How a glass of wine before bed wreaks havoc with your sleep

11 December 2014

By MADLEN DAVIES FOR MAILONLINE

This post is on Healthwise

Alcohol disrupts body's internal timer and triggers insomnia

• Bedtime alcohol does initially induce sleep, but leads to poorer quality rest
• It interferes with sleep homeostasis - the body's internal sleep-regulator
• Over time, regular drinking can lead to withdrawal symptoms and insomnia
• Doctors concluded alcohol should not be used as a sleep aid

Many of us indulge in a tipple before bedtime to relax - or even help us sleep.

But doctors now warn a nightcap may not be such a good idea.

While glass of wine at night may help you drop off, the alcohol disrupts sleep and leads to a poorer night's rest, they say.

This is because drinking alcohol to fall asleep interferes with sleep homeostasis - the body's internal timer that regulates sleeping and waking.

Over time, regular drinking can even lead to withdrawal symptoms and insomnia, they found.

They concluded that alcohol should not be used as a sleep aid.

The team of doctors, from the University of Missouri School of Medicine, U.S., studied alcohol's effects on sleep for more than five years.

Dr Mahesh Thakkar, who led the research, said: 'The prevailing thought was that alcohol promotes sleep by changing a person's circadian rhythm - the body's built-in 24-hour clock.

'However, we discovered that alcohol actually promotes sleep by affecting a person's sleep homeostasis - the brain's built-in mechanism that regulates your sleepiness and wakefulness.'

Sleep homeostasis balances the body's need for sleep in relation to how long a person has already been awake.

If an individual loses sleep, the body produces adenosine, a naturally occurring substance that increases their need for sleep and causes them to drop off.

When a person goes to sleep early, sleep homeostasis is shifted and they may wake up in the middle of the night or early morning.

The researchers found that alcohol alters the sleep homeostatic mechanism and puts pressure on an individual to sleep.

When this happens, the sleep period is shifted, and a person may experience disrupted sleep and wake up earlier.

As alcohol is a diuretic, meaning it causes the body to expel water, it causes people to need to go to the bathroom, therefore waking up earlier in the morning.  

In addition to studying alcohol's impact on sleep homeostasis, the researchers explored how alcohol withdrawal affects sleep.

They found after extended periods of frequent drinking, subjects would fall asleep as expected, but would wake within a few hours and would be unable to fall back asleep.

When the subjects were not given alcohol, the researchers found they showed symptoms of insomnia.

'During acute alcohol withdrawal, subjects displayed a significant increase in wakefulness with a reduction in rapid eye movement and non-rapid eye movement sleep,' Dr Thakkar said.

'This caused insomnia-like symptoms and suggests an impaired sleep homeostasis.'

He added: 'If you are experiencing difficulty sleeping, don't use alcohol. Talk to your doctor or a sleep medicine physician to determine what factors are keeping you from sleeping.

'These factors can then be addressed with individualized treatments.'

The researchers hope to use these findings to explore other effects of alcohol consumption.

The study was published in the journal Alcohol.

CURE YOUR TIREDNESS: ENJOY HOT BATHS AND BANANAS FOR A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP 

Dr Sohere Roked, a leading holistic doctor who specialises in tiredness, shares her tips for a good night's kip... 

1. Nuts such as Brazil nuts and walnuts induce sleep due to being packed with protein, potassium and selenium and can help the body make melatonin, the natural sleep hormone.

2. Eat salad with your evening meal. Lettuce contains lactucarium, which has sedative properties and relaxes the brain.

3. Your body needs vitamin B6 to help make melatonin and serotonin. Foods rich in B6 are fish like tuna, halibut and salmon, as well as raw garlic and pistachio nuts.

4. Certain foods with a high glycaemic index, such as bread and pasta, can induce sleep. This is because after eating them you have a natural spike in your blood sugar and insulin levels, and after this spike you can feel tired.

5. Chamomile tea contains glycine, which relaxes nerves and muscles and can act as a mild sedative, reducing any anxiety.

6. Consider making 2pm your cut-off time for caffeinated drinks if you're having trouble sleeping.

7. Turn off your TV/computer/smartphone an hour before you go to bed - light from electrical appliances stimulates the brain.

8. Take at least 30 minutes to wind down before bed - listen to relaxing music and use the time to take stock of your day.

9. Take a hot bath. Sleep is normally preceded by a drop in body temperature. 

10. Warm, skimmed milk aids sleep, as do bananas. Both release natural chemicals to relax the body and help you fall asleep due to their calcium content. They also both contain tryptophan. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2870017/How-glass-wine-bed-wreaks-havoc-sleep-Alcohol-disrupts-body-s-internal-timer-triggers-insomnia.html



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Suicide by Sugar

February 15, 2010

It’s more addictive than cocaine…but you can break the habit

The phrase “addictive white powder” probably makes you think of illegal drugs. Add sugar to that addictive group. Americans consume vast quantities—and suffer withdrawal symptoms when they don’t get it. In fact, animal studies indicate that sugar is more addictive than cocaine.

