The Importance of Sleep and Health

Six reasons not to scrimp on sleep, from Harvard Women’s Health Watch

BOSTON—A recent survey found that more people are sleeping less than six hours a night, and sleep difficulties visit 75% of us at least a few nights per week. A short-lived bout of insomnia is generally nothing to worry about. The bigger concern is chronic sleep loss, which can contribute to health problems such as weight gain, high blood pressure, and a decrease in the immune system’s power, reports the Harvard Women’s Health Watch

While more research is needed to explore the links between chronic sleep loss and health, it’s safe to say that sleep is too important to shortchange.

The Harvard Women’s Health Watch suggests six reasons to get enough sleep:

1. Learning and memory: Sleep helps the brain commit new information to memory through a process called memory consolidation. In studies, people who’d slept after learning a task did better on tests later.
2. Metabolism and weight: Chronic sleep deprivation may cause weight gain by affecting the way our bodies process and store carbohydrates, and by altering levels of hormones that affect our appetite.
3. Safety: Sleep debt contributes to a greater tendency to fall asleep during the daytime. These lapses may cause falls and mistakes such as medical errors, air traffic mishaps, and road accidents.
4. Mood: Sleep loss may result in irritability, impatience, inability to concentrate, and moodiness. Too little sleep can also leave you too tired to do the things you like to do.
5. Cardiovascular health: Serious sleep disorders have been linked to hypertension, increased stress hormone levels, and irregular heartbeat.
6. Disease: Sleep deprivation alters immune function, including the activity of the body’s killer cells. Keeping up with sleep may also help fight cancer.

Why the Increase in Circadian Disorders?

Life used to be simpler. Just a few decades ago, we would get up and wind down with the sun. And we spent much more time outdoors than we do now. This was important for our health, because we each have an internal body clock that depends on sunlight to tell us when to be active and energetic, and when to sleep.

Now with our hectic lifestyles, we often miss these critical signals from the sun, and our body clocks suffer. Without proper morning light, our body clocks don’t produce the hormones we need to wake up and feel active. When we miss daytime light, we slump and become less productive. At night, we usually stay up hours after dark, causing sleep and mood problems. In fact, how we sleep, how active we are, and how we feel are all regulated by our body clock.

Circadian Rhythms

The signals our body clock produces are called circadian rhythms (sir-kadian). Circadian is Latin for ‘about a day,’ and it describes the changing levels of hormones and neurochemicals that control our sleep, activity and mood. When your sleep or mood suffers, you may likely have a circadian rhythm problem. Medical journals report that most mood and sleep disorders have an underlying circadian rhythm disorder.

Circadian Rhythm Epidemic

Because of our hectic lifestyles, circadian related disorders are reaching epidemic proportions. For example, the rate of depression and related disorders has doubled over the last 50 years, and sleep disorders have tripled during the same time.

This epidemic intensifies in the fall and winter when we lose even more sunlight. The National Institute of Health (NIH) estimates that 6% of Americans suffer from a depression known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), while another14% have a milder form, called Winter Blues. Almost 18% of Americans suffer from depression and anxiety. In the US, over 65 million people suffer from circadian related disorders.

Repairing Your Body Clock

Two decades ago, the National Institute of Health discovered a special type of bright light (about 20 times brighter than indoor light) could safely reset your body clock without harmful side effects. Apollo participated in those early multi-center studies, and since then we’ve discovered that specific bandwidths of light will suppress the withdrawal hormone, melatonin, while other bandwidths produce active hormones such as serotonin.

Over the past two decades, Apollo has refined this specialized light through dozens of clinical studies, and partnerships with leading research universities and hospitals worldwide. This specialized lighting process is known as BRITEWAVE™ technology.

Apollo’s BRIGHTWAVE™ light performs three important functions:

• Resets your body clock, so your circadian rhythms function normally.
• Immediately suppresses the withdrawal hormone, melatonin.
• Stimulates the production of serotonin.

The BRITEWAVE™ Advantage

BRTIEWAVE uses a specialized type of bright light (specific wavelengths, color and intensity) to safely reset your body clock. Most people respond in jus a few days, and a few minutes a day is all it takes to keep your body clock in check.

Apollo Health

Apollo has worked with the NIH in pioneering circadian rhythm (body clock) disorders. Apollo’s BRITEWAVE™ technology is the most effective method for rebalancing and maintaining a healthy circadian rhythm.

Is BRITEWAVE™ for You?

If you lack energy, feel down, have trouble concentrating or sleeping, chances are you have a circadian rhythm disorder. Since all body clocks are different, the time of day to use the light is very important.

For a free circadian rhythm assessment

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