Dr. Michael Breus - Beauty Sleep: Look Younger, Lose Weight, and Feel Great Through Better Sleep

Table of Contents

A PLUME BOOK

BEAUTY SLEEP

MICHAEL BREUS is a practicing Ph.D. in clinical psychology with a specialty in clinical sleep disorders. He has a private practice in Scottsdale, Arizona, and is the chairman of the Clinical Advisory Board for Sleep Holdings, a publicly traded health-care service provider focused on sleep diagnostics and sleep therapy. He consults with Mattress Firm and with Bath and Body Works for their sleep aromatherapy line, and he has developed his own signature line of pillows for Carpenter Company under the Sleep Better seal. Dr. Breus is a regular contributor to the WebMD Community, WebMD Video, and WebMD the Magazine, and is a wellness coach for America Online. He has been interviewed more than 250 times for print, radio, and television and has appeared on The Today Show, The View, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. He lives in Scottsdale with his wife and two children.

To Lauren, for listening to me answer the same questions over and over. For sleeping with the TV on. For trying every new sleep gadget I can find. For giving me the gift of the two best children in the world. For all of your love and support, I could never have done this without you.

INTRODUCTION: A VITAL SIGN OF HEALTH

Nothing is more frustrating than getting a bad nights sleep and feeling tired, cranky, and older the next day ... and the day after that. Its perfectly normal to feel fatigue once in a while. But when we experience long-term exhaustion, disappointment in our productivity, illness, weight gain, and general feelings of depression and dissatisfaction with life, few of us stop to consider the one thing that can alleviate, if not prevent, all that: sleep. This is your guide to getting supreme sleep. This is your personal manual for finding sound sleep night after night to the best of your ability. Sleep problems are, after all, estimated to be the number one health issue in the United States.

Many people are living like zombies, sacrificing sleep to meet waking deadlines and turning to drugs and stimulants to stay awake, or drugs and depressants to fall asleep and remain that way until the morning alarm rings. A record 43 million prescriptions for sleeping pills were written by U.S. doctors in 2005, and by 2010 its been estimated that the pharmaceutical industry will be reaping at least $5 billion a year from such sales. Why? Because people want better sleep. In pursuit of youth and beauty, a popular option is to resort to invasive and risky cosmetic procedures, plus pills and potions touted to make one look and feel younger. Current medicine and the media make these procedures and cosmeceuticals look easy and safe. And I am here to tell you these alternatives are not always easy and effective, nor are they necessarily cheap and safe. Popular diets and weight-loss pills cant always guarantee youll lose ten pounds forever. Products that claim to boost our energy levels have generated such a market that we now have energy drinks that sell to everyone from teenagers to adults (some people even mix these with alcohol). Our societys hunger (and thirst) for more energy and more time seems to grow every day.

If youre reading this book because you have a known sleep disorder or are pretty sure you do, then this may only be a program to use in conjunction with working with a sleep specialist. But if you know youve got a problem and you cant put sleep at the bottom of your list of priorities anymore, youve come to the right place. Ive got the prescription for rejuvenating your mind and body, improving your sex life, increasing your energy reserves and vitality, and helping you lose weight and keep it off. This wont require anything more than a commitment to getting restful, sound sleep, and the programs presented in this book will show you how to achieve that goal. It will change the way you think. It will enhance the way you live.

I once had a woman come to me on a referral from her best friend, Susan W., whom Id treated just two months prior. Nancy P. was thirty-two years old. Looking very animated and anxious to tell her story, she was quick to start talking. Id heard a version of her story many times before:

Nancy went on to explain more about her own situation, and I performed my evaluation to determine what kind of suggestions I needed to make. Nancys story was very typical of many of the women who come see me. Shed been experiencing chronic exhaustion from balancing the demands of motherhood and work for quite some time, and she said that it wasnt until she turned thirty that her energy level really began to diminish. She constantly found herself staying up late at night to finish up chores and get ready for the next day. There was never a dull moment on weekends, either. When I asked her how long shed been having sleep problems, she surprised herself, realizing that she hadnt had a long period of restful sleep in about five yearsbefore she began having children. This is also very typical of the patients I see: They are not fully aware of the extent to which sleep deprivation has truly affected how they look and feel on a daily basis. I prompt them with a series of questions that usually ends with their saying, Oh my gosh, youre right, or, How come it took me this long to realize what my sleep problems are doing to me? They are also eager to know if the damage is reversible or if theyre stuck with how theyve aged up until now. Two very commonly asked questions are, Can I turn back my clock with sleep? Can I take back all that sleep debt? And thats when I smile reassuringly.

I went through a full analysis of Nancy and we noted several things: Her skin was uncharacteristically pale and washed out; shed failed every diet in attempts to lose the weight that came with pregnancy, and was now about twenty pounds overweight. When I questioned her sex life, she openly admitted that it hadnt returned to its pre-children status. Mark has begun to complain about the distance between us, she said. He says Im not the same person anymore. Im moody, irritable, unavailable. I say Im tired all the time, because I am. And what really hurt is when he said that Ive let myself go. This troubled Nancy greatly. I glimpsed a few tears when she began to talk about this aspect to her marriage.