Business and personal change expert Dr David Cliff explores the value of sleep and some things to improve it.
Many are ‘guilted’ by the can-do success stories of driven, early risers existing on a handful of hours sleep. The reality is whatever the hyperbole, research is fairly unequivocal: human beings evolved to need around eight hours sleep a day.
Modern life creates pressures that encourage neglect of the sleep cycle. Reclaiming our sleep, is a vital step towards our enjoyment of life, productivity and mental health. We neglect it at our peril. Here are a few thoughts on how to improve the situation.
Prioritise sleep.
Avoid fitting it in around other things in your day and neglecting it when needed. Sure, crying babies and similar have their implicit priorities but we often cut into sleep to ensure we have other experiences that are optional extras in life. Our ‘fear of missing out’ often costs sleep.
Avoid caffeine and alcohol. ‘Old chestnut” advice sure, but it’s importance cannot be overstated. We should approach sleep in terms of what takes us away from it and what takes us towards it. Caffeine definitely is in the wrong direction of travel! Alcohol messes with blood sugar levels and often makes people eat, messing with them again. Alcohol also suppresses dreams and REM sleep. It also dehydrates the body creating a wake-up call in the night to rehydrate.
Habits and rituals. Just as children get off to bed more successfully with sleep rituals and processes, so do we. We are creatures of association and doing things that are associated with winding down is important.
Diurnal rhythms. Like it or not, we selfsynchronise much more to sunrise and sunset than to a timepiece or diary. The brain chemistry that sets you off to sleep, peaks around about 9.30pm which means if you delay settling for too long, you miss the ‘sleep boat’. People in traditional societies appear to go to bed earlier and rise earlier than people in developed countries. This reflects a natural survival strategy. In our primitive past we could neither gather food in the dark nor avoid predators- sleeping through the hours of darkness and waking shortly after dawn makes sense. Ironically, those societies sleep better. Up to 30% of people in developed countries have difficulty with sleep whilst less than 3% less developed parts of the world do.
Temperature. Being too warm inhibits sleep. You are more likely to go to sleep in a cool room ideally, on or a little above 17°C is optimal. Keep hands and feet warm however as temperature drop at the extremities will encourage us to stay awake, it’s a survival mechanism to avoid frostbite!
Light quality. Just as sunrise and sunset are important to us, sleeping in darkness matters. There is now so much light pollution, without the room being appropriately dark, we do not sleep. Light gives subtle signals to the brain as to the time of day. Consequently, if we expose ourselves to sources of artificial light, particularly the blue white lights that so many LED streetlights give off, we are giving the wrong signal to our brains as to what time it is. We can compound this, with the use of phones, tablets, televisions and other light sources.
Value sleep. Many mental health problems involve people being depressed, fragmented and in unproductive states. We all know the effect that just a single poor night’s sleep can have on our mood and abilities.
Address snoring. It is said that snoring is a listener’s problem, oh no it’s not, with so many people having serious health challenges as a result of sleep apnoea and similar. Intelligent exercise. It is usually hard to get to sleep having just been to the gym. Equally, if your blood sugar’s through the roof with lack of physical activity through your day, sleep will not come easily either. We all need at least a modest amount of exercise through our day to ensure we don’t retire ‘pumped’ or with nowhere to expend energies other than thrashing about.
Avoid problematising sleep. Too many nights are lost to people beating themselves up because they can’t sleep, do something else until you feel tired and don’t fret about it. Detach from outside stimuli. Resolve not to answer the phones, emails, texts, and social media from early/mid evening at the very latest. Anything unsaid can be said tomorrow, probably benefiting from both a cool off and the subconscious processing that happens in sleep anyway that often makes things look better in the morning. Despite publications aplenty on sleep, it remains a problem for many. Yet a few simple adjustments can make a huge difference. Seriously consider the value of sleep in your life and do something to invest in it. Pleasant dreams!
