Lack of sleep and health issues

[Pam34]

theguardian.com/lifeandstyl...

Scary stuff!

[RosieRow]

Scary indeed, for all sorts of reasons!

On a personal level, I've always been someone who wants 8 hours of sleep, but how can we RLS sufferers achieve the optimum of 7-9 hours sleep including a significant proportion of deep sleep?

RosieRow

[Pam34 in reply to RosieRow]

With difficulty. At the moment I’m doing ok but does that cancel out the horrendous years of virtually no sleep?! And I’m not naive enough to hope my current situation will last forever.

I’ve bought this book for my school library - perhaps it needs a health warning on the front!

Pam

[RosieRow in reply to Pam34]

Once you've seen it I'd be very interested to know if the book is worth buying.

RosieRow

[Pam34 in reply to RosieRow]

It came very highly recommended from several of the science teachers at school and 5* reviews on Amazon. I ought to read it I guess!

[Hidden in reply to Pam34]

I read it a while ago and, whilst it is interesting and written in a very engaging way, it doesn't really touch on sleep disorders. Not that I expected it to go into detail but I was a bit disappointed/surprised that it didn't say very much . I guess the majority of readers would pick it up because they have sleep issues and so I felt it was an omission not to point out that lack of/unrefreshing sleep can be a medical disorder which no amount of sleep hygiene can fix.

I am also a regular Guardian reader and it has become a bit obsessed with articles on sleep - again, these lack references to disorders which is missing a chance to educate but I am afraid to say leaves me feeling rather 'sleep shamed' ie that society thinks those of us with sleep and fatigue problems are bringing it on ourselves by not having a regular bedtime and looking at our phones too much. If only it were that easy!

[Eryl in reply to RosieRow]

youtu.be/lJT4gRUlpkc(Not working as expected?)

[Eryl]

Sadly out of date with the latest research. Lack of sleep is not a cause of Alzheimer's, your immune system, blood sugar levels, cardiovascular disease or anything else. Insomnia is caused by the same thing that causes all the other things mentioned, namely Western (or corporate) high carb / low nutrition diets. The high carb consumption causes permanently raised blood sugar which damages the myelin sheath of the nerves, so the brain cells fire constantly which interferes with sleep. The lack of protective myelin eventually causes the nerve to die which causes Alzheimer's. The poor nutrition starves the body of the chemicals wich are needed to maintain healthy myelin. It causes inflammation in the cells, especially the blood vessels, so the cardiovascular system is damaged. Sugar in the blood uses up insulin to convert it into fat which is stored all over the body, including in the liver. It uses up insulin which is needed by all sorts of cells like the immune system.

The answer is to avoid all forms of sugar and refined starches (as in processed foods)which are easily digested into sugar. I have eliminated my RLS and sleep for a solid seven hours every night since I've been on a low carb diet.

youtu.be/Dacv_OoM62s(Not working as expected?)