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How To Tell If You're REALLY Getting Good Sleep + 8 Ways To Improve It

Author:

Frank Lipman, M.D.

February 26, 2016

Functional Medicine Doctor & NY Times bestseller

By Frank Lipman, M.D.

Functional Medicine Doctor & NY Times bestseller

Dr. Frank Lipman is a widely recognized trailblazer and leader in functional and integrative medicine, and a New York Times best-selling author.

Illustration by Chloé Bulpin / mbg creative

February 26, 2016

Dr. Frank Lipman is a renowned leader in the field of integrative medicine and one of our go-to experts here at mindbodygreen. That's why we're thrilled to feature a passage from his brand-new book on staying healthy and happy, 10 Reasons You Feel Old and Get Fat. In this adapted excerpt, Dr. Lipman explains how to finally get the restorative sleep your body needs.

Many of my patients show up with sleep problems. Indeed, statistics show that between 50 million and 70 million Americans have some type of difficulty sleeping.

The market for prescription sleep aids keeps going up and up and up, with 58.5 million prescriptions dispensed in 2012, up 10 percent from 2007. The market for over-the-counter sleeping pills is equally out of control.

Lack of sleep is one of the most significant health problems we face today.

The problem isn’t even confined to adults: there appears to be an increasing number of teenagers and even children who are unable to fall asleep, stay asleep, or some combination of both. If this keeps up, we’ll have to declare sleep an endangered species!

To me, lack of sleep is one of the most significant health problems we face today. If you are feeling old — senior moments; brain fog; lack of energy; perhaps even a loss of optimism, excitement, or joy — not getting enough good sleep might very well be at the root. If you are gaining weight, sleep problems could be a factor in that as well.

Are You Getting the Sleep You Need?

Chloé Bulpin / mbg creative

I find that very few people recognize the serious toll taken by lack of sleep. Although virtually every one of my patients comes in with some kind of sleep deficit, many consider these problems “normal” and wouldn't even mention them if sleep weren’t an important section of our patient questionnaire.

Do you also struggle to sleep peacefully through the night? If so, take heart: solutions do exist. But before we can find solutions, we have to understand the problem.

So let me start by asking you a few simple questions about your sleep patterns:

Do you wake up feeling tired rather than energized?
Do you often wake up feeling as though you could sleep for hours more?
Do you find that you don’t have enough energy to get through the day comfortably without the use of sugar, caffeine, or other stimulants?
Do you need coffee or some other form of caffeine to wake up?
Do you need coffee or some other form of caffeine to stay alert throughout the day?
Do you need to take long naps during the day?
Do you feel “wired” instead of naturally tired at night when it’s time for bed?
Do you rely on sleep medications to fall asleep?
Do you often lie in bed wishing you could fall asleep?
Do you wake up frequently throughout the night?

If you answered yes to even one question, you'd probably benefit from improving your sleep. And if you answered yes to several, an improvement in sleep quality might significantly improve your health.