An Insight On How Age And Hormone Can Affect Your Sleep

Advanced sleep phase syndrome is growing rapidly among people because of a shift in regular sleep cycle of the body. It is also known to be a genetic problem. It is basically a shift in your sleep wake pattern. We undergo this type of situation quite a lot nowadays due to different working shifts. In simple words, it is a type of syndromes which makes you sleepy at noon time and wakes you up in the early hours of morning.

Understanding Advanced Sleep Phase Syndrome

This condition is caused by an alteration in the clock gene which basically gets activated by an enzyme produced in the presence of light. This activation results in the reset of the body’s internal clock. It has been observed that when this alteration is not observed, our body clock also do not reset. There have been many experiments recently where scientists have made use of this concept. They tried to see the impact of such a change in body’s clock and they found that when such a change occurs, it triggers sleep at early hours of evening and abandon sleep at early hours of morning.

Human Clock And Sleep-Wake Cycle

Human clock controls your sleep-wake cycle and it is a mechanism where in lots of system work together. In simple words, it is a function of the body that controls your everyday body’s rhythm of sleep.

Light is an important factor in sleep-wake cycle. Your eye retina when focused to light sends electric signals to the brain and chemical (melatonin) is produced onto the blood channel causing sleep. It is a known fact that light plays a vital role in controlling your sleep. Jet lag and late night shift work are some of the common problems associated with the sleep disorder. Light therapy has been extensively used to reset the body clock in order to eliminate the irregular functioning of the sleep-wake cycle due to different working shifts and travel to different time zones frequently.

Hormone And Age Effect On Sleep

There is a mutual dependence of hormones and age. As you become older there are changes in your hormonal activities. Growth of hormones deteriorates as we age. There are also changes in the REM sleep.  As we age we can see the following changes that result in awkward sleep pattern:-

• Your sleep-wake cycle changes
• Reduction in hormonal growth
• Effect of medicines also hamper your sleep cycle

You Can Overcome Your Sleep Disorder

Eliminate use of caffeine at night time because it keeps you awake and not at all helping you in getting sleep. Eat very less during night time and do not eat sweets and chocolates at bed time as studies have shown that they also keep you awake. Include magnesium in your diet because lack of magnesium causes insomnia and other sleep disorders. Invest your time on meditation and prayer as they help in getting sound sleep. Also spend time to exercise your body, which helps in better oxygen flow in your body. So start investing your time and make these as your habit.