Good Night: The Science of Sleep with Implications for Wellness and Disease
Have you ever wondered why you spend a third of your life unconscious and vulnerable? Or considered how wonderful it might be to have an extra eight hours a day to be productive or to make it to level 2000 on Candy Crush? Truth is you don’t have a choice. Everything sleeps, from single cell organisms like the amoeba you pulled from a pond and watched under a microscope in High School biology to the fuzz-ball rescue puppy you got on your eighth birthday. It’s a biologic imperative, like breathing, eating, and if a species is to continue, sex.
So, what’s the harm in missing a few hours, as most Americans do? Sleep research in the past two decades answers this with a resounding everything. Inadequate sleep correlates with increased mortality from all causes. The links are fascinating and disturbing and encompass everything from Alzheimer’s, heart attacks, stroke, obesity, and type II diabetes to depression, anxiety disorders, substance-use disorders, schizophrenia, and even cancer.
Join Dr. Atkins for a fascinating full-day overview of the evidence and best-practice strategies, which include cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and other non-pharmacologic strategies, to improve sleep and overall health and wellness for you and your clients.