of layperson web research and asking questions of a friend who is a neurologist who has conducted hundreds of sleep studies over the years. One bit of information I learned from him is that the most common person to first notice sleep problems is the bed partner. Since my wife doesn’t complain about my sleep patters, perhaps they aren’t as bad as I think. OK, I know that is rationalization, but it is an interesting bit of my story.
There is, however, one thing that I know I can do to improve my sleep patterns. That is to practice my didgeridoo. I picked up the instrument when we visited Australia in 2006. The year before our visit a study printed in the British Medical Journal found that learning and practicing the didgeridoo helps to reduce snoring and obstructive sleep apnea by strengthening muscles in the upper airway, thus reducing their tendency to collapse during sleep.
Circular breathing, the process of inhaling through the nose while blowing air out of the mouth is often employed in playing the didgeridoo. It is a technique employed by other instrument players, commonly low brass instruments. it is common among accomplished didgeridoo players. There are many stories of didgeridoo players being able to maintain continuous tone for an hour or longer. Although I have a book and a recording of lessons on circular breathing, it isn’t a technique that I have mastered. One of the suggested learning techniques, breathing in through your nose while drinking water through your mouth, is counterintuitive for a swimmer.
All of this presents me with a bit of a dilemma. While my sleep patters currently don’t seem to be bothering my wife, I have noticed that excessive didgeridoo practice does not seem to be one of her favorite experiences. I have received sufficient feedback on my playing to know that it isn’t soothing for her. I think I should definitely avoid practice when she is sleeping. That might create a whole new world of problems.
Medical researchers report that sleep is critical for optimal health. Getting a good night’s sleep doesn’t grant immunity from disease, but study after study has found links between insufficient sleep and serious health problems such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity. In one study shift workers who were young and healthy showed increased blood glucose levels in as little as four days of low sleep levels. Another study revealed that participants who suffered from chronic pain experienced less pain when their sleep levels were sufficient.
I pay attention to some of these studies in part because I have never been a particularly good sleeper. When I was a child, I taught myself to wake and respond quickly. If I could wake, get dressed and get going with a small notice, I would get to go flying with my father, something I dearly loved. That ability to get up and get going was further rewarded when I was older and began delivering papers. Because I could get my papers distributed accurately before other paper boys in town, I found it easy to expand my route and increase my income. Later as a college student, being the one to open the library first thing in the morning gave me additional free study time as there were very few patrons in the building in the pre-breakfast hour. And, as a young minister, being the early shift DJ on the radio station was a job that I could do without interfering with my duties as a pastor. As a camp counselor I used to pride myself on being the last one to bed anthem first one up day after day.
Of course rising early isn’t incompatible with getting enough sleep if you go to bed early and, for the most part I do that in my current lifestyle. However, the skill of rising and getting going quickly, honed over years and years of experience, means that often when I awake in the middle of the night, I quickly become fully awake and have trouble getting back to sleep.
One thing I have discovered is that I sleep better when I use an alarm for waking. It seems counter intuitive, and I prefer not to use an alarm clock when I am on vacation. In my everyday life, however, I find that not worrying about oversleeping is very helpful. Knowing that there will be a gentle chime to wake me at the appropriate time saves me from waking to check the clock multiple times in the night. It doesn’t take much of an alarm to get me awake, and my spouse rarely hears the alarm before I’ve gotten it shut off.
In a manner that is similar to other blog posts, I am, of course, writing about something of which I am no expert. I think I have the motivation to develop better sleep skills: who wants to develop stroke, diabetes, obesity and heart disease? I certainly do not. I would like to do what I am able to maintain my health into my aging years. I have collected snippets of information from a variety of sources, including a bit of layperson web research and asking questions of a friend who is a neurologist who has conducted hundreds of sleep studies over the years. One bit of information I learned from him is that the most common person to first notice sleep problems is the bed partner. Since my wife doesn’t complain about my sleep patters, perhaps they aren’t as bad as I think. OK, I know that is rationalization, but it is an interesting bit of my story.
There is, however, one thing that I know I can do to improve my sleep patterns. That is to practice my didgeridoo. I picked up the instrument when we visited Australia in 2006. The year before our visit a study printed in the British Medical Journal found that learning and practicing the didgeridoo helps to reduce snoring and obstructive sleep apnea by strengthening muscles in the upper airway, thus reducing their tendency to collapse during sleep.
Circular breathing, the process of inhaling through the nose while blowing air out of the mouth is often employed in playing the didgeridoo. It is a technique employed by other instrument players, commonly low brass instruments. it is common among accomplished didgeridoo players. There are many stories of didgeridoo players being able to maintain continuous tone for an hour or longer. Although I have a book and a recording of lessons on circular breathing, it isn’t a technique that I have mastered. One of the suggested learning techniques, breathing in through your nose while drinking water through your mouth, is counterintuitive for a swimmer.
All of this presents me with a bit of a dilemma. While my sleep patters currently don’t seem to be bothering my wife, I have noticed that excessive didgeridoo practice does not seem to be one of her favorite experiences. I have received sufficient feedback on my playing to know that it isn’t soothing for her. I think I should definitely avoid practice when she is sleeping. That might create a whole new world of problems.