PATIENTS NEEDED

ood Night's Sleep
A Key To Fitness

JACK WILLIAMS
Special to The Jewish News

n a society where radical change
can happen at the drop of an eye-
lash, we have yet to invent the
optimal turnoff: the human
snooze switch.
Pull once to dream until dawn,
nightmares notwithstanding.
Pull twice for the ultimate power
nap: 20 to 30 minutes of energy thera-
py to make up for lost downtime.
For most of us, sleep in the '90s is
like fruits, vegetables, calcium, chromi-
um, exercise and empathy. We don't get
enough.
"We get 20 percent less sleep as a
society than our ancestors did 100 years
ago," says sleep expert Leslie Quigley.
"And they didn't have a
24-hour culture, as we
do."
-- Quigley, who makes
sleep-issues her business
as consumer affairs direc-
tor for Select Comfort
sleep systems, admits to
having trouble getting
enough z's herself
"I'm at my optimum
with seven hours," she says. "As a rule, I
get closer to six. But I always tell peo-
ple, `Do what you can do.' Make it a
priority.
"With the emphasis on productivity
today, you never hear anybody proudly
saying, 'I get my eight hours a night.'
Most brag about only needing four or
five hours."
Before we saw the light.- Thomas
Edison's electric light - we were sleeping
an average of 10 hours nightly, accord-
ing to James Mass, a Cornell University
professor, who has written a book on
sleep, soon to be published.
Some studies show we sleep an aver-
age of seven hours a night; about a third
of Americans settle for six hours.
"Only about 2 percent of us can
maintain health on four to six hours of
sleep a night," Quigley said.
"The rest (who subsist on such small
amounts) are getting by on cigarettes,
coffee - compensating stimulants that
keep them awake."
While eight hours is optimum for
most of us (one biological fact that has
remained constant), a small percentage
of us need nine to 10 hours to be at our
best.
When we accrue a sleep debt of 10
\— to 20 hours over a week or so, the
symptoms are as discernible as the

sound of an alarm: fatigue, sluggishness,
irritability, slowed reaction time, suscep-
tibility to dozing off.
Getting no more than six hours of
sleep nightly (sans those productive
power naps) can make us 50 percent
more vulnerable to viral infections, says
Mass.
Optimal sleep, which scientists iden-
tify as a state of delta sleep, is influenced
by exercise. By exercising at least three
times a week, including a half hour of
aerobics at each session, we'll spend
more time in a state of delta sleep. That,
scientists believe, is the most restorative
kind - a key component of our immune
system arsenal.
Six years ago, San Diego sports
training specialist Michael Colgan
concluded that seven to nine hours of
sleep per night are
required to realize the
benefits of serious fit-
ness training.
A dozen years of
studies on the subject
showed that most physi-
ological adaptations that
enhance performance
occur during sleep. We
need it for the body to
absorb nutrients for growth. We need it
for the reconstruction of damaged tis-
sues.
Yet when the keys to fitness are dis-
cussed, sleep rarely - if ever - is men-
tioned in the same breath as exercise
and nutrition.
Although the National Sleep
Disorders Foundation has quantified
the cost of sleep deprivation to
American business, many of us have yet
to wake up and take notice.
(The foundation's figures show that
sleep deprivation, disrupted sleep and
sleep disorders cost American businesses
more than $18 billion annually in lost
productivity, industrial accidents and
increased medical bills).
"Sleep (beginital) is (endital) emerg-
ing as a key to fitness," Quigley said.
"We've heard about heart health, •ho-
lesterol, fat intake. The other piece of
the puzzle is sleep."
Anything from the surfaces we sleep
on and the temperatures in our room to
what and how soon we ate before bed-
time can affect our quality and duration
of sleep.
But don't try to make up for lost
sleep on a leisurely weekend.
"It's OK to sleep an extra hour or
hour and a half on a weekend," Quigley
said. "But if you sleep much later, you'll
disrupt your internal clock. We are very
rhythmic creatures." ❑

Less sleep
than our
ancestors.

Jack Williams writes for Copley News
Service.

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