52 | August• 2017
7 SURPRISING WAYS TO GET MORE SLEEP
into the bloodstream, allowing you
to urinate out the excess fluid while
you’re awake. If you don’t elevate your
legs until you slip into bed, the excess
fluid becomes urine while you sleep,
leading to night-time awakenings.
How long you’ll need to sit with your
feet up depends upon your personal
health.
“With varicose veins or oedema, it
may take longer for the fluids to re-
turn,” Van Kerrebroeck says. “There’s
no problem to do it for two hours.
For many people, half an hour might
be too limited.”
Many people can improve nocturia
with lifestyle changes, but for those
who cannot, research has shown that
the drug desmopressin can cut the
number of nightly bathroom visits in
half for 30-40 per cent of older adults,
significantly improving sleep quality.Do the downward-
facing dog
A recent study from the University of
Washington found that older women
who did yoga for two months reported
considerably less insomnia. The gentle
motions and poses may help reduce
stress levels and improve blood flow,
which makes it easier to sleep.
“Look for the kind of yoga in which
the breath is really involved,” says Ver-
sailles-based yoga teacher Laurence
Maman, a member of the teachers’
trainers’ college of the Institut Francais
de Yoga, affiliated with the European
Union of Yoga. “By using exhalationsnocturia, which awakens people from
a sound sleep two or more times per
night with the strong urge to urinate.
As many as three out of five older
adults suffer from nocturia, which
negatively impacts sleep.
“Even in people who fall asleep
easily again,” says Dr Philip E.V. Van
Kerrebroeck, professor of urology at
Maastricht University in the Neth-
erlands, “the interruption of sleep
disrupts the normal sleep patterns
and can have general health conse-
quences: high blood pressure, dia-
betes. And it can have an impact on
cognitive function.”
Nocturia isn’t a disease; rather, it’s
a symptom of conditions like sleep
apnoea, male prostate problems and
lower oestrogen levels in women.
Many people assume that it’s a nor-
malpartofageing.
“With ageing, there are problems
that install themselves, but the night
is to sleep and not to pee,” Van Ker-
rebroeck says. “Sleep is a protective
mechanism. An elderly individual has
the right to a healthy life.”
Lifestyle changes may help: drink-
ing no more than two litres of liq-
uid daily, curtailing in the evenings;
avoiding caffeine and alcohol for six
hours before bedtime; taking diuret-
ics in the morning or early afternoon,
rather than later in the day; and el-
evating your legs.
When you put your feet up before
bedtime, it pushes the fluids that have
accumulated around your ankles back