Sleep well to live better

Enjoying a healthy sleep is a basic physiological need of human beings and a possible goal if we pay attention to some habits that make it reachable which also will enable us to get a better life quality. Therefore, under the motto “Sleep is a possible dream”, the British Hospital organized a workshop addressed by Dr. Cecilia Orellana, specialist in the Sleep Medicine, where the second edition will take place on the 1st of September due to the excellent feedback of members. "A healthy sleep is a physiological need of human beings," said Orellana, and she also mentioned that "many times our present life makes it difficult for us to enjoy it.” The specialist, who is part of the British Hospital Sleep Laboratory and a Clinic neurologist and neurophysiologist, mentioned that "sleep well means having a good quality of sleep, defining it as a good night`s sleep". To define a good night’s sleep, Orellana said that "the next morning we should feel rested, wide- awake and feeling that we have slept sufficiently and properly at night." Sleep duration “is also important, a healthy adult should sleep from 7 to 8 continuous hours during the night." The quality, the duration and the circumstance, are the main conditions in order to achieve a healthy sleep. “Good conditions to sleep, meaning a silent, comfortable, safe and good environment, are other points to keep in mind”, she said. Thus, we feel rested the next day “this is what makes the quality of our sleep”, charted Orellana. "Good sleep is a reachable dream and is this years’ slogan of the World Sleep Association and also a way to state that it should be a goal in our lives, an achievable one," she explained. The specialist mentioned that there are many suggestions in order to achieve the goal of having a nice sleep, as paying attention to a normal schedule and having the right previous sleep routines, reducing or avoiding excessive audiovisual stimulation. Sleep Medicine has found and described 65 different sleep pathologies. Between 40 and 50% of the world population is affected by a sleep disorder, which can be temporary or chronic. Orellana highlighted the contribution of technology, in the latest decades and in that sense, because it allowed the science to move forward in "the knowledge of what happens during sleep, in what happens in our brains and also in our bodies while we sleep." She mentioned that insomnia is one of the most prevalent sleep pathologies but recalled that it can be a temporary disorder, therefore to overcome it and the consequences she suggested to seek for medical advice at an early stage, avoiding self-medication. In addition, respiratory disorders during the sleep, especially Apneas Syndrome, usually in patients who snore, who stop their breathing and have overweight, deserve a diagnosis and proper treatment, she concluded.