睡觉里面有大学问--儿子跟我谈睡觉

       
       儿给我发来的e-mail，专门跟我分享他最近心理学课所读过的一本关于睡眠的书，主要是要强调睡觉对人体健康的重要性，和解释什么样的或说怎么样的睡眠才是最科学，最合理的，最有效的。并叮嘱老爸老妈得在这么重要得睡眠上多加注意。让我这当老妈的着实被感动了一番。感叹道，如今儿子也真的知道疼他老爸老妈了。

       现如今真是得什么就都是门儿科学，不曾想就这么个睡觉也能闹出这么些个学问来，还真有专家把它作为一门科学研究了这么久，别说，似乎还真研究出点名堂来了。据说就儿子这老师Dr.Mass还成了全美的睡眠专家，被不少名人请去做顾问，辅导和帮助解决睡眠问题，因此这些年来，他甚至成为白宫的座上客也不足为怪啦。

      既然睡眠这事有这么大的学问，又这么的重要，我就不自私了，拿出来和网上的朋友分享分享，说不定能对哪位睡觉有问题的朋友有个意想不到的帮助呢？

Hi Mom,

I'm currently reading this sleep book for my psychology class (written by James Maas, the professor of the class who also gave the sleep lecture in the beginning of orientation), and there's a section on sleep and blood pressure. Adequate sleep for almost all adults is 7.5-9 hours of sleep per night.

Sleep More, Drop Blood Pressure: One extra hours of sleep per night decreases the risk of artery calcification by 33%. Plus, it's accompanied by a 17mm drop in systolic blood pressure

~Dr. Diane Lauderdale, University of Chicago

Not sleeping often causes the body to produce more stress hormones. Such an imbalance can lead to arteriosclerosis, which can cause heart attacks and strokes, in addition to hypertension, muscle loss, increased fat storage, loss of bone mass, and lower production of growth hormone and testosterone.

In addition, short-sleepers miss out on REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep (predominant between the SEVENTH and EIGHTH hours of the night), during which time the heart pumps more blood to the muscles. This helps it relax as blood pressure falls.

The next sections are on cancer and skin health:

Women who exercise regularly and were generally healthy had a 47% higher risk of cancer if they were sleeping fewer than 7 hours.

Sleep is essential for rebuilding tissues and cells, including the skin. Sufficient sleep is required to maintain good skin texture and a healthy glow. The first area of skin to be affected by a lack of sleep is the eyelids. The skin is very thin here so lack of sleep causes puffy eye bags, fine lines, and dark circles. In the long term, lack of sleep causes skin to age faster leading to wrinkles, poor texture, and discoloration much earlier in life than in the well-rested individual.

I'm really learning a lot of practical information in this class. Even though I'm going to be pretty busy this semester, I'm going to try to get more sleep every night. I think you and Dad should both consider it as well. If between the hours of 2:00 pm and 4:00 pm you find that it is extremely difficult to stay awake especially after having eaten lunch, you probably are mildly sleep-deprived.

Take care,