Not getting enough sleep can have major impact on your body

With a little luck, this column might help put some readers to sleep.

At least that's what doctors Kelly Gill and Smita Patel hope. As physicians who specialize in sleep disorders, they know older adults aren't dreaming when they complain about not being able to get a good night's sleep.

Uninterrupted sleep is an elusive quest for many seniors. Nearly half of all older adults report insomnia or difficulty getting to sleep and staying asleep. Some might rationalize that we don't need as much sleep as we did when we were younger, but Patel and Gill are quick to squelch that myth.

"Our sleep need doesn't change as we age but it does become more difficult to achieve. Sleep becomes harder as we get older because of natural brain changes," explained Gill, a board-certified neurologist and sleep specialist with the Chicago Sleep Group/Suburban Lung Associates in Elk Grove Village.

Gill and Patel are among nationally known researchers who will speak at the Big Sleep Show May 9 and 10 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont.

Topics will include sleep music therapy, rejuvenating sleep for fitness, how poor sleep affects memory and cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia. Also featured are 11 workshops each day focusing on issues such as aging and sleep, sleep apnea, excessive daytime sleepiness, children and sleep, and dreaming.

Consumers are waking up to the importance of sleep, in part because of increasing research highlighting the harmful physical effects of sleep disorders. Studies reveal waking at 3 a.m. and being unable to fall back to sleep affects immune cells for the next 24 hours. But sound, restful sleep the following night allows immune cells to regain disease-fighting abilities.

Lack of sleep has been found to even increase the sensation of pain. Chronic sleep loss affects insulin sensitivity, increasing risk for obesity, high blood pressure and diabetics.

Eve Van Cauter, a University of Chicago expert, found that chronic sleep deprivation -- 6½ hours or less of sleep per night -- had the same effect on insulin resistance as aging. In one study, after four hours of sleep for six consecutive nights, healthy young men in their 20s had blood test results that nearly matched those of older diabetics. The study participants' ability to process blood sugar was reduced by 30 percent, dropping insulin response and elevating levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which can lead to hypertension and memory impairment.

"We in medicine are just beginning to learn how sleep impacts our mood, our cognition, memory, heart, blood pressure, immune system, hormones, sugar control," Gill said. "Our whole body chemistry changes when we sleep. So if we're not getting the right quality of it, the body becomes almost confused."

There's no one-size-fits-all solution, said Patel, a specialist in neurology and sleep medicine and a clinical instructor for the Sleep Disorders Center at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare.

Medications can interrupt nighttime sleep. So can pain. "However complex, we need to make sleep a priority, just as eating or bathing is a priority," she said.

Tickets for The Big Sleep Show are on sale at www.thebigsleepshow.com. Passes are $7 for both days and $5 for one day, or $5 and $3 for seniors. Prices are slightly higher at the door.

Tips for sound sleep

Here are some ways to get more than just 40 winks, courtesy of Dr. Kelly Gill:

• If you're awake; get up. Reading or watching TV in bed teaches you to be awake in bed.

• Avoid caffeine, especially after noon.

• Don't eat heavy meals or drink alcohol close to bedtime.

• Turn your bedroom clock around so you're not constantly checking it and making yourself anxious.

• Keep regular sleep hours.

• Exercise in late afternoon, but not too close to bedtime. Both exercise and sun exposure improve nighttime sleep.

• Avoid computer use before bedtime or in the middle of the night. The bright screens turn off the brain's signal to sleep.

• Try meditation or yoga. Relaxing the mind promotes the normal balance of chemical systems and decreases the adrenaline surge that we get with stress or caffeine.