Many people struggle with sleep. It is a topic deeply related not only to personal health and lifestyle, but also with trends in society as a whole. Associate Professor FURUTANI Maki of the Graduate School of Human Development and Environment conducts research on sleep from the field of psychology while also working to spread her knowledge in schools and throughout the community. She spoke to us about the relationship between sleep and human well-being, i.e., being in good shape physically, emotionally and socially, as well as about the current state of sleep education, which aims to disseminate accurate knowledge on the subject.
Researching the relationship between stress and sleep
I understand your area of expertise is sleep psychology. What kinds of research fields related to sleep are there?
Furutani:
Research on sleep began to grow from about the 1960s. In the 1950s, researchers in the USA discovered REM sleep in humans and research greatly developed from that point on. In the 1970s, the Japanese Society of Sleep Research was founded and researchers from a wide range of fields began to get involved in sleep research, especially in the past 20 years or so.
Sleep research can be divided into three main fields: sleep medicine, which elucidates and treats the causes of sleep disorders from a medical perspective, sleep science, which explores the roles and mechanisms of sleep, and sleep sociology, which studies sleep as it relates to problems in our social lives.
My field of study is sleep psychology, which is a cross between sleep science and sleep sociology. The main focus of my research is the relationship between stress and sleep, a topic I’ve been pursuing since I was in graduate school. In my research, I investigate the effects of stress during the day on our sleep at night and the relationship between everyday stress and sleep.
Tell me about what you’ve discovered through your research and what specifically you’re researching at the moment.
Furutani:
In my research on the relationship between stress and sleep, I focused on children’s stress when I first started at Kobe University. Children have lots of things that they’re stressed about, like spending their time in groups at school, entrance examinations, worries about their relationships and so on. But as I carried out my research, I found that sleep issues for parents were more serious.
Since many parents are in the primes of their careers, many of them don’t get enough sleep and have irregular sleep schedules. This has the potential to affect the sleep habits of their children. Also, if parents tend to prioritize study and extracurricular activities over sleep, this can make solving sleep issues in children all the more difficult.
Thus, it’s important to have parents and children think together about sleep. For instance, we have parents and children keep their own personal sleep diaries for a certain period of time and show them to each other. This allows them to realize certain things about each other’s sleep habits, which they can then use to discuss improvements. There are also cases in which parents learn that their children are worried about their lack of sleep, which then serves as the impetus for them to reevaluate their daily schedules.
My research developed from focusing on the relationship between parent and child to now investigating the relationship between stress among the prime working-age generation and their sleep. I’d like to contribute to insomnia prevention by collecting physiological indicators, such as blood pressure and temperature, from individuals in their 20s, 30s and 40s while searching for methods to discover stress in its early stages.
In addition, together with researchers from New Zealand, I’m conducting joint research on the lives of prime working-age individuals who also provide nursing care. We’re investigating what kinds of factors affect fatigue and symptoms of depression for individuals that work during the day and can’t get proper sleep at night due to their nursing care responsibilities. While there isn’t a huge difference in influencing factors such as sleep satisfaction and low-intensity exercise habits between Japan and New Zealand, it’s Japan that shows a higher percentage of individuals with symptoms of depression. We’d like to analyze the difference between the two countries while offering methods for responding to stress.
Changing not sleep, but our lives during the day
You also have many opportunities to speak about sleep in the community and at schools, but what in particular are you trying to express at these sleep education talks?
Furutani:
“Don’t just think about sleep, think about your lives during the day.” That’s what I’m trying to get across. In order to get good quality sleep, it’s important for us to have good habits which include using our bodies a lot during the day, using our brains in our relationships with other people, eating right and taking a bath. Simply focusing on sleep alone won’t improve sleep issues.
