Sleep: Why catching some 'Zzzzz" is important
Sleep is important, and for most people the QUALITY and QUANTITY of sleep being achieved is inadequate…
If you sleep 5 hours a night your risk of injury is 60% higher compared to those who sleep 8-9 hours. For those playing at home, that’s a massive number, and something we should pay attention to. Whilst we all need different amounts of sleep (person dependant, age dependant, situation dependant, etc.), there are some hard and fast rules of how much sleep we should get.
A recent study showed that the percentage of people who can survive on 6 hours or less per night without showing physical and cognitive impairment was 0%…
Now, before we stress you out for no reason, it is normal to wake 1-2 times during the night (it’s an instinct from our cavemen days) but we should fall back to sleep without too much trouble. If you are waking more than this or finding it hard to get back to sleep, then it may be worthwhile looking at a few strategies to improve sleeping patterns.
Note the above word – patterns. Our body works on cycles and patterns, which are altered based on the daily actions and habits we create. If you want to improve your sleep patterns, make specific and consistent changes to your actions and habits
TOP TIPS FOR SLEEP HYGIENE STRATEGIES:
1. No Screens 1-2 hours before bed. Try swapping TV for a book...
2. Set your iPhone to engage ‘night mode’ 2 hours before bedtime e.g. 8pm. This turns off the blue light. Blue light affects melatonin levels in our bodies, which prevents sleep from naturally occurring.
3. Get sunlight throughout the day. At least 15 minutes worth. Again, this affects melatonin levels but in a positive manner.
4. Move through out the day.
5. Complete parasympathetic breathing, meditation, gratefulness, or journaling (see earlier post on benefits of parasympathetic breathing on stress hormones).
6. Set up a dark room at 19-21 degrees for optimal sleep patterns.
7. Remove distractions in bed such as TV. The goal is to teach your body that when you go to bed you fall asleep.
8. Not falling asleep? Avoid lying there for more than 15 minutes, get up and go read until you feel tired before returning to bed to try again.
9a. Fall asleep and wake up at consistent times where possible i.e. 10pm bed time for 6am wake. Don’t differ more than an hour on weekends where possible...
9b. Quality trumps quantity - If you are not sleeping well, try making your bedtime later and waking earlier. Slowly stretch out the quantity once the quality is there.
Good luck counting sheep tonight!