Humor and Sleep Hygiene’s Potential Benefits for Stress and Immunity

An explanation of the relationship between sleep and stress, including any impact the relationship may have on stress hormones.

If you find that you are stressed and not getting enough sleep, you’re not alone. In a national sleep survey, 40 percent of respondents said they aren’t getting the recommended amount of rest. Many of the stressors we face in modern life, such as traffic jams, difficult co-workers, or relationship conflicts, can trigger a fight-or-flight response, and prolonged exposure to this stress without relaxation can result in shorter sleep duration and poorer quality sleep. In addition, the impact the relationship may have on stress hormones is that insufficient sleep over the long term can contribute to severe health conditions. For example, sleep controls your stress hormones and maintains your nervous system healthy. Not enough sleep can affect your body’s ability to regulate stress hormones and lead to high blood pressure.

Then explain how sleep deprivation and stress might contribute to the development of an illness.

Sleep loss refers to sleep of shorter duration than the average baseline needs of seven to eight hours per night. Although sleep loss and sleep deprivation have been studied scientifically for the past century, it is only within the past decades that the magnitude of the effects of insufficient sleep on health, personal and public safety, behavior, productivity, and quality of life has begun to be widely appreciated. Indeed, sleep loss is highly prevalent. It has been estimated that the frequency of adults who sleep less than six hours/day has increased significantly in the last two decades. Sustained sleep deprivation (SD) results in reduced workplace productivity, public safety, and personal wellbeing, including performance deficits, poor vigilance, excessive daytime sleepiness, depressed mood, and impairments in concentration and memory. Interestingly, there exists a noteworthy inter-individual variability in the susceptibility of humans to the effects of SD, and subjects whose performance is scarcely impaired by one task might exhibit severe impairment in other tasks. This fact might be explained by genetic differences (Palmi et al., 2013). Sleep loss also has wide-ranging effects on the cardiovascular, endocrine, and immune systems, and there is a well-known bi-directional relationship between neurologic diseases and sleep disorders. Certainly, sleep is altered in many neurologic diseases, including dementia, movement disorders, epilepsy, headaches, demyelinating diseases, or cerebrovascular disorders due to several mechanisms (e.g. lesions of the areas that control sleep, lesions or diseases that produce pain, decreased mobility [caused by bradykinesia, dystonia, spasticity or other motor disturbances], or medication administered to control the neurologic symptoms( Palmi et al., 2013).

Explain two concepts you might include in sleep hygiene education and explain why. Be specific

Children with developmental disabilities (DDs) commonly experience severe and persistent sleep problems (Bonuck and Grant, 2012; Sutton, 2011; Tietze et al., 2012), which are associated with negative outcomes for the child (e.g. daytime challenging behavior and impaired educational performance) (Beresford et al., 2012; Galland and Mitchell, 2010) and the family, for example, increased stress and relationship difficulties (Bourke Taylor et al., 2013; Richdale et al., 2000; Tietze et al., 2012). To ensure appropriate treatments are advocated, current evidence suggests that sleep problems should be assessed to eliminate physiological causes and to identify those which are behavioral in origin (Malow et al., 2013; McDaid and Sloper, 2009). An essential first intervention for behavioral sleep problems is sleep hygiene education (SHE) (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 2013; Vriend et al., 2011) which advises parents on creating optimal sleeping conditions for their child and exposes them to activities and cues that prepare them for and promote appropriately timed and effective sleep (Jan et al., 2008: 1344) (e.g. creating consistent bedtime routines, avoiding caffeine and encouraging daytime exercise). Sleep is prerequisite for good functioning of mind and body. It is based on circadian rhythm and homeostatic pressure that follows a period of awake during sleep (Dijk,). Short sleep duration plus optimal sleep quality can lead to decrease in attention, memory, creativity, and academic performance. Sleep disorder can also have an impact on emotion that become unstable, aggressive and hyperactive (Rigney et al., Surani, Brito, Surani, & Ghamande,]). Poor night sleep and sleep disturbances may not only cause daytime sleepiness, but also worsen diabetes control by increasing pro-inflammation cytokine that inhibits glucose uptake into fat and muscle tissue also increase secretion of contra regulation hormone that caused insulin resistance and glucose tolerance eventually worsen glycemic control (Barone & Menna-Barreto,). Children with T1DM are susceptible to sleep disturbance due to the effect of processing glucose and insulin on the central nervous system and increased body stress response (Perfect,). Nursing intervention that can be conducted to overcome sleep disturbance is through health education for patient and family (Bulucheck, Butcher, Dochterman, & Wayner,). Perez et al) in its study suggested that service providers make a routine assessment of sleep time and sleep disturbance symptoms, educate patients and family about the importance of sleep for patients with T1DM, and/or give sleep method guideline such as maintaining a stable sleep schedule. A study shows that sleep hygiene is one of the treatments applied by a nurse in the management of a patient with insomnia (Vidal-Thomas, Yañez-Amoros, Torrens, Torres-Solera, & Esteva,). Sleep hygiene has been recommended by experts for various sleep disorders and are successful in improving sleep quality in children with sleep problem (Zupanec et al.,). Sleep hygiene can be defined as a change of sleep environment involving children and parents to achieve optimal sleep quality. One of the factors affecting sleep hygiene implementation is to practice circadian rhythm through constant repetition of activities and routine (Borrington, Akhtar, Tirupatikumara, & McCathie,), such as consistent sleep and wake schedule, quiet sleep routine, avoid physical activity 2 hours before bedtime, avoid fatty foods and caffeine, and also comfortable and dark sleep environment (Jaser & Ellis; Tan, Healey, Gray, & Galland,).

References:

Palma, J., Urrestarazu E., & Iriarte, J.2013) Sleep loss as risk factor for neurologic disorders: A Review Sleep Medicine.14(3),229-236 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2012.11.019

Tumakaka, G. Y. S., Agustini, N., Nurhaeni, N., & Rustina, Y. (2019). The Effect of Sleep Hygiene Education on Sleep Quality in Children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus: A Preliminary Study. Comprehensive Child & Adolescent Nursing, 42, 189–196. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1080/246…