Sleep is something that I am VERY passionate about. For those that know me well, I think they would concur that I could win a gold medal for sleep at the Olympics. I am not sure if I am needing more as I get older, or if I am noticing the vast positive effects on my daily functioning in multiple domains in my life, following a beautiful nights rest. Thus, getting ample sleep each night is right up there in my life’s top priorities.
For me, having approximately 8 hours sleep per night is optimal, and I have got myself into a habit and routine of getting to sleep most nights by 10.30pm, then my natural circadian rhythms wake me up between 6.00am and 6.30am. I know however, I am perhaps an anomaly in the general population in this regard. As a whole, we are a society who are more sleep deprived than ever.
When you are tired, life is more difficult. It affects our food choices, whether you have the energy to exercise, whether you are productive at work, if you have energy to give friends, family, partners, and the way you speak to people.
Studies show that even a single night of sleep deprivation results in self-reported decline in mood, increased irritability, emotional volatility, and self-esteem (Tempesta et al., 2010).
Sleep hygiene is a foreign concept to most. It refers to your behaviours and environment surrounding sleep. When you have poor sleep hygiene, this can lead to a lack of quality sleep, which has numerous negative consequences on your health, wellbeing and ability to function optimally in your day-to-day life.
Lack of quality sleep can impact on your mood considerably, lower your pain threshold, increase your blood pressure, interfere with memory, harm your immune system, elevate your chances of getting sick, impact on concentration, increase impulsive behaviours, and can cause weight gain.
"Without sleep, nearly every aspect of life becomes more effortful and less emotionally fulfilling. When sleep deprived, most of us feel sleepy and physically drained, our mood is flattened, and our thinking feels sluggish and unfocused" (Killgore, 2010).
In a society where a large number of us are sleep deprived, a large amount of us will not even notice the negative effects of poor sleep because it is rare that we get enough quality sleep. Thus, we get used to feeling that way all of the time.
Considering how I can support people in improving their sleep hygiene, I have compiled a list of suggestions to help improve your sleep hygiene thus hopefully supporting you to not only get more z’s each night, but z’s of higher quality!
As a forewarning, I don’t predict you will be overly enthusiastic about the majority of these suggestions! However, my aim is to educate people so even if you don’t follow them, you can at least be aware of the choices that you are making, and how they may be impacting on you and your overall health and wellbeing.
Trying to go to sleep and wake up at the same time every night. The reasoning behind this is that your brain releases a hormone melatonin approximately 30 minutes before it thinks you may be wanting to nod off. Unfortunately, we are not able to tell our minds when to switch off and sleep. Thus, we need to train our bodies and the way we do this is through repetition. I know this is not wholly realistic, particularly in the weekends, but something to be mindful of! Our bodies love, love, love repetition. In summary of my first point, it’s ok to vary in the time you go to sleep and wake up slightly (including staying up late occasionally), but there should be a somewhat clear time that you consider your ‘bedtime’.
Avoiding bright lights approximately one-two hours before your ‘bedtime’ (including those from technology). Melatonin that prepares you for a beautiful nights sleep full of repair and restoration is inhibited by bright light. The melatonin cycle is part of a hormonal package called our circadian rhythms. These rhythms are synchronized by bright lights during the day so it is equally important to expose yourself to sun and daylight during the day (try and get out in the morning and expose yourself to some natural rays). Exposure to artificial light and blue light in the evening delays the secretion of melatonin. The body starts this melatonin secretion around 8.30/9.00pm and you will therefore miss that boat and the wave and urge for sleep may pass you by!
Why most scientific evidence suggests 7-8 hours per sleep is optimal each night. Your brain needs to cycle through various stages of sleep (Stages 1 to 4 and then REM sleep). Each cycle takes approximately 90 minutes, so in about 8 hours you get the appropriate number of cycles. If you wake up in the middle of a cycle, you may not feel as rested. Your brain needs to know how much time it has to get everything done that it needs to! It can adjust a little, but most people need about 8 hours per night.
Ensure your bedroom is a space / haven that you associate with rest. In this way, your brain associates your bed only with sleep, and it will induce sleepiness. This includes making your environment comfortable (including your bed, bedding and pillows), blocking out any light, and making sure the temperature is cool and comfortable - ideally 18.5 degrees.
Create a routine for preparing for sleep. And do it every night. This helps you to separate yourself from the ‘hecticness’ of your busy life and your brain for sleep. If you’re running around taking care of everything all day, and then just plop into bed, your brain still needs to wind down, and you may have difficulty falling asleep. As a bedtime routine you may have a shower, brush your teeth, wash your face, have a cup of herbal tea, and then read a book to prepare yourself to nod off.
Have a ‘worry notebook’ by your bed. A big reason why a lot of my clients report not being able to sleep at night time is that the tend to worry and ruminate. I always say, “that’s totally understandable - at night it’s just you and your thoughts”. If you’re finding that you are worrying or trying to remember all of the things that you can’t forget to do tomorrow, write them down. Your prefrontal cortex is responsible for keeping all these things in your working memory, and worrying about them is naturally stressful! This stress can potentially inhibit sleep.
If you can’t sleep, you can’t sleep. Worrying about not sleeping can lead to actually not sleeping (much like a lot of our anxiety comes from getting anxious about getting anxious)! Don’t get upset and begin to stress and worry yourself! Pick a comfortable spot and lay there. A breathing / cognitive load exercise I like to teach my clients is called the 9-0 technique. Breathing in and counting to 9, breathing out and counting to 9. Breathing in and count 8, breathing out and count 8 (until you get to 0). Try to make your ‘out’ breath longer than your ‘in’ breath. When your exhale is even a few counts longer than your inhale, the vagus nerve (running from the neck down through the diaphragm) sends a signal to your brain to turn up your parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest), and turn down your sympathetic nervous system (fight / flight).
Avoiding caffeine. I probably don’t need to tell you that caffeine can seriously impact on your ability to feel snoozy and fall asleep. It can take from 6-8 hours for the stimulant effects of caffeine to be reduced by one half.
Alcohol is not an advisable sleep aid. While you may notice you pass out pretty quickly after several beverages, your sleep is not as restful as it could be. It can interrupt your circadian rhythm, it blocks REM sleep (the most restorative sleep), it can aggravate breathing problems, and leads to extra bathroom trips (interrupting your sleep).
Your sleep
How many hours a night (on average) do you sleep for?
How many hours a night would you like to sleep for?
What can you do right now to improve you sleep hygiene?
