Sleep is a more complicated process than many people realize.
But a person has only to spend one night awake watching the clock move hour after hour and it’s usually enough to bring that point home, said researcher Jon Shearer.
The Algonquin College professor from Ottawa led a seminar in Saskatoon Dec. 6 to tell farmers how to relax and sleep peacefully.
Farmers need his advice, Shearer said, because many pull double duty by working at a job off the farm to earn extra money.
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There is another motive for the sponsors of the seminar, the Saskatchewan Farm Stress Line and the Institute of Agricultural Rural and Environmental Health. They don’t want to see injuries or deaths caused by stress or because people are in a hurry.
Shearer said society is becoming conscious about the importance of a good sleep. In New Jersey, there is a law that if somebody drives fatigued and has an accident, it is treated as seriously as if someone drives drunk. The law came about because a child was killed by a tired shift worker driving home.
Stress is common for farmers, who lack control over weather, prices and markets. Shearer said stressed people develop a sense of alienation, “that they are in it by themselves and no one cares. High stress people are really cynical and have a short fuse. They are resistant to change. In fact, high stress people look a lot like a person who is tired.”
Shearer said people must recognize that stress is affecting their sleep and do something about it.
“Your body will tell you about stress if you listen to it.”
The first thing to understand about sleep is that it is not one continuous process. There are five parts, each repairing different processes of body and mind and setting the stage for the next day. Each stage lasts 90 minutes, so Shearer encouraged people to get a sleep lasting six hours, 7 1/2 or nine hours, in order not to break the cycle, or else they risk feeling groggy.
Sleep fragmentation is how he described the nights in which one wakes up often. Several things can cause this fragmentation including too much exercise just before bed, too much nicotine, caffeine or alcohol and the wrong food and medications. Shearer said any manmade sleeping aid would be addictive so people should not regularly use medication to get to sleep.
Light also interferes with sleep cycles. Shearer jested that if people have to get up in the middle of the night to pee, they should not turn the bathroom light on. That will stop the body’s production of melatonin, a hormone connected to body clocks and rhythms.
However, Shearer is a big fan of power naps, calling them “an exquisite treat for the body.” He warned farmers to take only a 20 minute nap. Any longer and they will awake lethargic, unless they go for the full 90 minute cycle.
To avoid that 2 p.m. drowsiness, he recommended people eat a lunch high in protein and low in carbohydrates. To bring on sleepiness, reverse that nutrient balance for supper.
