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Unit 82

Get Some Sleep?

It's 2 a.m., and you've counted enough sheep to fill a paddock, but you still can't get the shut-eye you need. Do you 1) start counting goats; 2) get out of bed and read; or 3) take a sleeping pill? If you picked reading, your restless nights may soon be over. According to a report in a recent journal of the American Medical Association, adopting a few basic habits -- like limiting the amount of time you spend in bed -- works better than pills goats in controlling chronic insomnia.

Almost everyone experiences a sleepless night or two at some point in their lives. The subjects in a study -- all of whom were over age 55 -- had been fluffing up their pillows in vain for 15 to 20 years. Most of them had no trouble falling asleep. The hard part was staying asleep through the night.

After excluding patients whose insomnia may have resulted from some other conditions, such as depression, researchers divided the remaining 78 subjects into four groups. One group took sleeping pills. The second group underwent cognitive-behavior therapy designed, among other things, to promote better sleep habits.

Not surprisingly, the sleeping pills helped test subjects sleep longer right away. But the results were not really different, at least in the short term, from those provided by behavior therapy and the combined treatment. And when the researchers contacted their subjects two years later, only the behavior therapy group has maintained its initial recovery. As soon as participants stopped taking sleeping pills, the sleepless nights returned.

How can you improve your chances of getting a good night's sleep? here are some tips: If you don't fall asleep within 20 minutes, get up and read quietly in another room so that your brain associates your bed with sleep, not anxiety. Meanwhile, work with your body instead of against it. Don't nap after 3 p.m. Cut back on caffeine, especially in the afternoon or evening. Don't drink alcohol at night; it may allow you to fall asleep more easily but you're likely to suffer a rebound effect in a few hours. Getting up at the same time every morning is also important, because that makes it easier to synchronize your body's biological clock. Whatever you do, don't panic if you become sleepless once again. Most folks find they can't break the cycle of insomnia overnight.