Don’t get me wrong.  I’m a big proponent of lifestyle changes.  Many researchers on aging have revealed that the way we age is about 25-30% biology and genetics, and 70-75% lifestyle.  We do have a measure of control over some of the diseases we acquire and the speed and nature of our own aging process.  It’s a well-known fact that good diet, adequate exercise and not smoking are significant assets to better heart health. But what of insomnia?  Is that “our own fault” or something that can readily be fixed by simple sleep hygiene? For the many chronic insomniacs, who are as they are for a variety of poorly-understood reasons, things are not so simple.

While the state of sleep science is advancing greatly through research and practice, and in many ways through the professional efforts of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, there remains much that we don’t know.  The relatively new field of chronobiology aims to study those with Sleep Phase Disorders, the severe night owl, who’s out-of-sync with the 8-5 work world, and the early evening sleeper, whose normal sleep cycle begins about the time most of us are getting home from work.  For these individuals, we have to ask, is the world out of sync, or is it their sleep cycle?  Unfortunately, many such individuals are required to conform to the hours and demands of a work world that begins too early or ends too late for their biology.

And is this, after all, a question of biology?  We can help many go to sleep whose worries or anxieties keep them from getting into a normal nighttime sleep routine. We can help those who manage to go to sleep, but spend many useless hours trying to get back to sleep in the middle of the night when they awaken. We can help those where depression and sleep are close bedfellows. We’re making some great advances in the sleep-disordered breathing field. We can help those with sleep hygiene problems overcome the habits that lead to greater worries of going to sleep that compound what their original sleep problems were. As a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the American Psychological Association, Dr. Marcia Lindsey coaches by phone at www.thesleepdiva.com those with sleep problems to better, more targeted solutions to their sleep problems.

We are on the right track, but are really in the early stages of understanding some of the more complex and longstanding sleep disorders, and the sleep disorders in discrete populations. We know the consequences of poor sleep.  But as one commenter to a recent sleep blog said, “patience and understanding are required” until research advances reach a place where we can help many other varieties of insomnia that are just emerging.

Most of us have read the various news reports about simple things you can do to improve your sleep – go to bed at the same time, eat lightly before bedtime, remove alcohol and caffeine from your diet from mid-afternoon on.  We may have even tried to implement these suggestions with sometimes mixed results.  Or you may have tried successfully to get to bed on time, only to find that once there, other problems develop.  A similar thing happens with our eating and weight efforts.  We know what we should do to improve our diet, but we can’t seem to do it and obesity remains a problem.

For many, the general suggestions to change sleep habits are just not enough.  We need a targeted map of what will help with our particular sleep issues.  This is the roadmap that can only come from a visit to our doctor to rule out medical causes of our sleep problems and the help of a sleep coach who points the direction of which aspects of our sleep problems need focus and how best to go about that.  A sleep coach is educated in selecting from an array of treatments which ones will help the troubled sleeper.  Is your sleep cycle off track and what can be done about that?  Do all your day’s worries surge up in front of you as you go to put your head on the pillow, and what can be done about that? Do you awaken at 3 am every night and wonder if you were meant to have only half a night’s sleep?

The roadmap involves a defined set of goals to help correct our individual sleep problems and the steps that will get us there. But we all know that just identifying the problem and setting out the goals is not enough.  We have to take action. And it might seem that just identifying the cause of the problem would be enough to get us to take action, but in many cases, action involves the change of treasured habits.  We may like eating our largest meal just an hour or two before bedtime since we get home so late.  We may enjoy surfing the web right up to lights out time.  And the change of a sleep cycle from later to earlier – what’s the best way to do that?  These and other challenging questions are the daily fare of a sleep coach’s repertoire.

In addition to pointing the way, the sleep coach holds us accountable for the goals we set for ourselves and helps us iron out problems that arise from our efforts to try out new behavior. Along the way of changing habits and adding new behaviors, we can encounter a lot of inner resistance to change that will stall our efforts to succeed.  Where is Yoda when we need him, or that sage grandmother whose advice we scoffed at then, but remember now?  The sleep coach, like any coach, has that optimal balance of push and pull that should help get us to our goal of a great night’s sleep most every night.

Dr. Marcia Lindsey – sleep coach, psychologist, Texas sleeper – coaches by phone those with chronic sleep problems to better, more peaceful sleep. You can follow her on Twitter www.twitter.com/sleepdiva or at her website www.thesleepdiva.com.

It seems that modern life has caused a lot of interference with sleeping. 70% of us report having trouble sleeping of one kind or another at least 2-3 nights a week. That’s most of us having trouble with something that should be normal and natural, but apparently isn’t these days. That large percentage may be a temporary situation, but now think about this.

20-30% of Americans have chronic, ongoing sleep problems – the type that cause traffic accidents, poor work performance, and contribute directly to nuclear disasters and large oil spills. Did you know that the captain of the Exxon Valdez and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster were later found to be seriously sleep-deprived? Though most of us will not have such an impact on the world because of our sleepiness, the personal consequences are bad enough. Why not have some help overcoming such an important problem?

Sleep coaching is a relatively new field in sleep medicine, along with testing and training for sleep apnea and sleep-related breathing disorders. Many of us have gotten to the chronic level of sleep problems by trying to create our own solutions to the sleep problems we have. We think of a “nightcap” as a help to our sleep, or the ever-popular “sleeping pill” as another quick fix. We beg our doctors to give us something that will help, if even temporarily, our anguish in going to sleep or staying asleep. Then when that is removed, because we can’t take sleeping pills to get good sleep forever, we’re right back where we started or even in a worse place than when we started.

