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Quotes about Sleep Cycles from the world's top natural health / natural living authors

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"Good healthy sleep depends on sleep cycles. Research has shown that normal growth, development, and alertness can be greatly aided by long, normal sleep cycles. I don't believe in sleep schedules for newborns and babies or even toddlers. But I tell all parents that from age three, children need to have a certain bedtime. I encourage parents to have lots of nighttime contact with their babies. I encourage them to be flexible when their toddlers need them in the middle of the night. But I also encourage them to promote good, long sleep intervals in school-age children." - Jay Gordon, The ADD and ADHD Cure: The Natural Way to Treat Hyperactivity and Refocus Your Child (Get the book.)

"Just as we need darkness to support our sleep cycles, we need light—particularly morning sun—for our day cycles. The sun literally gets us going in the morning. We need its light to trigger our metabolism, alertness, and overall ability to function and perform. Fortunately, in the last few years, the pendulum has swung back in this direction. Now it seems as if every month there is a new study documenting the beneficial effects of sunlight and vitamin D, which, as you know, we get from the sun." - Frank Lipman, Mollie Doyle, Spent: Revive: Stop Feeling Spent and Feel Great Again (Get the book.) "Gershon points out that our brain and gut mirror each other so much that both have natural ninety-minute "sleep cycles." In the brain, slow-wave sleep is interrupted by periods of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, during which dreams occur. The gut has corresponding ninety-minute cycles of slow-wave muscle contractions. As with the brain's REM sleep intervals, these cycles are interrupted by corresponding short bursts of rapid muscle movement. Like everything else in the body, there is a rhythm to digestion. Of course, the two brains are connected and affect each other." - Frank Lipman, Mollie Doyle, Spent: Revive: Stop Feeling Spent and Feel Great Again (Get the book.)

"Research has shown that normal growth, development, and alertness can be greatly aided by long, normal sleep cycles. I don't believe in sleep schedules for newborns and babies or even toddlers. But I tell all parents that from age three, children need to have a certain bedtime. I encourage parents to have lots of nighttime contact with their babies. I encourage them to be flexible when their toddlers need them in the middle of the night. But I also encourage them to promote good, long sleep intervals in school-age children." - Jay Gordon, The ADD and ADHD Cure: The Natural Way to Treat Hyperactivity and Refocus Your Child (Get the book.)

"Our ninety-minute sleep cycles usually repeat three to five times per night. Melatonin helps our sleep by increasing both deep and REM phases of sleep. Melatonin ensures that as the night continues, the time spent in deep and REM sleep progressively increases. As morning approaches, our sleep becomes deeper and more dream-filled, and with this we feel refreshed and renewed. Bad Sleep As we age, our melatonin falls, and the amounts of deep sleep and REM phases of sleep also decline." - Phuli Cohan, The Natural Hormone Makeover: 10 Steps to Rejuvenate Your Health and Rediscover Your Inner Glow (Get the book.) "In order to treat delayed sleep insomnia effectively, you have to shift your sleep cycles back to normal rhythms. To do this, try bright light exposure early in the day for about twenty minutes and take melatonin in the hours before bedtime. Gradually shifting your bedtime to take advantage of melatonin's natural 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. peak will also help greatly. Often people need to use Cortisol (5 to 10 mg) in the morning with phosphoserine (300 to 500 mg) taken in divided doses throughout the day and at bedtime to help lower afternoon/evening Cortisol levels." - Phuli Cohan, The Natural Hormone Makeover: 10 Steps to Rejuvenate Your Health and Rediscover Your Inner Glow (Get the book.)

"Ford describes six types of insomnia: subjective insomnia, which is when you think you have insomnia, but you really don't; initial insomnia, which occurs when it takes thirty to sixty minutes or more to fall asleep; sleep maintenance insomnia, which occurs when you lie awake between sleep cycles during the night; delayed sleep phase insomnia, which is when you can't fall sleep before 2:00 to 3:00 a.m.; unfinished sleep insomnia, which occurs when you suddenly awake at 5:00 a.m. and can't go back to sleep; and disturbed sleep insomnia, which is when you are suddenly awakened by nightmares." - Gary Null and Amy McDonald, The Food-Mood Connection: Nutrition-based and Environmental Approaches to Mental Health and Physical Wellbeing (Get the book.)

