14 - Sleep & The Importance Of Getting A Good Night Sleep
In a previous blog post, I talked about the importance of sleep. I believe sleep is the #1 self-care activity you can do for your brain. I think it’s so important that I wanted to make an entire post just about sleep and how you can work towards improving it. Let’s start with a fun fact! An average human sleeps about ⅓ of their lifetime. This is roughly calculated to be 227,760 hours of sleep. As we sleep our body works to consolidate memories, repair our body, fight off infection, and so much. Most importantly we want to get into REM sleep. This is a stage of sleep where our eye movement goes into rapid back-and-forth movement. This stage is when we dream and as mentioned earlier consolidate memories and process emotions/events.
If you feel like your sleep can be improved upon continue to read and I will list out the basics to get good sleep and adjustments you can make to really dial it in!
Temperature Of Your Sleep Environment
Research shows that the optimal temperature to sleep in is 65 degrees Fahrenheit. What the research has found is that this cooler temp helps lower your body temp, thus triggers your brain to start feeling sleepy when you are under your cozy covers. Some people like to sleep with a light top sheet, whereas others like to sleep all bundled up with just their face feeling the cool air. Find what works best for you!
On cooler days try the Scandinavian practice of lüften. To “lüften” mean to simply open your windows in the evening or about 1 hour prior to bedtime to cool down the room. Go about your evening routine and once it’s time to go to bed close the window. This should help cool down your sleeping space and make it more comfortable. Plus this is helpful if you don’t have AC or trying to save some money!
Noise And The Use Of White Noise
Next, let’s talk about sounds and distracting noise. Some people can sleep through the sounds of a nightclub going on below them, whereas others can not fall asleep or stay asleep with a slight amount of noise. Here I would like for you to assess what camp you are in. Are you a light sleeper or can sleep through anything? If you are someone who is easily woken up or struggles to fall asleep then you might want to try a white noise or sound maker of some sort. Some people like to use fans as a white noise (plus a way to keep their room cool). Another option is to use a sound maker. If you want something on the cheaper side there are a whole host of options online for about $20. If you are interested in investing in your sleep then I would like to suggest the Hatch Restore 2. This device is a sound machine, bedside light, and alarm clock. When you purchase the Hatch Plus subscription (similar to Clam or Headspace) you get access to a library of soundscapes, plus bedtime stories and so much more. I have been using this for a month now and I would say it’s worth the price if you use it on a daily basis. I personally like the sunrise alarm function!
Lighting Before Bed and Darkness While Sleeping
There are two things we need to talk about when it comes to lighting. Your lighting before bedtime and how much light is in your sleeping space. Let’s start with the easier one. It is best to have your room dark while you sleep. I am talking like wicked dark. This can be achieved by using blackout curtains and removing or taping over devices with lights on them. Just making your room darker will help you fall asleep and stay asleep.
Second, your environmental lighting prior to going to bed. As we all know, reducing our blue light (phones, tablets, TVs, etc) consumption prior to bed can be helpful for your sleep. If this is difficult for you start by doing no screens 5-10 mins before bed. As this becomes easier for you try to increase the time. I also want you to think about the lighting you have in your home. Do you have harsh bright lighting that comes on in the evening? If so, think about switching your light bulbs in your room to a “smart light.” Smart lights give you the option to easily dim and brighten your space. But most importantly this gives you the option to set your lights to red at night. I know this can sound odd and make your home feel like The Red Light District. But once you get use to it, having red light after the sun goes down can be quite relaxing to your nervous system. Over the last year, I have transitioned almost all our lights to automatically switch over to red lighting once the sun sets. I have found it to be far more relaxing than traditional lighting and I feel like I fall asleep so much quicker.
Is Your Bed and Bedding Comfortable
This one can feel a bit harder for some. Buying a new mattress, sheets, and comforter is expensive! But if your bed is uncomfortable and making it harder to sleep then it’s important to think about how it could be improved. Once you know what is not working for you, then you can work toward setting a budget and saving goal in order to upgrade your bedding. Keeping with the temperature theme, think about bedding that is light and naturally cooling during the summer. But having a nice warm comforter for the winter.
Sleep Routines
Lastly, let’s talk about your sleep routine. When are you getting to bed? What are you doing prior to bed? Have you gotten enough to eat before bed? As I have mentioned in a previous post you want to work towards getting 8 hours of sleep. In some sleep research I have read it’s recommended to get to sleep by 10:00PM. The theory behind this is from an evolutionary viewpoint this is a time when your nervous system becomes more alert if you are still up. This is because predators come out at night after the sun has been down for a while. I am not sure how true this is, but if your wake-up time goal is 6:00AM-6:30AM then being asleep by 10:00AM would be ideal.
As I mentioned in the section about lighting it’s important to be aware of what are we doing before we going to be. I often recommend that clients set a bedtime routine. This can be a simple chain of tasks like taking a shower, brushing your teeth, reading for 10 minutes, and meditating before lights out. Having a predictable routine is great for your brain (we like consistency and patterns) but it’s a great way to wind down before bed.
Now, you may be thinking to yourself why did I ask the question about eating enough before bed? Well, that is because your body needs energy to complete all the repair functions at night. If you find yourself waking up consistently around 2:00AM-4:00AM for no reason, then your body may be signaling to you that it might need more fuel to complete its repair process. Now I am not a nutritionist! But if you keep waking up during that time frame and notice you are hungry then possibly you may need a small bedtime snack to top off the take before bed. Something with good protein and fat would be ideal.
I hope you have found this information helpful and choose to take one action to better your sleep! As always, treat my writing like a buffet take what you want, and leave the rest. Lastly, if you think you have a sleep disorder, like insomnia or apnea, please speak with your doctor. Getting medical help for these issues can be easy and help you sleep better each night!