A good sleep coach helps us assess and treat the variety of sleep issues and sleep-related issues that underlie a problem that has become chronic. By the time our problem is chronic, we’ve probably tried all the simple remedies recommended on the internet or by our friends. As with anything, it’s important to discuss sleep problems with your doctor to rule out underlying medical issues that may contribute to poor sleep – medications and chronic medical conditions that affect sleep, habits that foster sleep disruption and

early morning awakening. Then we need the help of someone trained to make the call of what’s ailing our sleep – a sleep coach.

Dr. Marcia Lindsey – sleep coach, psychologist, Texas sleeper – coaches by phone those with chronic sleep problems to better, more peaceful sleep. You can follow her on Twitter www.twitter.com/sleepdiva or at her website www.thesleepdiva.com.

Sometimes it’s hard to get to sleep because all the remains of the day are swirling around in our minds.  We try to solve problems but often it’s the hard things that happen that stay on our minds unresolved.  Why did I do that… How much work have I left undone…What do I tell my child about what’s happening in the family…What can I do about those health problems.  The thoughts can be endless and circular, robbing us of descending into a peaceful night’s sleep.

One way to prepare for letting go of life’s worries at night is to head them off at the pass.  We can actually re-focus on what’s been right about our day and train the brain to slip quietly into peaceful slumber. One way to do this is through a gratitude journal.  Just as we prepare to go to bed, we can focus on the three things that went right in our day.  As those three things come to mind, take a deep breath and savor those.  Expand on the joy of them as you breathe them into your being.

Sometimes that main thing that was good about our day can be something as simple as a great sunset, or a peaceful morning or a good night’s sleep the night before. Maybe we have accomplished something, large or small, that was an obstacle in our path.  Or perhaps a feeling of satisfaction is there from a sweet moment in a personal relationship. No matter what else has happened today, we can go to these moments, be present in them and take them in again, this time with greater appreciation. We can sense their presence in a new way that calms the body and relaxes the mind. We can cultivate a sense of gratitude.

The ideal time to do this is the moments we are getting into bed and getting the mind ready for sleep.  Here lies a state of consciousness not quite awake and yet not quite asleep, that allows us to drift effortlessly into a positive mind state that will further enhance the quality of our sleep.

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We all have days that are down days, where something’s gone wrong in the universe of life and just doesn’t work out the way we had hoped. Or maybe the loss of a hoped-for job, the ending of a desired relationship or a fight with a family member. When this sad or down feeling lingers for two weeks or more, and we can’t seem to climb up out of it, we can be termed depressed. Persistent sadness or crying, lack of motivation to do the things we usually enjoy, even trouble concentrating are the hallmarks of this medical condition. But what about sleep?

Insomnia, especially the kind of insomnia where we awaken much too early in the morning, unable to go back to sleep is one of the cardinal features of depression. It signals the alteration of the calming brain chemistry that makes for normal good sleep. This applies to a whopping 80% of depressed people, though another, smaller percentage sleep far too much for their normal routine.

In a recent article from Psychology Today, a sleep researcher from the University of Rochester goes even further in making the connection between sleep and depression. Dr. Michael Perlis studied the onset of a depressive episode and found that the problems with sleeping preceded the depression by five weeks. And it’s not just the quantity of sleep that is different, but the quality of sleep as well. He goes on to learn that the stages of sleep leading up to REM sleep are shortened, and REM sleep is lengthened and intensified, interfering with the consolidation of memories. What this means is not completely certain, but it appears that managing the sleep problem may lead to avoiding the depression.

This is kind of startling news. We had always thought that depression makes for poor sleep, but never imagined that poor sleep might be a causative factor in depression. Although the evidence is not conclusive, it points again to the importance of getting good sleep, and getting help when we cannot get good sleep. And it points to a time frame for judging when poor sleep can have other unintended consequences, such as depression.

The results are not all in on this link between sleep and depression, but this study is one more piece of the picture linking the two in some new and complex ways.

• Get the most comfortable bed you can afford. This is not the same thing for all of us. Some like a very firm mattress; others prefer one much softer. Although research touts the benefits of a firmer mattress in supporting the back and body stress points, mattresses are a matter of personal preference and if you have what you’re comfortable with, you’re more likely to go to sleep easily;

• Make sure your pillow supports the curve of your neck so that your spine is in a straight and aligned position. Many pillows do little to support the spine. Invest in one that keeps your body in great alignment and reap the benefits of great posture while you sleep. Consider the position you’re sleeping in. This can also affect how restful your sleep becomes;

• In general, complete darkness is best for the brain to shut completely down, the ideal sleep environment. Like our computer, the brain shuts down gradually over the nighttime hours with increasing darkness. Many people, for a variety of good reasons, like to sleep with a light on, which does limit the complete relaxation of the brain as long as light is coming into the pineal gland. If you need to keep a light on, or even if a small amount of light comes into your room, using a sleep mask might be a good alternative to more restful, deeper sleep.

• The best environment for sleep is a room that’s cool, but not cold. Depending on your climate and the season of the year, this can be achieved by a variety of temperature adjustments in the room, clothing you wear to bed and sheets, quilts and blankets on the bed. Many times, a small fan can help keep air circulation in the room from becoming stagnant and stale. Notice how you’ve slept in the morning, and try making adjustments in each of these things to see if your sleep improves.