Sleep disturbances

The situation is today worse than critical. About 40% of people in affluent countries complain they do not have “restorative sleep”, a further 40% already suffer from chronic sleep disturbances.

During the last few decades, sleep specialists have determined 90 different kinds of sleep disturbances. In fact, the reasons why people do not sleep well will be numerous but most, in the most literal sense of the word, will be “homemade”; increasingly, sleep problems are associated with houses and apartments. Over 30 years ago, Dr. Hubert Palm, founder of the recently established discipline, building, living and sleep biology, pointed out that probably electro magnetic fields were amongst the major culprits in sleep disturbances. Unfortunately, he was to be proved right by the work of scientists in the field of electro-biology. Over the past five decades, more and more people live their lives indoors. We live in houses or apartments, we work mostly indoors and increasingly, we go to an indoor leisure centre for our sports activities. It goes without saying that there will be interaction between buildings, rooms, fixtures and fittings and people. Building biology is the empirical study of this subject matter; it deals with healthy building, living and sleeping.

There are, quite clearly, requirements that need to be met within our living and sleeping areas: fixtures, fittings, technological dimensions, internal and external disturbance factors in sleeping areas and biological, orthopaedic and bed climatic conditions all need to be considered in providing adequate support for healthy sleep. In this respect building, living and sleep biology has set out some wise measures with regard to limit values and tolerances: to know that some influences can damage your health should indicate that prevention is necessary! This is particularly relevant to bedrooms and sleeping areas.

In addition to a holistic sleeping system, such as the SAMINA sleeping system, and an undisturbed sleeping area, the following tips can improve sleep.

Break external and internal sources of disturbance by:

Having an undisturbed earth magnetic field
Switching off electrical smog
Avoiding living space pollution
Insulating from noise
Creating darkness
Maintaining a comfortable temperature (e. g. 16°C)
Avoiding caffeine, nicotine, alcohol and heavy meals during the late afternoon and evening
Not taking sleeping tablets for longer than 3 weeks and not every night

Adherence to a sleeping – waking rhythm by:

Keeping to consistent bedtimes at night
By keeping to consistent times for getting up, notwithstanding the time you fall asleep (even on weekends and on holiday!)
By not sleeping during the day if possible (if necessary, then at regular times)
By having a positive attitude to going to bed: only go to bed when tired
By doing relaxation exercises (e.g. autogenic training)
By creating sleep rituals (e.g. drinking a glass of milk)
By not getting up when suffering from agonizing sleeplessness (but do not undertake anything active either, but, e.g., listen to music in the dark), by not carrying out any activity in bed that is not conducive to sleep (e.g. eating, working), with the exception of sex
If possible, by not looking at the clock at night. Otherwise you will associate sleep disturbances with particular times (in the sense of a learning process)

Gradual decrease in mental and physical exertion before going to bed by:

Carrying out regular physical activity in the daytime (preferably in the morning)
Doing relaxation exercises
Carrying out relaxing sleep rituals (e.g. taking a warm bath)
Not carrying out any strenuous physical or mental activity before going to bed

If sleep problems persist, seek medical advice.