Stress busters #3: 😴 Sleep 💤

OK, in fairness, this is my weakest category. 🙀

I used to be a reasonably good sleeper. But as you get older, that somewhat goes away. But it doesn’t have to.

I read the book called, ‘Why We Sleep' by Matthew Walker.  I highly recommend the book because it’s genuinely fascinating. It’s written by a professor of neuroscience and science that studies sleep. In his studies, he discovered how animals sleep and also how humans sleep. There are tons of great data in this book, which is right up the alley for an accountant or bookkeeper.

Have you ever heard of REM sleep?  Did you know that there are different phases of REM?  There are three stages of REM sleep.  The first is when we close our eyes, we initially fall asleep but we can easily be awakened.  The second stage is when your heart rate slows, the body temperature drops and your body is readying itself for deep sleep. But it is during the NREM sleep when the body is doing the most.  It is when the body repairs and regrows tissues, bones, and muscle and it strengthens the immune system.  The most exciting part of this is that the sleep we get right before we wake up in the morning is critical in our memory and remembering things— NREM sleep.

One of the studies they did was having their volunteers stay awake for 24 hours and then measuring their sleep afterward. We sleep in cycles. They were trying to determine what cycle would kick in after sleep withdrawal. It wasn’t that enriching sleep; however, it was the sleep that we have a deep sleep.

They also studied people to see if a nap resulted in people having a better recollection of things. Some participants in the sleep study tried to memorize some content in preparation for a test, and then they had them take a test. Some who studied took a mini nap after studying were better at remembering things after the nap than those who did not.

Here Are My Takeaways:

1. Alcohol, even one drink, can destroy a sleep pattern.
2. Everybody needs between seven and eight hours of sleep a day.
3. Many people are early birds, and many are not and science has proven that it is a built-in genetic trait. Some people thrive better waking up late and staying up very late. It doesn’t make it right or wrong it’s just how we are hard-wired. He called this your sleep chronotype.  That is generally classified as the early bird and the night-owl.
4. You can’t make up missing sleep. As much as I’d like to tell you that you can according to this data, you cannot.
5. Lack of sleep alters your DNA 
6. The author, Matthew Walker, stated sleep is a pillar of good health along with exercising and eating healthy. After this study, he changed his tune and decided that sleep is the ultimate pillar to good health.

Tips for Improving Sleep

There is no magic pill, but there are steps you can take to get better sleep:

• Technology and LED devices disrupt sleep.   Remove any device that emits blue light from the bedroom
• Get a sleep tracking device that will analyze your sleep (think Oura ring)- seeing the health data is statistics will keep you on the right path
• Lower the temperature in the bedroom (this can deepen NREM sleep)
• Do the math! Know your rise time to adjust you go to bedtime to get the 8 hours of sleep
• Better sleep and more sleep is found to have significant benefits for which you get more done in the time of your day because you’re more focused
• Better sleep can equal better eating habits and a better healthy lifestyle.
• Stick to a sleep schedule 
• Set the alarm for bedtime, not your rise time 
• Exercise early
• Avoid caffeine in the afternoon 
• Avoid alcohol before bed as it robs you of REM sleep
• Avoid large meals at night
• Avoid any medication in the evening that disrupts sleep
• No naps after 3 pm
• Relax before bed-- unwind
• Take a hot bath before bed
• Dark, cool, gadget-free bedroom 
• Have the proper sunlight exposure 
• Don’t lie in bed awake - get up and do a relaxing activity. 

Maybe start with a sleep tracking device and a sleep diary. Don’t try to manipulate the sleep other than adding a few of the tips above, and write about how you feel at the end of the day before you go to bed to start to see the patterns. For six hours of sleep, were you grumpy? With eight hours of sleep, did you get more done? It’s a way to study sleep on ourselves as our guinea pigs.

I hope you enjoyed this series of articles on stress-busting. And I genuinely hope that you start to integrate some of these suggestions into your day. I’d love to hear if you have and if adding yoga, meditation, sleep, or all of the above has helped you in your daily life.