― H E A L T H ―
― H E A L T H ―
W
hen you sleep well, you feel rested in the morning and on form all day long. Nowa- days, a lot of people expect to sleep for eight hours straight through until morning,
but as Dr Esther Werth explains, that’s not at all what healthy sleep is like: “Healthy sleepers wake up as often as 30 times a night. Doing so is part of an important physiological process allowing us to change positions, for example.” As she also says, “the comfort of a good mattress can help support a sleeper’s position and prevent back pain.” Prepare your sleep one or two hours before going to bed Sleeping well depends on what you do before you go to bed. Good sleep hygiene involves a soothing routine (such as taking a bath with lavender essential oil, drinking tea or reading) that helps us relax. Working at the com- puter or staring at your mobile phone has the opposite effect. “The body starts preparing for sleep one or two hours before you feel ready to go to bed. The process begins with the secretion of melatonin, which depends on our exposure to light. Computer screens give off a very harsh type of light known as blue light, which can halt melatonin and prevent the body from slowly getting ready to go to bed,” says Esther Werth. Women’s sleep is more vulnerable Other disturbing factors include noise, a snoring bed partner, or children coming to join us in bed. More wo- men than men suffer from sleep disorders. “Their sleep is more vulnerable, and affected by hormones, as a re- sult of which they wake more easily then men. Research has also shown that men sleep better with a bed partner, whereas women sleep better alone,” says Esther Werth.
DR ESTHER WERTH - SOMNOLOGIST
Sleep is specific to each individual. Some people sleep a lot, needing more than nine hours’ sleep, while others don’t need anywhere near as much, making do with only four hours. Taking due account of these genetic predispositions, you shouldn’t have problems sleeping. Dr Esther Werth, director of the University Hospital of Zürich’s sleep laboratory, explains why we may nevertheless have difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep, and how we can recover good quality sleep.
Text - Simone Liedtke, Picture - ©Annie Spratt
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