The Lonely Savage

I have an admission to make. I don’t sleep. Okay, maybe I exaggerate, because I do sleep, but rarely do I sleep enough hours to feel rested the day after. On a very good day, I might get six or seven hours of quality sleep, but most nights I’m lucky to get as little as four. Considering the amount of people standing by the coffee machine as I stagger into the office in the morning, I am probably not alone in getting too few hours of sleep every night.

Stress, previous engagements, social lives, television, the Internet; everything seems to conspire to keep us awake for as many hours as possible despite the early hours that we know we need to keep. As if it wasn’t enough that we don’t get enough hours, the quality of our sleep is often not very good either. Caffeine and adrenaline is still running through our systems when we go to bed and our worry about the next day keeps us up as we begin planning and wondering in advance. Our subconscious can be running marathons in our heads while we’re trying to relax.

Knowing that sleep – or the lack of such – stood in the way of me working at peak efficiency, I decided to begin a study of sleep and the effects that it has on us. Here’s what I found.

Eight hours a night
We often hear that we’re supposed to get eight hours of sleep every night, but this is more of a myth than anything else. Even though eight hours is a nice enough average, it is rare for any person to need exactly eight hours. Some people are able to get by on five or six hours a night while others need ten. Still, while people are getting to learn their own needs, I would recommend that they aim for eight hours every night. After a few weeks of sticking to that habit, your body will let you know if it’s enough or not.

Sleep, sleep, sleep

If think you’re not getting enough sleep – and odds are that you’re not – you might want to try to figure out what negative effects this is having on you. This sort of realization can be a good motivator to change your habits. