WEB MD Sleep Expert Explains the Reality of Sleep Disorders
This interview is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni's Fountain of Youth Summit, which can be found at (http://fountainofyouthworldsummit.com) . In this excerpt, Dr. Michael Breus shares on reality of sleep and sleep disorders.
The Fountain of Youth World Summit with Dr. Michael Breus, the author of Good Night and Web MD's sleep expert.
Kevin: I think it's going to be an awesome talk. And as many people out there know already, I like to get right into it. So let's start talking about sleep. I know you have some facts and you have some numbers. Let's start talking about them.
Dr. Breus: Oh yeah. Let's get right into it. One of the things that's really pretty fascinating, Kevin, is just how many people are reporting any symptom of a sleep problem. If you look back at the National Sleep Foundation data from 2000, you'll see that roughly sixty-two percent of the overall population was reporting a problem. But now in 2005, this is still data that's two years old, we're seeing that almost seventy-five percent of people are reporting a type of a sleep problem.
Kevin: Wow! So it's a thirteen percent increase.
Dr. Breus: Yeah. It's truly amazing. Right now, we're thinking that more than seventy million Americans are suffering from known sleep disorders. Almost fifty percent of people snore. The thing to remember here is snoring is not necessarily a sleep disorder, but it can be a sign or symptom of a sleep disorder called Sleep Apnea.
Kevin: Um Hmm
Dr. Breus: Unfortunately, the medical community classifies snoring as more of a social nuisance in terms of keeping other people awake. Here's another fascinating statistic -- individuals who sleep with somebody who snores lose on average about one hour of sleep per night.
Kevin: Wow! That's incredible! [Laughs]
Dr. Breus: So it might not even be your sleep problem that's keeping you from getting a good night's rest. It could be your bed partner's.
Kevin: Wow.
Dr. Breus: Sleep deprivation affects things like creativity, productivity, memory, relationships and even sexual activity. So there almost isn't an area that sleep doesn't affect. Interestingly enough, it affects every single organ system available. And here's the thing that was kind of baffling to me when I first started getting into this field -- I don't know if you know this, but there are eighty-eight different sleep disorders.
Kevin: No kidding!
Dr. Breus: Yeah. You wouldn't think that there would be so many. I mean you'd figure "Well, you know, I close my eyes, I go to sleep, how many things could go wrong?" Well, the truth of the matter is, there are literally eighty-eight different types of sleep disorders. Now some of them can be long-term, they have specific categories. And there are really four or five main sleep disorders that I [haven't seen to] to deal with them. I practice and also talk about them in my book. And those who fall into the category of insomnia, which could be "having a problem falling asleep" or "having a problem staying asleep" or either "waking too early". There's also a new category of insomnia that we should talk about just for a brief moment, which is called, it's not really called insufficient sleep, it's basically called "poor quality sleep".
Kevin: Okay.
Dr. Breus: And so it's not about the number of minutes that you get but the quality of those minutes. So what's interesting here is that some people might sleep eight hours but they wake up, and they feel horrible.
Kevin: Right.
Dr. Breus: That's a whole new phenomena that we're just starting to learn more about and trying to investigate more about.
Kevin: Anything about the factors? What are some of the factors about?
Dr. Breus: Well, you know what? That's a good question as there could be multiple factors. It could be anything from stress, to caffeine, to other medical problems, to even medications or supplements that you could be taking that could be affecting your sleep.
Kevin: Mm Hmm.
Dr. Breus: So that's a lot of different things that could affect your sleep. The thing that people don't realize is -- I'm kind of like, sort of an internal medicine doctor but, for the night time, if you will, simply because every single area, every single thing you do can have a potential affect on your sleep. Now that doesn't mean that I want everybody to lock themselves in the room.
Kevin: [laughs]
Dr. Breus: You know, never drink coffee again...
Kevin: [laughs]
Dr. Breus: [Have a glass of wine] or anything like that, because that's just not me, number one. Number two is that's just not realistic. What I'm hoping to do today with this talk is to let people know, first of all, that this is a serious situation. Second, that there are a lot of different things that we'll be able to do. Very quickly, here even today, even notes that you'd be able to take today during this teleconference, this will help you to sleep better tonight. And they're very realistic, and they're not, [say], going to change your life forever.
