Dr. Oz: Sleep Problems
Dr. Oz talked about how to solve your sleep problems on his show today. He talked to a former Navy SEAL, a newspaper reporter, and a busy psychologist mother, who all conquered their sleep problems.
Dr. Kirk Parsley, the Navy SEAL, got into medical school after his time in the Navy SEALs and started having sleep problems. He would survive on only four to five hours of sleep a night and his hair started to fall out, his blood pressure shot up, and he gained weight. He researched how to fix his sleep problems and now trains soldiers on how to sleep better.
Dr. Oz: Blood Sugar & Sleep Issues
Dr. Oz talked to the experts about how to get better sleep including how to control your blood sugar, relax at night, and cool yourself down before bed. (Alvaro Puig / Shutterstock.com)
Dr. Parsley said that blood sugar levels and inflammation in the body can harm our sleep. People who have difficulty keeping their blood sugar level during the day and at night also have difficulty sleeping. When the blood sugar stabilizes, we can get good sleep.
Symptoms of lack of blood sugar control include having weight around the midsection despite exercising and eating well, craving starchy carbohydrates, and falling off your diet regularly due to carb cravings.
People who maintain a good diet to balance their blood sugar are able to overcome these problems.
Dr. Oz: Good Sleep Diet
To get good sleep, Dr. Parsley recommends eating lots of greens with every meal. Greens are low glycemic and don’t cause your blood sugar to spike. It’s also important to slow carbohydrates, proteins, and good fats with your greens.
Dr. Oz: How Busy Moms Can Get Sleep
Dr. Oz also talked to psychologist Dr. Janet Kennedy, who thought she knew everything about sleep due to her research at world-renowned medical facilities. But after having two babies, she had sleep issues. She dove back into sleep research and found much sleep advice to be contradictory and confusing. So she came up with her own approach to help busy moms get good sleep, which she wrote about in her book The Good Sleeper.
Dr. Kennedy said the best thing to do is to wind down for 15 minutes before bed. For Dr. Kennedy, that’s reading fiction, which helps take her away to another place. You can also use a tennis ball to relieve stress. Press the tennis ball against a wall with your back and roll it around up and down your back for a massage.
Dr. Oz: First Sleep & Second Sleep
Dr. Oz also talked to a newspaper reporter named David K. Randall, who has had trouble sleeping most of his adult life. One bad night, he started sleepwalking and crashed into a wall. He woke up in pain on the floor. This event inspired him to learn about sleep. He interviewed sleep experts across the country.
David said that before we had light bulbs, we slept in a different way. We’d fall asleep and then wake up for an hour in the middle of the night and then go back to sleep. These were called the first sleep and the second sleep. Light bulbs trick us into staying awake longer.
To beat the light bulbs, David suggests we leave our foot outside of the covers so that we can feel cooler at night. This should help us gradually fall asleep because it lets the heat from our body release. Another trick is to keep the hands outside of the covers.
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