Carlos F. Morales MD

Sleep Now. Sleep Well.

The 411 on Sleep

Benefits of Sleep

When we catch some shut eye, a lot of great things happen. Sleep gives your ticker (heart)  a chance to relax and beat slower, reducing the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke. A good night's sleep enhances your learning and problem solving skills. So if you are trying to learn something new, try and squeeze the moon for a little extra rest. Trying to lean out or buff up? Get more sleep, as this rest increases production of growth hormone(this hormone boosts muscle mass and helps repair damaged cells). At the very least, adequate sleep elevates your mood, and who can't use a little more sunshine in their life? Call Doctor Morales' office in San Antonio, Texas to make sure you are getting the full benefits of a restful sleep.


Importance of Sleep

Shut eye gives us more than just a clear head in the morning. It is vital to our health. Lack of sleep leads to the possibility of diabetes and other metabolic disorders. For every hour of sleep lost, the odds of obesity are raised. Sleep affects how your body responds to Insulin, the hormone that controls your blood sugar levels. Sleep deficiency results in higher than normal blood sugar levels, predisposing you to diabetes. 

Further, lack of sleep triggers missed periods for females, and erectile dysfunction in men. For people new to parenting or college students who pull all-nighters, you know the lack of sleep can leave you feeling cloudy, irritable, and emotionally unsettled.

All these conditions can be preventable, if you catch some zzz's. So if you are tired of being tired, come visit the office of our sleep doctor in San Antonio, Texas.


Sleep Process

  

Humans work on a circadian rhythm, you can call it an internal clock. The circadian rhythm is what keeps you awake in the day and tuckers you out at night. The two main hormones the rhythm affects are melatonin (sleep hormone) and cortisol (enables anti-stress and anti-inflammatory responses in the body).To keep it very simple, it is melatonin that makes us sleepy at night. Melatonin is absent for most of the day and is produced from around 8pm-9pm, with maximum concentration around 4am-5am. That is why we feel like we get the best sleep right before the alarm goes of in the morning and why we want to hit "snooze"

Towards the end if the night, the stress hormone cortisol builds up at around 6am, getting us ready for the day and giving us the strength to not hit "snooze".

                      There are two main broad types of sleep, each with its own distinct physiological, neurological and psychological features: rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-rapid eye movement (non-REM or NREM) sleep. During REM sleep our body is nearly paralyzed, most of our dreams occur, and it is associated with consolidation of new memories associated with skill formation. We spend most of our time in Non-REM sleep. During this sleep, memory consolidation is formed, information is processed, body temperature drops, heart rate is reduced, and blood pressure is at it's all time low. Sleep disorders such as sleep apnea and insomnia disrupt the delicate cycle of REM and non-REM sleep. If you think you may have a sleep disorder, call the office of Doctor Carlos Morales in San Antonio, Texas.