Are you feeling run-down, irritable or struggling to focus?
You may want to investigate your sleep patterns.
There are so many pillars of health ranging from nutrition to stress, but sleep is the one that usually gets overlooked. In today’s fast-paced world where working long hours is looked upon as an achievement, so many of us forgo quality sleep and overextend ourselves.
What’s lacking is the awareness about the role of sleep in our health. Most of us forget that sleep deprivation can lead to weight gain, anxiety, a decline in cognitive function, and an increase in overall inflammation and chronic diseases.
If you’re still reading because you’ve been struggling with sleep, remember that you are not alone. Around 70 million people in the US are dealing with insomnia, 23 million have obstructive sleep apnea, and 64% Americans have at least one symptom related to a sleep disorder at least one night a week.
The good news is that we have the power to improve our sleep and benefit from the amazing magic that will follow.
Maintaining adequate amounts of quality sleep is essential to optimal health and well-being. But what does adequate sleep mean? The number of hours vary, depending on the individual and age group. Here is the breakdown of how much sleep is needed for each age group:
- 18+: 7-9 hours
- 11-17: 5-9.5 hours
- 6-10: 10-11 hours
- 3-5: 11-13 hours
- 1-2: 12-14 hours
- 2-11 months: 14-15 hours
- 0-2 months: 12-18 hours
But getting good sleep is more than just the number of hours we get per night. We get most of our deep sleep in the first third of the night and most of our dream sleep in the latter part of the night. Quality of sleep and dreaming are driven by melatonin and changes in core body temperature. When we sleep, our bodies do the same thing as nature – temperature drops until dawn, and it comes back up. But because we’re overconsuming everything from information, to food and energy, we are living an overheated lifestyle. Then, come nighttime, we can’t chill enough. Melatonin is negatively affected, and we lose sleep. Not surprisingly, people who don’t sleep well have an elevated body temperature and insomnia is strongly associated with chronic hyperarousal.
Dreaming is as critical as sleeping. Dreaming helps consolidate memory and provides emotional healing by digesting and assimilating information. Dream sleep, also called REM sleep, can be seriously repressed by middle-of-the night sleep loss, early-morning awakening, alcohol, sleeping pills and antidepressants. A deficit in dream sleep can also lead to memory loss, Alzheimer’s, and dementia. In addition, dream deprivation leads to a rebound and can cause mood disorders, depression and hunger the next day.
Short sleep duration also disrupts glucose metabolism. In fact, there is a two-way street between sleep and nutrition. What we eat and when we eat directly affect our sleep (see below for details). On the other hand, poor sleep impacts nutrition, messing up with our satiety and hunger hormones (leptin and ghrelin, respectively) and makes us hungrier the next day, especially when we lose dream sleep. We also, tend to mistake sleep for hunger as we seek food as fuel. All moms out there, this will be no surprise to you – women are twice as likely to eat in response to sleepiness.
When we do have adequate quality sleep:
- Internal organs rest and recover.
- Hormones that help regulate appetite control, stress, growth, metabolism, and other functions are released.
- Memory consolidation occurs, which is essential for learning new information.
Evidently, there is a direct connection between sleep and our health, and getting enough sleep improves the quality of our lives. We:
- Increase our energy levels and make beneficial lifestyle choices such as cooking, exercise, and self-care.
- Strengthen our immune system.
- Heighten our alertness, focus, and creativity.
- Improve our mood, and reduce anxiety, irritability, and mental exhaustion.
On the other hand, sleep deprivation causes many unwanted effects:
- A decline in cognitive function: When we don’t get enough sleep, there are changes that happen in our brains activity leading to poor mental performance, a negative effect on overall mood and ability to focus, and impaired decision making which may lead to poor choices.
- Weight gain: People who don’t get adequate sleep are more likely to gain weight over time because lack of sleep changes the behavior around food and causes an imbalance in the hormones regulating metabolism and hunger. If you can’t lose those last few pounds, you may be just needing more sleep!
- Increased risk of chronic disease: When we’re sleep deprived, our body is more susceptible to stress. We’re more open to catching that latest virus since our immune system doesn’t function optimally. In addition, inflammatory proteins and blood sugar levels rise and the risk of chronic diseases such as hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease goes up.
- Increased risk of accidents and injuries: When we’re exhausted physically and mentally, there is an increased risk of accidents, injuries, and a higher error rate. We can find ourselves closing a drawer on our finger, stubbing our toe, or getting into an accident.
- Increased anxiety: It is harder to keep the emotions in check without sufficient rest. Being more irritable, anxious, sad, and angry is common. We may even find that we are more vulnerable to unprovoked bouts of laughter or tears.
Here are some tips to ease our body into a good night of sleep:
With your nutrition:
- Limit sugar, caffeine, and alcohol intake. Alcohol can help people fall asleep, but it tends to throw off circadian rhythms and it starts to disrupt sleep in the first REM cycle at night. Caffeine can interfere with sleep but it is bio individual, some people’s sleep can be affected by a cup of coffee in the morning, and some others can be unaffected by a cup in the afternoon. But it could be that your sleep load, your sleepiness which is higher in the beginning of the night and starts to drop through the night will reveal an underlying source of stimulation from the caffeine. Sugar can disrupt sleep because insulin can influence circadian rhythms.
- Eat a variety of foods to make sure your body gets sufficient nutrients.
- Experiment with light evening meals as digestion requires energy.
- Avoid late night beverages so you won’t have to wake up to use the bathroom.
With your environment:
- Clean out the clutter in your bedroom – a cluttered space is a cluttered mind.
- Stay away from the artificial blue light of electronics an hour before your bedtime, so that your melatonin production won’t be negatively affected.
- Reduce exposure to light and sound – you can get thick curtains/an eye mask or earplugs/noise canceling headphones.
With your daily rhythms:
- Create a bedtime routine. Going to bed and waking up at a similar time each day can help the body get into a healthy rhythm (it’s not just our kids who need a bedtime routine).
- Experiment with restorative evening activities such as meditation, yoga, reading or journaling.
- Track your sleep. Sleep trackers are wearable devices that typically monitor heart rate, breathing patterns, and movement while you sleep.
- Reduce “busy brain” by keeping a paper and pen near your bed. If you think of something, jot it down, knowing that it won’t be forgotten and can be considered in the morning.
The missing link to your healthy lifestyle may just be a good night’s sleep.
Now that you know how much sleep you need and why it’s essential to well-being, how can you prepare your body to get into that deep, restful state?
PS: If you’re a mom with young children and your sleep is continuously interrupted, you can shorten the time you spend cooking and take a good nap instead. To make more time for yourself, check my recipes for 5 quick and healthy meals at https://melisdoglu.com/mealplan-signup/ and don’t forget to share a photo & tag me on Instagram @melisdoglucoaching
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