Mind Matters: To sleep, perchance to dream

Posted by Dr. Kayta Gajdos on November 15, 2012

I remember acing a paper in a graduate psychology course, only to fumble miserably in the oral exam that covered the same material my paper had. Why? Well, when I wrote the paper I was well rested and thereby, creative. However, being so anxious about the oral exam, I stayed up all night “studying.” The next day I could hardly understand my professor’s questions, let alone answer him coherently. The moral of my story? Sleep is a necessary endeavor for promoting clarity and creativity. And sleepless study is not.

So it is that my ears perked up and my eyes didn’t close when I heard David K. Randall be interviewed recently. After that, I acquired his book, “Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep.”

Through this book, he hopes readers “will understand that sleep is what helps us become the people we want to be.” He notes how this is the part of life that we may “overlook, ignore, or dose with coffee, yet study after study has shown that sleep is a key part of what we consider the best part of us: creativity, intelligence, health, … performance … how we relate to loved ones.”

Randall began to delve into the history of sleep after he rammed into a wall while sleepwalking. Dissatisfied with the books he found on the theme of sleep, he decided to write his own. What he discovers in his waking adventure is not only that electric lights have profoundly changed our sleep patterns, but also that there are a growing number of cases in which people claim to have been unconsciously sleepwalking while committing violent crimes.

A sleepwalker himself, Randall fears, along with other sleepwalkers he has spoken with, what he could possibly do besides bump into a wall in the middle of night.

Beyond the issue of sleepwalking, Randall gleans other facts. Prior to electricity, during pre-industrial times, humans slept for several hours after sundown, then would awaken around midnight for an hour or so, and then return to sleep until dawn. This appears to be our natural pattern sans artificial lighting, according to the research.

Also, Randall discovered that even though couples like to sleep in the same bed, sleeping in separate beds is more conducive to restful sleep, even when we believe otherwise. Nevertheless, it appears that “men tend to sleep better next to their partners” than do women. Perhaps that is because men snore more? Randall quips, “In one of nature’s dark jokes, women not only are far less likely to snore than men but also tend to be lighter sleepers. The result is a mighty farce that is one reason wives also suffer from insomnia more often than their husbands.”

There is even found to be a link between a woman’s sleep quality and marital satisfaction. Randall interviewed Wendy Troxel, a psychiatry professor at the University of Pittsburgh, who studies relationship and marriage. She found that happy marriages were generally “healthier” marriages and that sleep quality was an important factor—especially the woman’s sleep.

According to Troxel’s studies, couples felt more positive in their conversations and interviews when the woman slept well. Troxel hypothesizes that stereotypically women drive the emotional climate of the relationship, and therefore, may be more expressive of their distress, which in turn affects the spouse. (Troxel apparently did not research gay realtionships/marriages.)

What affects us all regarding our sleep is the fact that, when it comes to integrating new information and solving a vexing problem, sleep is our ally. Don’t take an oral exam without it.

However, one caveat I do have about Dreamland is Randall’s unsatisfactory coverage of dreams themselves. As a Jungian-oriented psychologist, I take dreams quite seriously. I was very disappointed that Randall’s chapter on dreams lacked substance and depth. Otherwise, his little book is great for that midnight hour when sleepers awake.

* Kayta Curzie Gajdos holds a doctorate in counseling psychology and is in private practice in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. She welcomes comments atMindMatters@DrGajdos.com or 610-388-2888. Past columns are posted towww.drgajdos.com.

About Kayta Gajdos

Dr. Kathleen Curzie Gajdos ("Kayta") is a licensed psychologist (Pennsylvania and Delaware) who has worked with individuals, couples, and families with a spectrum of problems. She has experience and training in the fields of alcohol and drug addictions, hypnosis, family therapy, Jungian theory, Gestalt therapy, EMDR, and bereavement. Dr. Gajdos developed a private practice in the Pittsburgh area, and was affiliated with the Family Therapy Institute of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, having written numerous articles for the Family Therapy Newsletter there. She has published in the American Psychological Association Bulletin, the Family Psychologist, and in the Swedenborgian publications, Chrysalis and The Messenger. Dr. Gajdos has taught at the college level, most recently for West Chester University and Wilmington College, and has served as field faculty for Vermont College of Norwich University the Union Institute's Center for Distance Learning, Cincinnati, Ohio. She has also served as consulting psychologist to the Irene Stacy Community MH/MR Center in Western Pennsylvania where she supervised psychologists in training. Currently active in disaster relief, Dr. Gajdos serves with the American Red Cross and participated in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts as a member of teams from the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Now living in Chadds Ford, in the Brandywine Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, Dr. Gajdos combines her private practice working with individuals, couples and families, with leading workshops on such topics as grief and healing, the impact of multigenerational grief and trauma shame, the shadow and self, Women Who Run with the Wolves, motherless daughters, and mediation and relaxation. Each year at Temenos Retreat Center in West Chester, PA she leads a griefs of birthing ritual for those who have suffered losses of procreation (abortions, miscarriages, infertility, etc.); she also holds yearly A Day of Re-Collection at Temenos.Dr. Gajdos holds Master's degrees in both philosophy and clinical psychology and received her Ph.D. in counseling at the University of Pittsburgh. Among her professional affiliations, she includes having been a founding member and board member of the C.G. Jung Educational Center of Pittsburgh, as well as being listed in Who's Who of American Women. Currently, she is a member of the American Psychological Association, The Pennsylvania Psychological Association, the Delaware Psychological Association, the American Family Therapy Academy, The Association for Death Education and Counseling, and the Delaware County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Board. Woven into her professional career are Dr. Gajdos' pursuits of dancing, singing, and writing poetry.