"So, in many cases of clients who complain of erratic sleep cycles, their NES scan shows that both their Big Field (and specifically the vertical axis of the Big Field) and the Nervous System Driver are out of balance. The Equatorial Axis The equatorial axis is associated with Earth's rotation. In terms of bioenergetic health, it is related to how the body responds to electrons and ionic charges, such as those associated with oxygen and hydrogen, so it is intimately connected to cell function and, thus, to normal physiological functioning." - Peter h. Fraser and Harry Massey, Decoding the Human Body-Field: The New Science of Information as Medicine (Get the book.)

"We know it affects sleep cycles, but researchers suspect it may also affect length-of-life cycles. For jet lag on trips that cross two or more time zones, proponents suggest taking up to 3 mg of melatonin before bedtime once you reach your destination. Keep taking the supplements for up to four nights, which should be sufficient to help you acclimate. Once you return home, you can help your internal clock readjust by taking up to 3 mg of melatonin again, before bedtime, until you're back on track. Note: Melatonin should not be used regularly as a sleeping aid." - Bottom Line Books, Uncommon Cures For Everyday Ailments (Get the book.)

"During the course of the night, sleepers move through four or five sleep cycles - dropping down into deep slow-wave sleep and drifting up into REM sleep. They spend longer in slow-wave sleep during the first half of the night, but in the second half of the night they get more REM sleep. Not unnaturally, people are much more likely to wake during a period of shallower REM sleep, and, if so, they may well remember fragments of their dreams. Learn while you sleep? So why is sleep so important in terms of children's learning? The most obvious reason is its effects on mood and behaviour." - Sue Palmer, Toxic Childhood: How the Modern World is Damaging Our Children and What We Can Do About it (Get the book.)

"Putative functions of endogenous melatonin in this regard include regulation of sleep cycles, hormonal rhythms, and body temperature (Deacon et al, 1994; Dollins et al, 1993; Cavallo, 1993). Melatonin may also have a role in influencing the maturation and function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis and in determining the onset of puberty (Cavallo, 1993). Production of melatonin is regulated by postsynaptic receptors originating in the superior cervical ganglion, which innervate the pineal gland." - Thomson Healthcare, Inc., PDR for Herbal Medicines, Fourth Edition (Get the book.)

"After two or three sleep cycles, this stage may disappear and you may go directly from stage 2 to REM sleep. Stage 4: This is the deepest stage of sleep. Delta waves become larger and much slower than in stage 3, and breathing, heart rate, metabolism, and temperature reach their lowest levels. Muscles continue to be inactive In Dreams: Memory and Forgetting Most scientists believe that dreams are the result of brain nerve cells transmitting electrical impulses into the brain's long-term memory bank, at which time electrons are released that trigger hallucinations in the cortex." - Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac., Alternative Medicine Magazine's Definitive Guide to Sleep Disorders: 7 Smart Ways to Help You Get a Good Night's Rest (Get the book.)

"Getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom breaks your sleep cycles. If you do drink, make it chamomile herbal tea, which has long been used as a sleep inducer. It contains tryptophan as well as calcium. Despite the fact that alcohol may make you feel sleepy, it disrupts deeper sleep cycles. You'll wake up feeling lousy, even if you've slept a long time. ESTABLISH NORMAL SLEEP PATTERNS World-class athletes whom I know stress the importance of establishing a daily rhythm for eating, exercise, and sleeping to maximize their training." - KC Craichy, Super Health 7 Golden Keys to Unlock Lifelong Vitality (Get the book.)

"Additionally, people commonly experience a period of up to 2 hours of quiet wakefulness between 4-hour periods of regular sleep cycles. During this interval, sleepers are neither fully awake nor fully asleep, but resting and reviewing their dreams with their thoughts turned off. Stage 1: This is the shortest phase, in which slowing alpha waves prepare you for the sleep state. As you drift in and out of wakefulness, your breathing, heart rate, metabolic rate, and body temperature begin to drop. Muscles start to relax." - Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac., Alternative Medicine Magazine's Definitive Guide to Sleep Disorders: 7 Smart Ways to Help You Get a Good Night's Rest (Get the book.)