Resource : Natural News
The Fountain of Youth World Summit with Dr. Michael Breus, the author of Good Night and Web MD's sleep expert.
Kevin: I think it's going to be an awesome talk. And as many people out there know already, I like to get right into it. So let's start talking about sleep. I know you have some facts and you have some numbers. Let's start talking about them.
Dr. Breus: Oh yeah. Let's get right into it. One of the things that's really pretty fascinating, Kevin, is just how many people are reporting any symptom of a sleep problem. If you look back at the National Sleep Foundation data from 2000, you'll see that roughly sixty-two percent of the overall population was reporting a problem. But now in 2005, this is still data that's two years old, we're seeing that almost seventy-five percent of people are reporting a type of a sleep problem.
Kevin: Wow! So it's a thirteen percent increase.
Dr. Breus: Yeah. It's truly amazing. Right now, we're thinking that more than seventy million Americans are suffering from known sleep disorders. Almost fifty percent of people snore. The thing to remember here is snoring is not necessarily a sleep disorder, but it can be a sign or symptom of a sleep disorder called Sleep Apnea.
Kevin: Um Hmm
Dr. Breus: Unfortunately, the medical community classifies snoring as more of a social nuisance in terms of keeping other people awake. Here's another fascinating statistic -- individuals who sleep with somebody who snores lose on average about one hour of sleep per night.
Kevin: Wow! That's incredible! [Laughs]
Dr. Breus: So it might not even be your sleep problem that's keeping you from getting a good night's rest. It could be your bed partner's.
Kevin: Wow.
Dr. Breus: Sleep deprivation affects things like creativity, productivity, memory, relationships and even sexual activity. So there almost isn't an area that sleep doesn't affect. Interestingly enough, it affects every single organ system available. And here's the thing that was kind of baffling to me when I first started getting into this field -- I don't know if you know this, but there are eighty-eight different sleep disorders.
Kevin: No kidding!
Dr. Breus: Yeah. You wouldn't think that there would be so many. I mean you'd figure "Well, you know, I close my eyes, I go to sleep, how many things could go wrong?" Well, the truth of the matter is, there are literally eighty-eight different types of sleep disorders. Now some of them can be long-term, they have specific categories. And there are really four or five main sleep disorders that I [haven't seen to] to deal with them. I practice and also talk about them in my book. And those who fall into the category of insomnia, which could be "having a problem falling asleep" or "having a problem staying asleep" or either "waking too early". There's also a new category of insomnia that we should talk about just for a brief moment, which is called, it's not really called insufficient sleep, it's basically called "poor quality sleep".
Kevin: Okay.
Dr. Breus: And so it's not about the number of minutes that you get but the quality of those minutes. So what's interesting here is that some people might sleep eight hours but they wake up, and they feel horrible.
Kevin: Right.
Dr. Breus: That's a whole new phenomena that we're just starting to learn more about and trying to investigate more about.
Kevin: Anything about the factors? What are some of the factors about?
Dr. Breus: Well, you know what? That's a good question as there could be multiple factors. It could be anything from stress, to caffeine, to other medical problems, to even medications or supplements that you could be taking that could be affecting your sleep.
Kevin: Mm Hmm.
Dr. Breus: So that's a lot of different things that could affect your sleep. The thing that people don't realize is -- I'm kind of like, sort of an internal medicine doctor but, for the night time, if you will, simply because every single area, every single thing you do can have a potential affect on your sleep. Now that doesn't mean that I want everybody to lock themselves in the room.
Kevin: [laughs]
Dr. Breus: You know, never drink coffee again...
Kevin: [laughs]
Dr. Breus: [Have a glass of wine] or anything like that, because that's just not me, number one. Number two is that's just not realistic. What I'm hoping to do today with this talk is to let people know, first of all, that this is a serious situation. Second, that there are a lot of different things that we'll be able to do. Very quickly, here even today, even notes that you'd be able to take today during this teleconference, this will help you to sleep better tonight. And they're very realistic, and they're not, [say], going to change your life forever.
Resource : Natural News
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