Why Sleep Should Be Your #1
Photo by Sidhra Ibrahim on Unsplash
Do you ever feel like it’s all too much? Every Thursday, I share one action, habit, or project you may want to undertake in order to improve your health, happiness, and sense of well-being.
PROJECT OF THE WEEK
Why Sleep Should Be Your #1
When I meet with clients, both individuals, and students, our work is focused on them achieving their project and academic goals, as well as creating more time for what matters.
We always start off our session by reviewing the last week, how it went, and why it was successful or challenging. There are more reasons than I could list here for why clients feel like they were successful; however, when we are reviewing a week where they felt they did not reach their goals, the most common reason stated revolves around poor sleep.
We live in a culture that glorifies burning the midnight oil, pushing through no matter what, and the mentality, "I'll sleep when I'm dead."
How ironic that not getting the recommended 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night, will likely lead to an earlier death.
“If you can't measure it, you can't improve it.”
- Peter Drucker
Getting Started
Matthew Walker, author of Why We Sleep, teaches readers about the importance of sleep, the consequences of not getting enough sleep, and how one can improve their sleep.
Below are some valuable takeaways:
The shorter your sleep, the shorter your life span.
Asking your teenager to go to bed and fall asleep at 10 PM is the circadian equivalent of asking you, their parent, to go to sleep at 7 or 8 PM.
Quality sleep becomes more difficult as we age, but it’s still as important.
The brain can never recover all the sleep it has been deprived of. We cannot accumulate sleep debt throughout the week and catch up on the weekends.
Caffeine blocks the sleepiness signal normally communicated to the brain by adenosine.
Alcohol fragments sleep, therefore sleep is not continuous and not restorative.
Learning Impact:
Sleep is beneficial to learning. It frees up space for new memories and helps us remember new information.
Sleep is like clicking the “save” button. It protects newly acquired information against forgetting.
Sleep salvages memories that appeared to have been lost soon after learning.
Students who stay up late cramming for tests experience a 40% deficit in their ability to make new memories relative to those that get a full nights sleep.
Increasing sleep by way of delayed school start times increases class attendance, reduces behavioral and psychological problems, and decreases substance and alcohol use.
It’s estimated that more than 50% of all children with an ADHD diagnosis actually have a sleep disorder.
Health Impact:
Getting enough quality sleep is even more important to our physical and mental health than diet and exercise.
The less you sleep, the more you are likely to eat.
Insufficient sleep is linked to obesity.
Chronic sleep deprivation is one of the major contributors to Type 2 Diabetes.
Short sleep causes the body to deplete muscle mass and retain fat.
Adults 45+ who sleep <6 hours per night are 200% more likely to have a heart attack or stroke compared to those who sleep 7-8 hours.
Your immune response suffers after a single night of reduced sleep.
Safety Impact:
Vehicle accidents caused by drowsy driving exceed those caused by alcohol and drugs combined.
After being awake for nineteen hours, people who were sleep-deprived were as cognitively impaired as those who were legally drunk.
If sleep is so important, why don't we prioritize it more as a society?
I think the culture around sleep is starting to change, but there is still a long way to go.
Below are just a few of the successful individuals who prioritize sleep and are not afraid to talk about it.
Arianna Huffington
Jeff Bezos
Howard Stern
Roger Federer
Tom Brady
Prioritizing sleep is hard and can feel like a losing battle, but I would argue it's worth the effort. You got this!
Understanding your sleep cycles.
I have been using the Oura ring for about three years and have found a lot of value in being able to accurately track my sleep.
It has helped me understand the impact eating within 4-6 hours of sleep has on my quality of sleep, understand better why I may feel tired even though I got the minimum 7 hours of sleep (I usually didn't get enough deep sleep), and motivates me to continuously focus on prioritizing sleep.
Magnesium is also shown to support better sleep. I have personally found the supplement Magnesi-Om helpful. Note: always talk to your doctor before starting a new supplement.
Happy Spaces Tips & Tricks
What if you have trouble sleeping?
Prioritize a healthy morning routine, evening routine, and exercise.
Establish a regular bedtime and wake-up time, even on weekends.
Shortly after waking, go outside and get 2-10 minutes of early-morning sun exposure.
Have caffeine about an hour and a half after waking and then cut it off for the remainder of the day.
Keep in mind that decaffeinated beverages still have caffeine.
Avoid daytime napping.
Try to exercise for 30 minutes a day, but not within 2-3 hours of bedtime.
Evening blue LED light has twice the harmful impact on nighttime melatonin suppression than warm, yellow light from old incandescent bulbs.
Don't look at any screens an hour before bed.
Go to bed only when sleepy and avoid sleeping on the couch in the early/mid-evenings.
Maintain complete darkness throughout the night.
Never lie awake in bed for a significant period of time. If you wake up and can't fall back to sleep, get out of bed and read until you start to feel sleepy.
Don't let your anxiety go unchecked.
Reduce anxiety-provoking thoughts and worries.
Meditate each morning.
Take 10 minutes before bed to write down all your swirling thoughts.
Don't start any stressful task or have any stressful conversations within two hours of bed.
Turn off your work at least an hour before bed.
Remove visible clock faces from view in the bedroom.
The quality of sleeping pill induced sleep is poor. You may want to try Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia first.
Additional Resources
I highly recommend the book "Why We Sleep" by Matthew Walker. If you are a "Questioner" like me, this book will answer your why.
Not familiar with Gretchen Rubin's 4 Tendencies, click here to take the quiz and learn more.
Feeling Overwhelmed?
We understand how challenging and scary it can be to start something new. If you feel excited about implementing this strategy, but worry that it’s just too much to start on your own, the It’s All in the Planning Started Pak was designed for you!
A Note from Happy Spaces
The goal is to add value to your life. If you think this project will add value:
Estimate how long you think it will take. I would recommend doubling the time you estimate.
Look at your calendar over the next week and pick a date and time to get started.
Make an appointment on your calendar for the estimated time.
If you estimate that completing this project will take longer than one hour, I recommend doing it over multiple days. This will support you in getting started!
Prior to starting this project, take a few minutes to make a step-by-step list of EVERY action you need to take to complete this project.
It's not all or nothing. You can choose to implement only the parts of this project that add value to your life.
An Accountability Partner can be a great support in following through on your goals and commitments.
We understand how challenging it can be to implement new habits and systems. For additional support please go to HappySpacesBySarah.com.
Creating a life you don't need a vacation from! ®
Sincerely,
Sarah Weingarten
Meet Sarah
Growing up as the oldest of nine siblings in Upstate New York, I learned to use organization to create sanity among the chaos. Today, I work together with individuals, families, and small businesses to create habits, systems, and spaces that support their needs, goals, and dreams. Clients often refer to our work together as "life-changing" and "better than decades of therapy". What I love most about my work is the lasting impact it has on real people's lives. Nothing makes me happier than hearing the many success stories of clients I have worked with.