"A small amount can help induce sleep initially, but it invariably disrupts deeper sleep cycles later. While smoking may seem to have a calming effect, nicotine is actually a neurostimulant and can cause sleep problems. Q Avoid heavy meals three hours before bedtime. Q Avoid bacon, cheese, chocolate, eggplant, ham, potatoes, sauerkraut, sugar, sausage, spinach, tomatoes, and wine close to bedtime. These foods contain tyramine, which increases the release of norepinephrine, a brain stimulant. Q Avoid taking nasal decongestants and other cold medications late in the day." - Phyllis A. Balch, CNC, Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 4th Edition: A Practical A-to-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies Using Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs & Food Supplements (Get the book.)

"LP ' ¦ Herbal therapy Ine thyroid plays a key role in a i „ nT:,, j ¦ Traditional Chinese medicine the interaction between REM and non-REM sleep cycles and patterns ¦ Homeopathic remedies of hormone secretion from the endocrine system during the night. Both TSH and T4 show a definite circadian pattern, and levels of TSH directly affect the onset of REM sleep periods.1 Researcher and enzyme specialist Lita Lee, Ph.D., says that people with low thyroid function generally also have low blood sugar." - Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac., Alternative Medicine Magazine's Definitive Guide to Sleep Disorders: 7 Smart Ways to Help You Get a Good Night's Rest (Get the book.)

"Nurses suffer from disrupted sleep cycles due to the nature of their work. Melatonin controls the gene responsible for keeping the life cycles of cells in the body in check. In other words, the less melatonin you make during the night, the more likely it is that cells will live beyond their natural life cycle and thus become cancerous. The first indications of the damaging effects of light on melatonin secretions during the night were observed in rodents. "At least in rats, a little light throughout the night can have a dramatic impact on cancer," observes David E." - Andreas Moritz, Timeless Secrets of Health & Rejuvenation: Unleash The Natural Healing Power That Lies Dormant Within You (Get the book.)

"Serotonin levels vary between different sleep cycles.50 • Listening to music with a slow rhythm does not significantly increase epinephrine levels in the listener, but listening to fast rhythm music does.51 • Getting cold (a physical stressor) causes dopamine levels to rise, though staying cold for days reduces dopamine levels.52 Get the point? To assume, as most textbooks and advertisements still do, that unexplainable changes in a neurotransmitter level are what cause mental problems is absurd." - Dr. Timothy Scott, America Fooled: The Truth About Antidepressants, Antipsychotics and How We've Been Deceived (Get the book.)

"Q| Sleep experts advise that people with insomnia avoid caffeine, but many people who are accustomed to drinking coffee late in the day and in the evening hours have been known to have their sleep cycles disrupted if they give up drinking coffee. This seems to bear out the idea that maintaining a steady routine is the most important factor in establishing a healthy sleep pattern. Of course, this applies only to those who are not experiencing any difficulties with their sleeping habits. Anyone who develops a bout of insomnia should consider eliminating all caffeine from his or her diet." - Phyllis A. Balch, CNC, Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 4th Edition: A Practical A-to-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies Using Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs & Food Supplements (Get the book.)

"I thought about the less tangible things like sleep cycles, dreams, synchronicity and the true nature of Life. I was filled with a new-found reverence for all living and "nonliving" things. I think about things differently now. My outlook on life is something I would describe as glorious. Life is so grand, so incredible, so full of amazement!" - David Wolfe, The Sunfood Diet Success System (Get the book.)

"Tonifies the Brain, stimulates the intellect, acuity, concentration, strengthens memory, counters depression, balances sleep cycles, long esteemed for mind activation and body energy, a mi Id stimulant with its caffeine (50 mg. per 6 oz." - Joseph E. Mario, Anti-Aging Manual: The Encyclopedia of Natural Health (Get the book.)

