I had very little sleep last night. It was already 11:30 P.M. and I wasn’t sleepy. That would be okay for some people but I’m an early riser, usually at my desk by 4:30 A.M. for an hour or so and then outside or on the treadmill for aerobic walking interspersed with a little jogging. I was wired and my usual remedy of an ounce of port or sweet blackberry wine didn’t work. I went to bed anyway at 12:30 hoping something would happen, thought about sleeping for at least 45 minutes and then I must have dozed off because I woke up right around 4 AM.

Gratefully this does not happen to me very often but millions of us do have trouble getting a good night’s sleep. Something like one-third of Americans complains about sleep disorders, something that affects or disrupts or involves sleep. The problem with sleep disorders and lack of sleep is that it can be debilitating. Not getting enough sleep may cause fatigue, moodiness, putting you at a higher risk of injury and with such health conditions as high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke and obesity.

Scientists have been trying to figure out why we do or don’t sleep as far back as the history books tell us. We know we aren’t at our best, making good decisions when we don’t get enough sleep. Kids don’t do well on their exams either. And from what I’ve read, sleep deprivation is a kind of torture used in the world of foreign intrigue so you know it can’t be good.

Even with all this history scientists probing the purpose of sleep and why we don’t sleep when we should, are still in the dark. Some argue that one reason we sleep is to help our brains sort and store and consolidate new memories so that those experiences are in our well placed in our brain’s biochemical archives. I usually call it my brain’s hard drive.

More importantly sleeping gives us the ability to make sense of the new knowledge we learned and lets the brain detect the connections between the things we learn. This is really important to me, especially as I get older, because there is so much information on that old hard drive and even more information that just about overwhelms that biochemistry daily. If I weren’t able to make the connections I couldn’t make sense of any of it and miss all the possibilities and opportunities. I’m not ready to do that. And I bet if you’re reading this you are hanging in there just like me.

Thank goodness I am a great nap taker and can fall asleep just about anywhere.   More about sleep in my next post.

Ruthan Brodsky

PS If you have a natural remedy that works for you so you can get to sleep, let us know. Type a brief note in the comment area.  Thanks!

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