Are you not getting enough sleep or “somnorexic?”

Wednesday, December 07, 2022

There was an article in Glamour magazine about somnorexia, written by Camille N. Pagan. One of the experts, Dr. Anne Remmes, said that if you get fewer than 7 hours of sleep a night during the week and more than 10 hours a night on weekends, you fit the profile. She said, “Somnorexia is not getting enough sleep for several days or even weeks in a row; then crashing and sleeping for long periods of time.”

A poll by the National Sleep Foundation found that:

71% of Americans get fewer than 8 hours of sleep a night during the workweek
49% of them get more than 8 on the weekends.

So what? Well, the experts say that you need 8 hours of sleep in order to get enough of each sleep cycle. During deep sleep, your cells and muscles rest and regenerate. Deep sleep is when your brain sorts memories and stores information you’ve learned during the day. Regularly getting less than 7 hours of sleep each night can also derail your circadian rhythms, or your body’s “internal clock.” These rhythms help regulate energy, sleep and wake times, digestion, and hormone levels.

What do you do to break this somnorexic cycle?

Go to bed and wake up close to the same time every day.

I was checking out the 2006 Sleep In American Poll by the National Sleep Foundation:

51% of all adolescents who drive reported that they have driven drowsy at least once in the past year.
5% have nodded off or fallen asleep while driving in the past year.

That is scary. This is why I am so passionate about helping children and adults who are not sleeping well. My program for teaches you how to get a good night’s sleep and form good, lifelong habits. There is something that can be done to reduce the numbers.

Written by: Janet M. Bennett

Janet Bennett, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, is a Speech Pathologist in private practice in Asheville, NC, since 1977. She specializes in treating tongue thrust, a swallowing disorder that can result in buckteeth, an open bite, a lisp, snoring, and other problems that have not yet been made known to most people.