Greetings!
Do you know the most common complaint GP’s hear when individuals book a consultation?
No doubt you guessed it if you read the title of this blog. It’s sleep deprivation, a problem that frequently accompanies—and often triggers—a host of other complaints such as low mood, irritability, confusion, increased blood pressure, and increased risk of cardiovascular issues. Although sleep deprivation can occur at any time of year, I’m going to consider the surprisingly common insomnia that occurs during the summer months.
In order to feel drowsy and start to drift off to sleep humans (and all mammals—more on our dogs from Caroline is coming soon) need to allow levels of a particular brain chemical called melatonin to rise—and this can only occur naturally when the organism is exposed to darkness. That’s fine during the winter, when on average there’s about 16 yours of darkness daily.
However, in summer that figure reverses: we enjoy at least 16 hours of daylight daily, which means there’s at most eight hours of darkness in every 24. So even if you drop into bed the moment the sun sets and don’t awaken until it rises, you’ve still barely had the chance to enjoy an ‘average’ full night’s sleep!
Now I’ll bet you can understand why sleep deprivation is such a common problem in summer! You’re probably more active than you are in winter, so you’re in need of even more rest during the summer months. Yet the increasing numbers of daylight hours as we leave winter behind encourages less sleep, not more.
This wouldn’t be a problem if we lived in tune with the seasons; if our work, school etc. was structured so that we were allowed hours and hours to sleep in the winter but fewer hours in the summer. But of course, modern life doesn’t run like that.
This is why, unless you take draconian measures such as absolutely blocking out every molecule of daylight in your bedroom during all the hours you hope to sleep, and you faithfully turn off all screens, and you dim the lights all evening, you may still not get enough sleep.
But don’t despair. There’s a way around this, a way that allows you to feel rested enough to enjoy all that summer has to offer, even though you don’t get to sleep for as long as you might like at night because the dawn wakes you.
I’ll share this secret with you in my next blog. Until then, enjoy the warm June days,
Best,
Linda
What a teaser - no fair!! But - as always - so interesting and great information! Thanks!!