Sleep Is Important for Health
There is a myth that sleep is a time-wasting burden. In reality, sleep is necessary for the maintenance of health and well-being, and for the delivery of more than 50 bodily functions.
Sleep deprivation impairs almost every vital body function, including learning, memory, mental agility, emotional control, metabolism, sex drive, and immunity. It can, and does, cause a whole range of short and long-term adverse health consequences. Chronic sleep deprivation also impairs immunity by decreasing the body’s levels of immunoglobulins, which are necessary for our bodies to mount a response to illness.
Sleep deprivation makes it difficult to exercise. In fact, chronic sleep deprivation makes it more difficult to get out of bed in the morning.
Understand What’s Keeping You up at Night
Whether you’re someone who has many lifestyle factors that directly affect your sleep, or if you’re just working long hours, improving your sleep quality is a goal, not a lifestyle choice.
Eat Right
Losing weight, managing your blood sugar, increasing energy, dealing with depression, anxiety and hypertension all come down to a good diet. Our insides are comprised of mostly glucose and if you don’t keep your blood sugar levels balanced, you will have trouble sleeping at night.
Create a Routine to Prepare for Sleep
Begin waking up 30 minutes earlier than you normally would, and choose sleep time during that time. Don’t forget to get up the next day and do the same thing. Do this for a week, then bump up the time by 30 minutes each week. Your body will adjust to the new time, and before you know it, you’ll be sleeping in instead of sleeping in. The key is consistency. If you wake up and go straight to your alarm, your body will get used to getting up this early without much sleep.
You’ll also realize when you are tired, because you can’t just fall back asleep. Most of the time, the best way to wake up in the morning is to get up and do something for about 20 minutes, then get some exercise. This may take some practice, but the basic idea is to shake yourself awake by doing something different.
Cut out Caffeine
Many popular sleep supplements, specifically designed for energy to last through the day, have some caffeine in them. That can be part of the problem. Caffeine, a stimulant, can cause sleep disruption. A better choice is decaf and other substances that have an energy stimulant or no stimulant.
Avoid Light at Night
Light is a strong time-release activator and promotes wakefulness. Many sleep aids also have light triggers. It may be a good idea to avoid them altogether. Blue light can be especially bad. The FDA has created a special safe zone that regulates night light exposure. Without its rule, many electronic devices have dangerous exposure levels. No one knows for sure whether their exposure to these products and light in general is affecting our sleep.
Limit Your Alcohol
Alcohol is the number one reason cited for chronic sleep loss and one of the leading causes of sleep disorders. In fact, as much as a third of a person’s brain is dedicated to processing what they drink. And research suggests that alcohol can suppress the natural release of melatonin, a sleep-inducing hormone.
Alcoholic drinks also reduce the levels of a hormone called cortisol. A small study published in the medical journal JAMA found that rats given alcohol cravings less than those given water. Cortisol is known to suppress the body’s ability to recharge throughout the day, which can make sleep even more difficult. Not only that, but alcohol also increases heart rate and blood pressure, causing blood vessels in the brain to constrict.
Exercise- It Not Only Helps Your Sleep but Your Whole Day!
In my clinical practice I see countless patients who are tired, drained and feel stressed all the time. What do they do? They sleep more and more and don’t exercise at all. People tell me they need to sleep eight to 10 hours every night to function. I tell them, it’s fine to get six to seven hours of sleep but if you go without exercise, you will not have the energy you need to function. These kinds of comments reveal a common thread in our culture: we equate going to sleep and doing nothing but that is not what sleep is for.
In his book When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi writes about his long struggle with illness. He chose to give up his training in medicine at Stanford to write his doctoral thesis on death and dying.
Work on Managing Stress
If we are not careful, anxiety and stress can take hold and wreak havoc on our sleep. Waking up in the middle of the night or being awakened by bad dreams can leave a person feeling more anxious the next morning. And feelings of anxiety can influence our ability to fall asleep and keep us from resting deeply during the night.
But this is especially true for people with anxiety. According to a study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, people with mild to moderate anxiety levels have more difficulties maintaining sleep than those who are not anxious.
Get Enough Sunlight During the Day
Sleep is often viewed as a necessary byproduct of what we do during the day. But while you’re a busy bee on the factory floor, sun exposure can be vital to healthy sleep. You’ll have heard all about “sustainable energy” — sunlight is a big source of it — and sunlight is also your body’s natural sleep inducer. Studies show that when people with darker skin get exposure to more light during the day, they also sleep more.
Sunlight stimulates your body’s production of melatonin — a sleep-promoting hormone. Your body’s circadian clock tells your body when it’s daytime and when it’s nighttime. The sunlight you’ve been exposed to during the day — even if it’s filtered through trees, glass or some other medium — is likely enough to kickstart the production of melatonin.
Keep Your Room Dark and Cool Before Bedtime
Lying in bed is not a time for sloth. Remembering how our bodies need to cool down, we try to go to sleep in the dark and cool the room down before bed. While it’s no magic cure-all, keeping the room a safe and comfortable temperature helps. With a cool bedroom, we’ll sleep more deeply and will have a more restful night’s sleep.
Make it easy to get out of bed in the morning
Some nights the bed is so comfortable and a full eight hours just won’t do. If you can get up easily and move around to keep your muscles and joints from stiffening up before you go to work, you’ll have an easier morning. If you can wake up without any physical or mental effort, you’ll have a much more productive day.
Even if you live with other people, make the bedroom your own. Keep it a place of rest.
Use Your Bed for Sleep, Not Work or Watching TV
The National Sleep Foundation’s guidelines say we should get at least seven hours of sleep per night. And that’s even for adults who work at least 39.5 hours per week. “Aim for seven hours of sleep each night; for most people, this amount is enough to promote health and happiness,” says Eugene Trickel MD, PhD, author of How to Get Healthy Without Going Broke: A Simple System for Cutting Out the Profiteers in Health, Medicine and Science. “But no more and no less,” he warns. “Bed should be your place of sleep, not work.”
