It’s easier than ever for someone to give his or her
two-cents-worth. In 140 characters you can say whatever you want about almost
anything to just about everyone. But hey, times have changed and the cost of an
idea is a little higher than it use to be. So if you’re going to say it, make
it count. And so we will.
Sleep. That’s it. Sleep. Okay if you want your
99-cents-worth, the Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock App for your iPhone or
Android phone.
What
does an alarm clock have to do with what we write about here? Well, this
particular idea involves you, your patient community, your use of social media
and mobile. We talk about those things here every month. But this time, instead
of talking about it we’re going to do something together.
The
wellness benefits to a good night’s sleep are well document and so no matter
your specialty, there’s an application for your use of this app and a health
benefit to be realized by you and your patient.
Practice
Family Medicine? When you’re sleep deprived, you often feel
“worn down” -- and that’s a clue that your body is vulnerable to infection.
“Not getting enough sleep makes you more vulnerable to picking up illnesses and
not being able to fight them off,” says Donna Arand, PhD, DABSM, clinical director
of the Kettering Sleep Disorders Center in Dayton, Ohio. Can’t convince yourself or your patient that
one or the other isn’t getting enough sleep? Let the app help.
Cardiology
your area of expertise? Then you know the story. But does your patient? Former
President Bill Clinton confessed that he thinks lack of sleep had a lot to do
with his hospitalization to unblock a clogged artery (okay, maybe the Big Macs
were part of it too but he’s on to something) "I didn't sleep much for a
month, that probably accelerated what was already going on," Clinton said.
He’s
probably right. “When you don’t get enough sleep, you have an inflammatory
response in your cardiovascular system -- in the blood vessels and arteries --
and that’s not a good thing!” says Arand. “We see the same thing in
hypertension. If that sleep deprivation continues long term, chronic
inflammation has been linked to things like heart attack, stroke, and
diabetes.”
In the
Mid-South and Delta Region we’re all aware of the diabetes, okay I’ll say it,
epidemic. The key underlying problem in Type 2 Diabetes is insulin resistance,
where the body does not make proper use of this sugar-processing hormone. Guess
what? When you’re sleep deprived, your body almost immediately develops
conditions that resemble the insulin resistance of diabetes.
And it’s not
just in those we can spot walking down the street. “In one study of young,
healthy adult males, they decreased their sleep time to about four hours per
night for six nights,” says Arand. “At the end of those six nights, every one
of those healthy young men was showing impaired glucose tolerance, a precursor
to developing diabetes.”
Another
study found that people in their late 20s and early 30s who slept less than 6.5
hours per night had the insulin sensitivity of someone more than 60 years old.
So, what’s
this got to do with the app? Many of us lack the discipline to do even the
simplest things to improve our health. But a recent survey found that 9 out of
10 smartphone owners wake up with their smartphone. Maybe we can use that
information do something powerful.
You, your
patients, our friends, and me are invited to participate in our Wake Up
Better Y’all experiment. It's not necessarily scientific but certainly a
fun and well-intentioned effort to see if what we do here together can be good
for us.
Besides, one
of the main features of the app is to wake you up at the right time. Not just
the time you set the alarm for but in your lightest sleep phase. When that happens you’re more likely
to awake renewed and on the ‘right side of the bed’. And everyone us around will
appreciate that.
For
more information on the Wake Up Better Y’all experiment and the Sleep
Cycle App visit www.wakeupbetteryall.com or hit me up on twitter.
Hat
tip to the good people at webMD and Donna Arand, PhD, DABSM, clinical director of the Kettering Sleep
Disorders Center in Dayton, Ohio.
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