Sleep and health workshop at Kramer Hall’s ‘Lunch and Learn’
Page 4 • Wednesday, April 24, 2019 • The Hammonton Gazette
STOCKTON, from Page 1
for atlantiCare’s Health engage-
ment division. Marino addressed
a variety of subjects pertaining to
sleep, such as the history of sleep
and sleeping customs in certain
cultures, the physiological effect
that sleeping has on the brain and
body and the negative effects that
often result from a chronic lack of
sleep.
Contrary to past scientific re-
search, Marino said neither the
brain nor the body shut down
while someone is sleeping, but are
actually working to perform sev-
eral key restorative and reparative
functions to improve personal
health.
“they are often working even
harder than they do during the
day, undergoing processes to re-
store cells, process information
and improve health. a lot of times,
it helps you record your memories
and make your memories stay
longer, so it will actually help with
memories as well—short- and
long-term memory.
there are several internal and
external factors that interfere with
the body’s natural, internal Circa-
dian rhythm, or “biological
clock,” that regulates feelings of
sleepiness and wakefulness,
Marino explained. if this rhythm
is continually disrupted, sleep dis-
orders such as insomnia can de-
velop and make it increasingly
difficult to get sufficient sleep at
night.
if this pattern of under-sleeping
persists over an extended period
of time, Marino said there are
many serious long-term health is-
sues that can arise, such as heart
disease, stroke and pre-diabetes.
“Sleep, like nutrition and phys-
ical activity, is a critical determi-
nant of health and well-being. So,
we can almost directly correlate,
if you don’t get enough sleep,
you’re going to be more likely to
get certain diseases, just like with
poor nutrition and just like with
not being physically active,”
Marino said.
according to Marino, one of the
most common and prevalent fac-
tors that can disrupt the Circadian
rhythm is the artificial blue light
emitted from television, computer
and cell phone screens, which
many people are exposed to for
several hours a day.
“those bright lights that we see
out in the day can really affect us
throughout the night. that’s why
cell phones are starting to become
an issue: what comes out of those
cell phones and other computer
screens to make it nice,
bright, white and crisp is a blue
light. and that blue light is what
causes us to wake up. the blue
light is great because it increases
alertness and inattentiveness but at
nighttime, when we’re trying to
sleep, you want to get to sleep, so
that really kind of affects you neg-
atively,” Marino said.
fortunately, Marino said many
of today’s electronic devices are
equipped with a blue light filter
that’s activated when the sun be-
gins to set so a warmer, less dis-
ruptive color of light is being
emitted as bedtime nears.
Once the Circadian rhythm is
thrown out of whack, it can only
be recalibrated gradually over
time, Marino said. So, trying to
“catch up” by hibernating the day
after an all-nighter, while com-
mon, is biologically ineffective.
“there has been studies show-
ing that if you happen to not get
enough sleep one day, it doesn’t
help you at all for the next day for
you to get extra sleep. You always
want to hit that normal amount.
So, if you only got four hours one
day, you said ‘Well, i’ll catch up
See KRAMER, Page 14
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