But there’s no need to aim for perfection. Just adding a little exercise during the day is enough to get you started. You can also try other things, like eating dinner earlier (since it’s not good to eat right before bed), limiting your caffeine intake to the daytime and avoiding hard training and drinking right before bed. It’s just about doing what you can; the more diligent the individual, the higher they tend to set their goals, but the higher the goal, the greater tendency there is for them give up and, as a result, not improve their sleep.
When speaking in communities and at schools, I take this content and combine it with an explanation on the mechanisms of sleep. While you are sleeping, you have periods of REM and non-REM (NREM) sleep. During REM sleep, your body rests and recovers from fatigue while at the same time doing maintenance on your brain to organize your memories. During NREM sleep, your brain gets a chance to rest, while your body receives maintenance while secreting growth hormones. I tell attendees that it’s important for humans to get both kinds of sleep. I explain each topic to the children in a way that’s easy for them to comprehend so that they can understand why we need to sleep.
The importance of sleep education in delivering accurate knowledge
I don’t think the term “sleep education” is very widely known yet.
Furutani:
Originally the term “sleep hygiene” was used. Rather than trying to improve sleep problems with just a medical response, this involves first communicating accurate knowledge based on scientific evidence and the importance of adjusting one’s own lifestyle habits.
In recent years, the use of “sleep tech,” which attempts to solve sleep issues through the use of technology, has become widespread. All kinds of products, from devices to bedding to supplements, are available for purchase to help you sleep. However, I think it’s difficult for consumers to determine whether or not these products are based on scientific evidence. I can’t speak to the actual effects of these products, but I hope you’ll listen to your own intuition if you decide to use them, like stopping when things don’t feel quite right. Communicating that kind of information is another reason why I think sleep education is important.
When I speak at lectures in the community, I get the feeling that there are many people who don’t have a lot of confidence in their sleep. People often ask me about whether their sleep habits are “okay.” It’s difficult to compare your sleep to someone else’s, so people may feel uneasy. You shouldn’t expect perfection in yourself. What you should do is communicate with yourself and control your lifestyle to prevent sleep problems from occurring.
I’m not a physician, so I can’t give advice regarding sleep disorders. I do, however, recommend that you get examined at a medical facility if you’re noticing that excessive sleepiness is getting in the way of your daily life. Recently, more and more medical facilities have opened sleep clinics and there’s even a list of specialists on the website for the Japanese Society of Sleep Research. I’d like to provide that kind of information to as many people as I can.
Sleep is the foundation of well-being
Recently, the concept of “well-being” has been gathering attention. How do you feel about the relationship between well-being and sleep?
Furutani:
Just like eating and moving, sleep is the foundation for living a better life. Without this firm foundation, your social life will stagnate, affecting your ability to achieve well-being. Sleep is also deeply related to the well-being of society as a whole. Sleep problems can even lead to major accidents and human errors. If we all don’t improve our sleep quality, society will have a difficult time functioning.
What kind of research or activities are you planning to carry out on in the future?
Furutani:
I’d like to continue my research on the relationship between stress and sleep. I hope to be able to offer specific proposals to prevent stress-induced insomnia. Since there are also regions in which residents can’t easily access medical care, I’d also like to provide easy to understand information on preventing sleep issues and on how to consult with medical facilities when you’re in need of help.
As for sleep education, starting next year, we have plans to team up with Ibaraki City in Osaka Prefecture for a continuous project in the city’s junior high schools. Currently in the preparation stage, this project arose from a proposal from a public health nurse participating in a meeting of the Japanese Society of Sleep Research. I’d like to use this kind of practical approach to consider what kind of encouragement will lead individuals to change their behavior.
Resume
In 2001, graduated from Notre Dame Seishin University’s Faculty of Human Life Sciences. In 2003, completed the master’s program at Notre Dame Seishin University’s Graduate School of Human Life Sciences. In 2006, completed the doctoral program at Hiroshima International University’s Graduate School of Integrated Human Sciences and received her doctorate in clinical psychology. In 2013, became associate professor at Kobe University’s Graduate School of Human Development and Environment.