"A person's sleep requirements for good health vary according to age and gender, as well as level of activity during the day. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it is not necessary for all adults to get 8 hours of sleep every night to maintain good health. Some people function well with only 5 hours of sleep, while others may need 10 to feel revived in the morning. On the whole, though, most experts recommend approximately 8 hours of sleep per day. Infants require the most sleep, at 16 to 18 hours a day, and young adults generally need about 7 to 8.5 hours of shut-eye." - Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac., Alternative Medicine Magazine's Definitive Guide to Sleep Disorders: 7 Smart Ways to Help You Get a Good Night's Rest (Get the book.)

"Note that although alcohol may temporarily make you feel sleepy, it can interfere with normal sleep cycles. Finally, be sure your bedroom is well ventilated and completely dark so that your body will produce adequate amounts of the sleep hormone melatonin. Darkness is your body's signal to enjoy deep refreshing sleep. A Prescription for Complete Rest Although we all know the importance of adequate sleep and relaxation, the demands of everyday life often keep us from getting the rest we need." - Carol Simontacchi, Natural Alternatives to Vioxx, Celebrex and other Anti-Inflammatory Prescription Drugs (Get the book.)

"Melatonin Description: Melatonin is a natural hormone produced in the brain's pineal gland that regulates the body's biological clock and sleep cycles. Melatonin is produced in response to darkness. This hormone has been shown to be helpful for insomnia, seasonal affective disorder, and other mood disturbances. It has potent antioxidant properties and also protects against radiation damage." - James F. Balch, M.D. and Mark Stengler, N.D., Prescription for Natural Cures: A Self-Care Guide for Treating Health Problems with Natural Remedies Including Diet and Nutrition, Nutritional Supplements, Bodywork, and More (Get the book.) "Melatonin Description: Melatonin is a natural hormone produced in the pineal gland that regulates the body's biological clock and sleep cycles. Melatonin is produced in response to darkness. This hormone has been shown to be helpful for insomnia, seasonal affective disorder, and other mood disturbances. It has potent antioxidant properties and protects against radiation damage." - James F. Balch, M.D. and Mark Stengler, N.D., Prescription for Natural Cures: A Self-Care Guide for Treating Health Problems with Natural Remedies Including Diet and Nutrition, Nutritional Supplements, Bodywork, and More (Get the book.)

"Despite the fact that alcohol may make you feel sleepy, it disrupts deeper sleep cycles. You'll wake up feeling lousy, even if you've slept a long time. ESTABLISH NORMAL SLEEP PATTERNS World-class athletes whom I know stress the importance of establishing a daily rhythm for eating, exercise, and sleeping to maximize their training. The human body loves routine, and setting our habits and following them consistently will go a long way toward establishing a healthy sleep cycle. STAY AWAY FROM CAFFEINE Always avoid caffeine in the late afternoon and evening." - KC Craichy, Super Health 7 Golden Keys to Unlock Lifelong Vitality (Get the book.) "Melatonin is also extremely effective for restoring sleep cycles when you change time zones. My favorite way of taking melatonin is to take it one hour before the time I want to be asleep. It is wise to begin with the smallest dose of melatonin (say 1 mg or even less), so that you slowly test and adjust yourself up to the most effective dose for you as an individual. A good reason to start with smaller doses is that when some people take too high a dose of melatonin they develop extreme sleepiness or fogginess the next morning, and it may take longer than usual to clear their heads." - KC Craichy, Super Health 7 Golden Keys to Unlock Lifelong Vitality (Get the book.)

"Anxiety increases when there is decreased GABA, when synchrony is reduced from the loss of ability to manage sleep cycles. The symptoms listed on the next page are signs of psychopause. If you are experiencing any of these, see a doctor immediately." - Eric R. Braverman, The Edge Effect: Achieve Total Health and Longevity with the Balanced Brain Advantage (Get the book.)

"Thermoregulation—the body's heat distribution system—is strongly linked to sleep cycles. Even lying down increases sleepiness by redistributing heat in the body from the core to the periphery. SUPER HEALTH KEY #7— PRAYER AND MEDITATION Finally, both prayer and meditation have been proven to greatly assist the sleeping process. The vast importance of prayer cannot be overestimated, because it is the miraculous process of talking directly with your very own Creator." - KC Craichy, Super Health 7 Golden Keys to Unlock Lifelong Vitality (Get the book.)

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