Insomnia / Sleep Deprivation
Humans spend one-third of their life sleeping. A regular quality sleep has immense health benefits while poor sleep results in behavioral or neurological disorders.
Benefits of sleep
- Sleep serves a restorative function for the whole body allowing it to effectively remove waste and repair damage cells and fight infections through increase in white blood cells
- Studies have shown that poor sleep leads to defective immune system with predisposition to recurrent infection and inability to fight cancer cells
- Sleep helps improve cognitive functions especially memory.
- Studies have also shown that men and women who sleep for <4.5 hours and 3.5hours respectively have 15% higher chance of death
About Reticular Formation Activation system
The sleep-wake cycle is under the control of the reticular activating system (RAS) through its connections to different parts of the brain and production of certain neurotransmitters.
This system is made up of some group of neurons located in the midbrain. Damage to this part of the brain leads to a state of deep sleep and has been associated with several neurological diseases. Stimulation of RAS leads to state of awakening.
During the day RAS is active, but the activity is weakened at night and people fall asleep.
Neuromodulation Therapy For Sleep Disorders
Patients suffering from disorders such as: schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, Parkinson’s disease, depression, autism, Alzheimer’s disease and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can therefore benefit from neuromodulation of sleep as many studies have shown that disruption of the RAS plays significant roles in these disorders.
Sunrise Neuro-Acupuncture Integrative Clinic is an acupuncture and Chinese medicine clinic in Westboro, Ottawa. We provide care for insomnia and sleep disorders. If you would like to receive more information about this treatment, you can call us at: 613-853-9099
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep