What Can The Evolution Of Our Sleep Habits Teach Us?

When Amy Ozski started experiencing insomnia last August, it wasn't due to anything drastic. She recalls a heat wave in the Boston area where she lives, a bit more stress at work, and her schedule being thrown off for a few consecutive days. But the combination was enough to trigger a pattern: Ozski started having trouble falling asleep, and before long the problem snowballed into a chronic issue. Sometimes it would take her hours to fall asleep, or she'd wake up in the middle of the night and struggle to conk out again. Sleep -- and the lack of it -- took over her life. "It was all I thought about during the day," she says. "I was miserable." Ozski tried everything she could think of to fix the problem, from transcendental meditation to acupuncture, but to no avail. Finally, she sought help from her primary care physician, who went on to prescribe a series of sleeping pills -- none of which seemed quite right. Even if Ozski got enough sleep, the pills made her groggy the next day. Other meds made her anxious and depressed, or stopped working over time, which meant trying yet another medication. All the while, she felt the pressure to get eight straight hours, obsessing over her inability to do so. Americans’ complicated relationship with sleep is no secret. According to the CDC, about 9 million of us use prescription sleep aids. But mainstream sleeping hours could be partly to blame. That eight-hour golden rule we all strive for? It just might be wrong. Think about it...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news