In her Midtown office, Dr. Galina Mindlin treats Jennifer DePauw for a sleeping disorder.
Snooze to Your Own Tune
By Nell Stundell
What is this thing called sleep – this splendid state of being that comforts, taunts, rejuvenates, and eludes us? We spend roughly a third of our lives sleeping, and sleep is natural to most living things – even plants sleep. We would die without sleep. But how much sleep is actually enough?
The numbers can vary. People with high-risk jobs (hospital emergency staff, firefighters, police officers) often subsist on very little sleep. After 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, rescue teams worked non-stop for more than 48 hours, searching for survivors until relief crews arrived. Although rescue workers are trained to help others, their own health may be at risk. Studies by the National Institutes of Health show that people who sleep eight hours a night or more tend to live longer than those who sleep fewer than seven hours a night.
“The elderly are more easily awakened by noise, pain, or light; [they] tend to have difficulty sleeping for extended periods of time [or] achieving deep, restful sleep states,” Dr. Vaughn McCall of the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center noted at the 2004 Sleep Disorders Conference. On whether medication is the culprit, or this is simply part of the natural aging process, the jury is still out.
The 50 percent of all adults over the age of 65 who spend less time in the deepest stages of sleep also suffer from some sort of sleep disorder, according to studies conducted by the NIH.
Here are some basic facts about sleep:
The Five Stages
1. Muscles relax.
2. Brain action slows. Eye movement stops.
3. Deep sleep: All eye and muscle movement stops.
4. Deeper sleep: Somnambulist (sleepwalker) heaven.
5. REM (rapid eye movement) is when dreams occur. Muscles stiffen, eyes move, heart rate increases, breathing becomes rapid and irregular, blood pressure rises.
Abnormal Sleep
Three types of abnormal patterns – disturbed (obstructed sleep apnea), excessive sleep (narcolepsy), lack of sleep (insomnia) – can play havoc with our minds.
Obstructed Sleep Apnea
Many of us snore and don’t even realize it. The problem, however, needs to be addressed. A head cold that produces sinus mucus may bring on the occasional bout of snoring, but that alone is not perilous to our health. With people who suffer from obstructed sleep apnea (OSA), snoring cuts off the air supply, causing oxygen levels to fall and thus compromising the vascular system. OSA is also associated with high blood pressure, excessive daytime sleepiness, possibly even sudden death. Obstructed sleep apnea is more common than we realize, affecting 4 to 6 percent of middle-aged men and many women. If you think you or your partner might have OSA, talk to your doctor. Today most large university hospitals have sleep clinics.
Phyllis Gamache, a 60-year-old, was desperate for a good night’s sleep. For years she had listened to her husband snore, but only recently noticed that he actually stopped breathing between his loud snores. Frightened, she suggested they go to a sleep clinic together – he for his OSA and she for her insomnia – only to learn that she too was a victim of OSA. During one weekend-long session, each was hooked up to a polysomnographic machine and monitored while they slept in separate rooms.
Now the Gamaches go to bed wearing CPAP. This is a machine that provides constant airflow (continuous positive airway pressure) so that uninterrupted breathing can be maintained during sleep. “The CPAP hooks up to a hose and mask, and blows air into the lungs.” Although it’s a bit restrictive and not exactly romantic, Mrs. Gamache says their lives have changed dramatically. She and her husband Skip wear custom-made jaw repositioning CPAP developed by the Philadelphia Flyers oral surgeon, Dr. Guy Lanzi. “Other apparatus may be more comfortable,” says Phyllis Gamache. “But this works best. It’s hard plastic and clips over the teeth to bring the jaw forward and open the air passages. If I forget to put it in, I start to doze off and can actually hear myself snore. I sleep much better with it.”
Narcolepsy
I once had a narcoleptic boyfriend. He would fall asleep anywhere and everywhere: On a friend’s sofa, at a concert, at an afternoon football game, in a meeting at work, even standing up while we waited in line to buy movie tickets. I used to worry that he might nod off while driving his car, so I suggested that he see a specialist, which may indeed have saved his life.
In narcolepsy, a pathologic state characterized by sleep attacks, the brain lacks a chemical called hypocretin, says Michael Silber, M.D., a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic who worked on a recent study of narcolepsy in the U.S. If somebody suggests that you have a tendency to fall sleep during conversations, first ask yourself who’s doing most of the talking. Then, if need be, seek help.
Insomnia
Movie buffs old enough to remember Robert Benchley’s hilarious Oscar-winning short subject How to Sleep will recall a pajama-clad Benchley contorting his body in every conceivable way before finally conking out. For most of us, the misery of trying to fall asleep and not being able to is a real nightmare.
CNN reported in 1997 that lack of sleep is America’s top health problem. The National Center on Sleep Disorders says that as many as 50 to 70 million Americans suffer the consequences of chronic sleep disorders, costing $50 billion in lost productivity.
Some Options
With countless prescription and over-the-counter sleep aids at hand, sleep may be one pill away. But in some cases, that might be one pill too many. The trouble with sleep-inducing drugs is that they can become addictive, and eventually more disruptive of your sleep than the insomnia itself. Why not first try a folk remedy? If one doesn’t work, another might.
Read, anywhere, but not in bed.
Stretch, or do relaxing yoga exercises.
Drink warm milk and honey.
Take your calcium at night. (Eskimos eat ground up animal bones and sleep well.)
Place warm compresses on the eyes. (Talmudic scholars who study for hours find this soothing.)
Drink a cup of mint tea before bed. (old Irish remedy).
Eliminate glare and noise with earplugs and an eye mask.
Stare at a computer for hours; it can knock you senseless.
Eat figs (Ancient Arabic cure and great for constipation).
Try Brain Music Therapy.
Brain Music Therapy?
If you’re tired of counting sheep, and still trying to beat insomnia, Brain Music Therapy might be for you. Galina Mindlin, M.D., PhD., an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, offers an innovative treatment that claims an 80 to 85 percent success rate. Her background includes eight years of study on the piano and guitar.
“People can’t fall asleep because they’re hyper-aroused,” says Dr. Mindlin. “The treatment is unique because you can use it by itself, along with medications or with other therapeutic matter.
This is the experience I have with my patients: When they start to take part in the treatment, there is a reducing of the medication. Some may even get rid of [the medication] if the treatment is working that well.”
In the therapy Dr. Mindlin records an individual’s brain waves on an EEG, and then converts the data into a pattern resembling music. Don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t sound like Mozart or Brahms. She creates two patterns – one relaxing to help you sleep, and one stimulating to help you be more productive – and within three to four weeks, at a cost of $550, you receive a personal brain music CD.
“The EEG takes about seven minutes,” says Dr. Mindlin. “The entire process takes about 20 minutes, and is painless and non-evasive.” In a BMT study at the NeuroScience Center in Moscow in 1991, a group of 58 patients with insomnia reported that they fell asleep three times faster than before, and the number of times waking up throughout the night was down from five times to one. “Then we repeated the experiments in France, Italy, and Canada,” says Dr. Mindlin. “I’ve had the same experience here with BMT patients in my private practice – more than 450 patients who suffer from stress, depression, anxiety, and insomnia.”
For a good night’s sleep, she recommends avoiding stimulants such as alcohol. “Alcohol can help you fall asleep, but makes it harder to sustain sleep. BMT does just the opposite – it helps you stay asleep.” Mindlin on biofeedback: “It can put you in a relaxed state after an unpleasant experience. Meditation does that too. But meditation is different, because you need to train yourself for many years – BMT works instantly.”
