Protecting Your Sleep
The vitality of sleep and what you need to have good sleep habits.
What Happens When We Sleep?
When you get a fresh shower, brush your teeth, put on your pajama’s and go to sleep, what happens? We close our eyes and suddenly seem to wake up 6-8 hours later and just start our day, missing the magic of what happens in between morning and night. This question seems to rarely get asked, yet it is one of the few things in life that every human on Earth does from when they were born until their eventual departure from this World. So, what does happen when we fall asleep tonite?
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker (much of this article’s thoughts stem from reading this book), the Sleep Foundation, and Andrew Huberman are a few of the leading resources for the science behind sleep, revealing the negative effects from poor sleep and the numerous benefits of honing in good sleep habits. Our bodies live from the quality of sleep we get, so our attempts to limit our sleep to maximize our amount of time awake. Whether it’s drinking a caffeinated drink late at night or hopping into bed way past your bedtime, this along with a slew of other variables have positive and negative affects on our sleep. Caffeination or getting into bed late infringe on our sleep because they meddle with our bodies circadian rhythm. Circadian rhythm is our bodies natural system to wake us up and make us wind down for the night, this is powered by a hormone called adenosine.
Adenosine is a hormone that builds up throughout the day that makes us progressively sleepier, when we fight this is where problems arise. Caffeine delays the effects of high amounts of adenosine in our system, though, it does not reduce the amount of adenosine, it makes our bodies system ignorant to the amount of adenosine it currently has. This is why the crash from caffeine on long road trips or pulling an all nighter to study for a final exam is so drastic, your bodies system goes from functioning as if it has no adenosine to being flooded with adenosine. The only way to flush our body of adenosine is from a good nights sleep, this is why doctors recommend 8 hours as the standard for sleep. This gives your body the ideal amount of time to dispose of the adenosine in the body, then, with a natural spike of cortisol our body provides for us to wake up, the process starts again.
The Negative Effects of Poor Sleep.
When we ignore our brains signal to go to sleep, the consequences are numerous. Symptoms of sleep deprivation are: increase in the hunger hormone ghrelin, lower amounts of the appetite control hormone leptin, drowsiness, high blood pressure, more likely to experience depression, anxiety, brain fog, 50% more likely to suffer from heart disease, and much more! Your sleep is important for you brain and body to properly function, hence, ignoring our brains signals to sleep and fighting off sleep signals our brain sends to the body results in our body’s entire system getting out of wack. The results of a late night caffeine hit or alcoholic beverage affect our sleep drastically, instead of getting the proper REM (Rapid Eye Movement) cycles needed in order to recover.
These REM cycles are one of four stages of our sleep; in REM sleep, our brain is the most active, this stage is where we dream, our eyes move rapidly, and our body enters the highest amount of recovery we receive out of the four sleep cycles. When your body has an excess of So what can we do to prevent this from happening or get out of a sleep deprived rut? What can you do to maximize the amount of REM we get nightly?
Sleep Habits that Promote Good Sleep.
Here are 3 ways you can get better sleep starting TODAY.
Morning Sunlight
Sunlight after we wake up helps regulate our circadian rhythm, so 10 minuets on a clear day or 20 minuets on a cloudy day ultimately helps when you are getting into bed that night! When I say get sunlight in your eyes, I DO NOT mean to stare at the sun, this would destroy your eyes. Simply sitting outside while eating breakfast or drinking water outside goes a long way. This helps signal our body to wake up with sunlight and begin to wind down as the sun goes down.
No Bright Lights/Screens
Having bright lights on at any time signals the brain to be awake as it is simulating the sun being out, while this is beneficial information on how to wake up, this is not something you want to exercise while you are getting ready for bed. Having low brightness on any screens you use and very dim lights around the house promotes the bodies natural relaxation associated with it being dark during the night.
Last Meal 2 Hours Before Bed
When we eat close to our bed time, you may find yourself tossing and turning for a while! This is because your body is digesting while you are attempting to sleep, bloated and full tummies is a recipe for bad sleep. From the sleep experts mentioned in the beginning of this essay recommend at least having a 2 hour window between your last meal and when you plan to go to sleep in order to have digested the meal so as to not disrupt your sleep!
These 3 ways are great habits to implement into your nightly routine to achieve higher quality sleep! Of course there are more ways to get better sleep but these are the three most elementary habits to implement if you want better sleep!