The restorative nature of sleep makes the mainstream with not just one but two mentions in the May issue of Oprah's "O Magazine."
Yep, there's an item about a hair product used at night in the Beauty section, and in the Bodywise section, there's an informative quick read presented as a true/false quiz. The questions range from the occurrence of high blood pressure to whether insomniacs sleep better than they think.
Even though I try and stay up-to-date with news about sleep disorders, I only got three of the six questions entirely correct. Just goes to show you how today's researchers can discover something new at any time.
One of the questions centers on whether or not older people need less sleep. I thought this was true; however, the answer reveals that although a restful night may be interrupted more as we grow older, we still indeed need the same amount of sleep as we did in our younger years. Some experts point to less shut-eye as a reason for a higher percentage of cognitive declines in older people—a good enough reason for me to stay on my sleep track of eight to nine hours a night!
It also reminds me that I haven't visited my doctor for a sleep check-up lately. My specialist told me that I really don't need to visit him for about five years after my sleep study, if I continue to see results with my current treatment. And even though I still think I'm seeing positive results, some new treatment may help even more with my restorative sleep. Perhaps it's time to see whether that is true!
Janet Muniz
