Diplomate, Board Certification of Emergency Medicine
Chairman, Department of Emergency Medicine Ma'ayenei Hayeshua
Hospital
We want to speak a little about rearranging our sleep
schedule and, with the summer well on the way and with many
people traveling abroad, we should speak about "jet lag."
We all have a natural "clock" in our bodies and many things
are connected to this clock. A regular sleep schedule at
night and being awake during the day streamlines hormone
release and puts us at our best immunologic abilities. People
who are awake regularly at night sleep poorly during the day,
and even have a higher rate of cancer.
This already points to one important point: if you do sleep
during the day after being awake all night, you should do so
in a quiet and dark room. This will result in the best
quality sleep. Furthermore, if you know in advance that you
will be changing your sleep pattern, the best thing to do is
to prepare by going to sleep a little bit later every night
and waking a little bit later every day before you must
assume the new schedule. Also after you have been up all
night, do not sleep all day. Leave the "tank" a little empty
so you can fall asleep again at night. That is, for example,
if you know you generally require 8 hours of sleep a night,
sleep only 6 the day after Shavuos.
Now some don'ts. Don't sleep during the day after returning
from abroad if you want to quickly return to our time
schedule. Be aware that children adjust to time changes
better than adults, and the elderly -- who generally don't
sleep well anyhow -- sometimes need two weeks to adjust.
Elderly patients may consider a stop over in England or
France for three days to help them acclimate before traveling
on to the USA.
Drugs are another no-no. Avoid caffeine on late nights and on
journeys, and stay away from sleeping pills as well even if
you need them to sleep on the plane. I, by the way, avoid
caffeine at all times. Alcohol and natural sleep remedies do
not help here either and can make things worse. Milk as well,
despite being high in tryptophans, helps little and recent
studies have shown the hormone melatonin does not help
either. While we are on the subject: do not eat a lot on the
plane or before staying up late or really anytime before
going to bed. This can be a dreadful experience for those
with reflux, ulcer disease, or hiatal hernia and besides, it
can make you fatter.
In America the most common cause of preventable motor disease
accidents is driving while under the influence of alcohol.
In Israel it is driving while sleep deprived.
Never get behind the wheel when sleep deprived or while
trying to acclimate to jet lag. If you feel tired, pull over
and sleep for a little bit. And let's make another thing
clear that we have spoken about in previous columns: not
sleeping is dangerous. Young people who try to push
themselves will have less energy and possibly suffer long
term effects.
One last request from all my readers. Some people -- myself
among them -- are poor sleepers and if awakened can have a
lot of problems falling back asleep. Please, please be
considerate of the fact that not all people are up past 10
p.m. and also that some people sleep between two and four in
the afternoons. Mothers with babies like to sleep in the
mornings when older children are off in school. Many people
get up early to daven and as such go to sleep early.
To all these people nothing is worse than being awakened for
a trivial matter by someone who can't imagine why a person is
not awake at 11:30 at night. Write me in care of the
Yated.
A message from Glaxo, sponsor of this column. Impetigo
is a common skin infection we did not discuss which features
honey-colored scabs and is extremely contagious. Once only
treated by antibiotics by mouth, a convenient and
revolutionary medication called Bactroban is a cream that
deals with this with ease.
