It’s easier than ever for someone to give his or her two-cents-worth. In 140 characters you can say whatever you want about almost anything to just about everyone. But hey, times have changed and the cost of an idea is a little higher than it used to be. So if you’re going to say it, make it count. And so we will.

Sleep. That’s it. Sleep. Okay if you want your 99-cents-worth, the Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock App for your iPhone or Android phone.

What does an alarm clock have to do with what we write about here? Well, this particular idea involves you, your patient community, your use of social media and mobile. We talk about those things here every month. But this time, instead of talking about it we’re going to do something together.

The wellness benefits of a good night’s sleep are well documented and so no matter your specialty, there’s an application for your use of this app and a health benefit to be realized by you and your patient.

Practice Family Medicine?

When you’re sleep deprived, you often feel “worn down” – and that’s a clue that your body is vulnerable to infection. “Not getting enough sleep makes you more vulnerable to picking up illnesses and not being able to fight them off,” said Donna Arand, PhD, DABSM, clinical director of the Kettering Sleep Disorders Center in Dayton, Ohio. Can’t convince yourself or your patient that one or the other isn’t getting enough sleep? Let the app help.

Cardiology your area of expertise?

Then you know the story. But does your patient? Former President Bill Clinton confessed that he thinks lack of sleep had a lot to do with his hospitalization to unblock a clogged artery (okay, maybe the Big Macs were part of it too, but he’s on to something) “I didn't sleep much for a month, that probably accelerated what was already going on,” Clinton said. 

He’s probably right. “When you don’t get enough sleep, you have an inflammatory response in your cardiovascular system – in the blood vessels and arteries – and that’s not a good thing!” said Arand. “We see the same thing in hypertension. If that sleep deprivation continues long term, chronic inflammation has been linked to things like heart attack, stroke, and diabetes.”

In the Mid-South and Delta Region we’re all aware of the diabetes, okay I’ll say it, epidemic. The key underlying problem in Type 2 Diabetes is insulin resistance, where the body does not make proper use of this sugar-processing hormone. Guess what? When you’re sleep deprived, your body almost immediately develops conditions that resemble the insulin resistance of diabetes.

And it’s not just in those we can spot walking down the street. “In one study of young, healthy adult males, they decreased their sleep time to about four hours per night for six nights,” says Arand. “At the end of those six nights, every one of those healthy young men was showing impaired glucose tolerance, a precursor to developing diabetes.”

Another study found that people in their late 20s and early 30s who slept less than 6.5 hours per night had the insulin sensitivity of someone more than 60 years old.

So, what’s this got to do with the app? Many of us lack the discipline to do even the simplest things to improve our health. But a recent survey found that 9 out of 10 smartphone owners wake up with their smartphone. Maybe we can use that information do something powerful.

You, your patients, our friends, and me are invited to participate in our Wake Up Better Y’all experiment. It's not necessarily scientific but certainly a fun and well-intentioned effort to see if what we do here together can be good for us.

Besides, one of the main features of the app is to wake you up at the right time. Not just the time you set the alarm for but in your lightest sleep phase. When that happens you’re more likely to awake renewed and on the ‘right side of the bed.’ And everyone around us will appreciate that.

For more information on the Wake Up Better Y’all experiment and the Sleep Cycle App visit www.gobigfishgo.com/healthsavvy or hit me up on twitter.

Hat tip to the good people at webMD and Donna Arand, PhD, DABSM, clinical director of the Kettering Sleep Disorders Center in Dayton, Ohio.

Tim C. Nicholson is the President of Bigfish, LLC. His Memphis-based firm connects physicians, clinics and hospitals to patients and one another through healthcare social media solutions, branding initiatives and websites. His column, “Hey Doc”, appears here monthly. Find him on twitter @timbigfish or email tim@gobigfishgo.com