Sleep is one of the most important facets of health. Your recovery is predicated upon it, as are your energy levels, general physical ability, coordination and perceived exertion levels/focus. Despite the well known important impacts that health has sleep has on our health it is often the first thing to get cut from our lives. A study showed that 11% of Americans are sleep deprived on nightly basis. The NIH recommends seven to nine hours of sleep per night for the average adult (Unless you are one of less than 1% of the population that has a genetic mutation which allows them to sleep for 4 and 1/2 hours or less). Anyone who tells you that they feel like a rockstar sleeping less than 6 hours a night is flat out lying to you or themselves. Also rock stars usually don’t sleep that well. They stay up late on sex drugs and rockn’roll.
If you have been sleeping less than 6 hours for a long time you may want to run some tests on yourself to see whether adding more sleep to your life would be beneficial. First, do you wake up before your alarm or is it hard to get up in the morning? If you don’t naturally wake up around the time your alarm clock is set it means that you probably need more sleep. Alternatively you may be getting enough sleep but your genetically encoded circadian rhythms controlled by your suprachiasmatic nucleus are different from the average bulk of society. About 50% of individuals have a circadian rhythm cycle that is synchronized with the nine to five work week. The other 50% are either early risers or night owls. These are typically referred to as chronotypes or and some may claim that there are many as 4 different chronotypes of people. Other signs of chronic sleep deprivation include slurred speech, low energy, confusion, and general malaise
You may think that a lack of sleep results in more time to be productive and work however this theory is only true in the short term. For example studies have shown that students do perform better on tests or workers perform better on projects when they cram and don’t sleep for about a week. However, chronic sleep deprivation does not result in more efficient work. The end results is more time spent working inefficiently. Not only that but generally people are happier and healthier and live longer more productive lives when they are well rested.
Okay so you’re sold on needing more sleep. How do you actually do it?
Go to sleep when you’re tired. It’s the easiest rule in the book but in our technology consuming lives it is often easy to get wrapped up in firing off a few last minute emails, catching up on a Netflix special, or simply scrolling through social media. Although this time may feel productive or relaxing if you are truly tired it is likely better spent getting proper rest. If you feel like you use technology in evenings as a form of decompression you may need to address other aspects of your lifestyle as well. For example having goals for your more off hours may allow you to ignore the temptations of instant media gratification later in the evenings. In addition exercise and some form of mindfulness training may help you reduce stress levels in a more productive manner which will allow you to sleep better and possibly get to bed earlier.
Cut yourself some slack and don’t be alarmed if when you try this the first night you fall asleep well before your typical “bedtime”. Interestingly a study done on individuals who spent time in nature showed that they typically slept up to two hours longer when in a natural setting than in their typical home environments. This may be due to temperature or light cues which typically set the circadian rhythms of individuals and fluctuate more drastically when out living in the woods. You can mimic this change by opening your window in the evenings to elicit a lower body temperature. Taking a cold shower before bed, and ensuring that the lights are dimmed turned off or augmented to eliminate blue light in the evenings. For a fun experiment, try not to use any form of artificial light one evening and see how long you make it before your body tells you it’s time to slumber.
Generalism 