Don't let your doctor snooze on this
Getting a good night of shut-eye is critical for overall good health. If you've gone to your doctor recently and let him know you've been having trouble sleeping, he may not have noted that information on your chart. This is an important oversight, but evidently one that is quite common in doctor's offices.
A study was done on 1,503 patients over the age of 60 who went to see their doctors. After their visit, they were surveyed by social workers and asked about any sleep troubles they may be experiencing. A whopping 69 percent of them had a minimum of one sleep complaint, and 40 percent had more than one. And 45 percent of the patients described their trouble as difficulty getting to sleep, difficulty staying asleep, or difficulty in being able to sleep at all.
That's a whole lot of complaints, and you'd think a doctor would at least make a note of it. But that wasn't found to be the case: Only 19 percent of the time did the doctor take the time to write it down in the patient's chart.
It just goes to show that when a doctor hears a common complaint, he may begin to tune it out, so you need to make it your business to make sure that your doctor is hearing you loud and clear. Think about how important a good night of sleep is. When you don't sleep well-or at all-you have a case of brain fuzz the next day and difficulty just getting your body to move where you want it to go. And when you habitually don't get enough sleep, your risk goes up for other health problems, such as lowering your metabolic or your heart function. You could even shorten your lifespan.
While sleep troubles are widely considered to be a normal part of aging, the statistics may surprise you: In older people who have superior health, only 1 percent of them had sleep difficulties. That serves to toss that myth out on its ear, where it belongs.
If you are having sleep difficulties, be sure to bring it up to your doctor, and stand over him to make sure he writes it down. Then discuss natural options, whether it's digging deeper by looking into your sleep hygiene to see if something is amiss there, or giving mind/body therapy a try such as meditation or gentle movement-based exercise such as Tai chi. No need to throw a prescription at it when it is usually solved with a little extra attention.
And if you snore, have a thick neck or find yourself nodding off at the wheel, you might have an increasingly common problem called "sleep apnea," where you actually stop breathing during the night for brief periods. Untreated sleep apnea increases your risk for a number of common diseases, including heart disease. People with suspected sleep apnea undergo special overnight testing in a sleep clinic. If you suspect you have this problem, I highly recommend you bring it up with your doctor soon.
