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Some people are early risers who enjoy waking up early. Others have a sleep chronotype that identifies them as a night owl. If you’re in the latter group, you can become an early riser, but it will take some more planning and consistency to officially make the shift. There’s a reason why you struggle to get up in the morning, and these simple tips can make a big difference. For more on sleep, see how cognitive shuffling can help you fall asleep faster, which yoga poses to do at night and our top sleep tips everyone should know about……..Continue reading….
By: Amanda Capritto
Source: CNET
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Critics:
Chronotherapy is a behavioural treatment that attempts to move bedtime and rising time later and later each day, around the clock, until a person is sleeping on a normal schedule. This treatment can be used by people with delayed sleep phase disorder (DSPD), who generally cannot reset their circadian rhythm by moving their bedtime and rising time earlier. DSPD is a circadian rhythm sleep disorder, characterised by a mismatch between a person’s internal biological clock and societal norms.
Chronotherapy uses the human phase response to light or melatonin. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has recommended chronotherapy for the treatment of circadian rhythm and sleep disorders. Here is an example of how chronotherapy could work over a week’s course of treatment, with the patient going to sleep 3 hours later every day until the desired sleep and wake time is reached.
- Day 1: sleep 3:00 am to 11:00 am
- Day 2: sleep 6:00 am to 2:00 pm
- Day 3: sleep 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
- Day 4: sleep 12:00 pm to 8:00 pm
- Day 5: sleep 3:00 pm to 11:00 pm
- Day 6: sleep 6:00 pm to 2:00 am next day
- Day 7: sleep 9:00 pm to 5:00 am next day
- Day 8 and thereafter: sleep 12:00 am to 8:00 am next day
While this technique can provide respite from sleep deprivation for people who must wake early for school or work, the new sleep and wake times can only be maintained by following a strictly disciplined timetable for sleeping and rising. A modified chronotherapy is called controlled sleep deprivation with phase advance, SDPA. One stays awake one whole night and day, then goes to bed 90 minutes earlier than usual and maintains the new bedtime for a week.
This process is repeated weekly until the desired bedtime is reached. Sometimes, although extremely infrequently, “reverse” chronotherapy – i.e., gradual movements of bedtime and rising time earlier each day – has been used in treatment of patients with abnormally short circadian rhythms, in an attempt to move their bedtimes to later times of the day. Because circadian rhythms substantially shorter than 24 hours are extremely rare, this type of chronotherapy has remained largely experimental.
The safety of chronotherapy is not fully known. While chronotherapy has been successful for some, it is necessary to rigidly maintain the desired sleep/wake cycle thenceforth. Any deviation in schedule tends to allow the body clock to shift later again. Chronotherapy has been known to cause non-24-hour sleep–wake disorder in at least three recorded cases, as reported in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1992.
Animal studies have suggested that such lengthening could “slow the intrinsic rhythm of the body clock to such an extent that the normal 24-hour day no longer lies within its range of entrainment. Obstructive sleep apnea affects around 4% of men and 2% of women in the United States. While the disorder is more prevalent among men, this difference tends to diminish with age. Obstructive sleep apnea is more prevalent among women during pregnancy, and women tend to report depression and insomnia in conjunction with obstructive sleep apnea.
In a meta-analysis of the various Asian countries, India and China present the highest prevalence of the disorder. Specifically, about 13.7% of the Indian population and 7% of Hong Kong’s population is estimated to have obstructive sleep apnea. The two groups in the study experience daytime symptoms such as difficulties concentrating, mood swings, or high blood pressure, at similar rates (prevalence of 3.5% and 3.57%, respectively).
In a systematic review, it was found that 7.6% of the general population had reported experiencing sleep paralysis at least once in their lifetime. Slightly more women (18.9%) reported experiencing sleep paralysis than men (15.9%). 28.3% of students reported experiencing sleep paralysis, with the highest incidence among students of Asian descent (39.9%) and lowest incidence among Caucasian students (30.8%) when compared to other ethnicities (Hispanic: 34.5%, African descent: 31.4%). 31.9% of psychiatric patients reported experiencing sleep paralysis, of which 34.6% had a panic disorder.
A chronic neurological disease often compared to narcolepsy type 2, characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, even after normal or prolonged sleep time. Sleep time sometimes exceeds 10 hours in duration. There are two types of IH: with long nocturnal sleep time or without long nocturnal sleep time (marked by unintended and unrefreshing naps). The cause of idiopathic hypersomnia remains largely unclear, with no established pathophysiological mechanism.
Patients dealing with idiopathic hypersomnia cannot obtain a healthy amount of sleep for a regular day of activities. Treatment, as in narcolepsy, focuses primarily on symptom management. It is mainly based on stimulants to improve alertness and wakefulness.
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