Why coping with today’s hectic pace prolongs life

A tired manFor some, the pace of life seems to keep getting faster. People, sometimes, feel overwhelmed, frustrated, tired, and barely able to cope. Experts warn that life’s hectic pace can lead to far- reaching health and emotional problems, reports Sade Oguntola.

Modern life is full of previously unheard of tensions. Deadlines to meet, children to be taken to, and picked from, school on time, house chores—- the list is endless. So, it is hardly surprising that tiredness has become the bane of our times.

In years gone by, life was simpler, and the pace of life was slower. People tended to have lesser problems coping with conflicts, whether at home or in the country, and only went round the natural cycle of “day time for work and night time for the family and bed.’’

Suddenly, there were longer days, people slept less, more people took to shift work, and spent more time watching television and working on their personal computers. Other technological innovations like the cell phone continue to serve as a continuous distraction, which entices many to wake up at midnight and make free cell phone calls.

Modern technological devices such as computers and cell phones may save time and ensure that individuals do more work. But, all too often, many say they are more tired and stressed than ever before. Just as the causes are many and complex, so also is the cost of trying to do more.

Sleep problems have become so common. Researchers have found that that when people regularly fail to get sufficient sleep, they accumulate a sleep debt. Naturally, their body wants this paid back, and so makes them feel tired. But, with the hectic pace of life, many people remain chronically tired.

Researchers have amassed cumulative evidence that sleep debt impairs learning, weakens the immune system, and causes people to act sluggish, make mistakes, become forgetful, show signs of depression or have dreadful mood swings and memory problems. They stated that poor sleep should be considered as one potentially contributing factor to poor student performance, and that these children and their families should be asked questions about regularity and duration of sleep, bedtime resistance, sleep onset delay, night-waking, sleep-disordered breathing, and increased day-time sleepiness.

A “good night’s sleep” may be more important than we think. In addition to allowing us to feel rested, energetic and clear-thinking, studies have shown that there are connections between sleep and heart health.

Shedding light on the sleep-weight connection, scientists said that short sleepers tended to have a higher body mass index (BMI) compared with the long sleepers. They suggested that stress could disrupt the length and quality of sleep, as well as increase eating and other behaviours contributing to weight gain. Also, getting less sleep appears to cause a reduction in leptin, a hormone that triggers the feeling of fullness, perhaps causing short sleepers to eat more.

Tiredness resulting from long hours and having to continue to work even when fatigued due to inadequate sleep, have contributed to some of the worst disasters of the 20th century. The explosion at Chernobyl was reported to have occurred during a special test at the power station by an exhausted team of electrical engineers who had been at the plant for at least 13 hours because of a delay in obtaining permission to start.

Dr. Abiodun Adeoye, a cardiologist with the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, explained that much as occasional stress is part of everyday life, when a person has to be under perpetual stress, say from a hectic lifestyle, it makes the heart to start doing more work than usual. “When a person is stressed up, it makes the heart to do more work, leading to dangerous heart beats called ventricular tachycardia, as well as the release of stress hormones into the body. It is these stress hormones that affect the muscles of the heart.”

Dr. Ranti Familoni, a cardiologist at Olabisi Onabanjo Teaching Hospital, OOUTH, Sagamu, Ogun State, said the fact that unrealistic work goals and responsibilities might contribute to poor health, made it important that people be wary of indulging in hectic lifestyles. He said that a hectic lifestyle could lead to being stressed up and, as such, the released hormones could cause damage to important organs of the body such as the heart, in addition to increasing blood pressure.

He pointed out that massive changes over the past half-century have reshaped the workplace, with major implications for sleep, especially now that psychological stress has replaced physical hazards in workplaces.

However, Dr. Tunde Odusan, a consultant physician at the OOUTH, Sagamu, said indications of a hectic lifestyle telling on a person’s health included increased heart rate and inability to enjoy a good night’s sleep.

Hectic life pace makes people vulnerable to heart attacks and stroke, perhaps mediated through the impact of insufficient sleep on glucose metabolism, cholesterol levels, and stress hormones. Likewise, drowsiness has contributed to thousands of road traffic accidents annually. Experts found the drivers fell asleep at the wheels due to tiredness that might even have been exacerbated by a number of factors such as poor diet, drugs, as well as mental and emotional problems.

In some cases, the high level of stress in men and women have led to health problems, such as arthritis and rheumatism, back problems, chronic bronchitis and stomach or intestinal ulcers. Men tend to get heart disease while women get asthma and migraines. Meanwhile, efforts to cope with hectic lifestyle have contributed to some taking to drugs, alcohol abuse and poor eating habits, factors that not only exacerbate their tiredness, but may lead to many other health problems.

Researchers from the University of Chicago reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine evidence that suggested a link between getting too little sleep over the long-term and the risk of developing hypertension, or high blood pressure, later on. They found that missing an average one hour of sleep over five years raised the risk of developing high blood pressure by 37 per cent.

Our body does not have alarms that tell when it should slow down. Nevertheless, it does give warning signals such as tiredness, mood changes, depression, and a tendency to become easily infected by disease-causing germs.

Can you simplify and rearrange your life? The simpler one’s lifestyle is, the healthier. Living in affluence will bring its attendant problems. No doubt, living in fear, worries, anxiety, grumbling and murmuring are also unfavorable. However, the following principles may be helpful:

•Give priority to things or to people.

•Manage time and set priorities. Determine what the most important things are and assign sufficient time to these.

•Modesty. This is important in order to avoid taking unrealistic work loads and responsibilities.

•Avoid anxiety, stress, and note that demands on your time will also increase.

The simpler one’s lifestyle is, the healthier one becomes. Living in affluence will bring its attendant problems. Living in fear, worries, anxiety, grumbling and murmuring are also unfavorable.