Excess sugar has been linked to obesity, cancer, diabetes and dementia. What to do…

SUGAR, SUGAR EVERYWHERE

In the US, the average person consumes about 142 pounds of sugar each year, the equivalent of 48 teaspoons a day. Of that amount, 74 pounds is “added” sugar—about 23 teaspoons every day. Added sugars are defined as those sugars added to foods and beverages during processing or home preparation as opposed to sugars that occur naturally.

People who want to cut back on sweeteners usually start with the sugar bowl. They spoon less sugar on their breakfast cereal, for example, or use a sugar substitute in their coffee.

This doesn’t help very much. The vast majority of added sugar in the diet comes from packaged foods, including foods that we think are healthful.

For example, eight ounces of one brand of sweetened apple yogurt contains 44 grams of sugar, according to the nutrition facts label. Four grams equals one teaspoon, so that’s 11 teaspoons of sugar. (You cannot tell from the label how much sugar is from the yogurt, how much is from the apples and how much is added sugar.)

Most of the added sugar that we consume comes from regular soft drinks (there are about 10 teaspoons of sugar in 12 ounces of nondiet soda), candy, pies, cookies, cakes, fruit drinks and milk-based desserts and products (ice cream, sweetened yogurt).

If you look carefully at ingredients labels, which list ingredients in order of quantity, you will see that the first two or three ingredients often are forms of sugar, but many have innocuous-sounding names, such as barley malt, galactose and agave nectar. Other forms of sugar include honey, maple syrup, corn syrup, corn sweetener, dextrine, rice syrup, glucose, sucrose and dextrose.

DANGEROUS IMBALANCE

The difference between sickness and health lies in the body’s ability to maintain homeostasis, the proper balance and performance of all of the internal functions. Excess sugar disturbs this balance by impairing immunity, disrupting the production and release of hormones and creating an acidic internal environment.

It’s not healthy to maintain a highly acidic state. The body tries to offset this by making itself more alkaline. It does this, in part, by removing calcium and other minerals from the bones.

Result: People who eat too much sugar experience disruptions in insulin and other hormones. They have an elevated risk for osteoporosis due to calcium depletion. They also tend to have elevated levels of cholesterol and triglycerides (blood fats), which increase the risk for heart disease.

BREAK THE CYCLE

A sweet tooth is not the same as a sugar addiction. We’re genetically programmed to enjoy sweets on occasion. It becomes an addiction when sweet foods make you crave even more sugar and your consumption increases over time…you experience withdrawal (in the form of mood changes, such as irritability or feeling “down”) when you briefly go without sugar…and you experience intense cravings when sweet foods aren’t available.

Sugar, like drugs and alcohol, is addictive because it briefly elevates levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that produces positive feelings. When a sugar addict doesn’t eat sugar, serotonin declines to low levels. This makes the person feel worse than before. He/she then eats more sugar to try to feel better —and the vicious cycle goes on.

For the best chance of breaking a sugar addiction, you need to ease out of it. This usually is more effective than going cold turkey. Once you’ve given up sugar entirely and the addiction is past, you’ll be able to enjoy small amounts of sugar if you choose, although some people find that they lose their taste for it. How to break the habit…

Divide sugar from all sources in half. Do this for one week. Examples: If you’ve been drinking two soft drinks a day, cut back to one. Eat half as much dessert. Eat a breakfast cereal that has only half as much sugar as your usual brand, or mix a low-sugar brand in with your higher-sugar brand.

Limit yourself to one sweet bite. The second week, allow yourself to have only one taste of only one very sweet food daily. Then push the dish away. This might be ice cream, sweetened cereal or a breakfast muffin. That small “hit” of sugar will prevent serotonin from dropping too low, too fast. This is important because low serotonin can make you feel so poorly, physically and emotionally, that you’ll want to self-medicate with more sugar.

After about two weeks with little or no sugar, your internal chemistry, including levels of serotonin and other neurotransmitters, will stabilize at a healthier level.

Eat fresh fruits and vegetables. These foods help restore the body’s natural acid-alkaline balance. This will help reduce sugar cravings and promote better digestion. Be sure to substitute fresh fruits for juices. Whole fruit is better because the fiber slows the absorption of sugars into the bloodstream. The fiber also is filling, which is why few people will sit down and eat four oranges—the number you would need to squeeze to get one eight-ounce glass of juice.

Helpful: All fruits are healthful, but melons and berries have less sugar than other fruits.

Source: Nancy Appleton, PhD, a clinical nutritionist in San Diego. She is author, with G.N. Jacobs, of Suicide by Sugar: A Startling Look at Our #1 National Addiction (Square One). NancyAppleton.com

http://www.bottomlinepublications.com/content/article/health-a-healing/suicide-by-sugar

• Suicide by Sugar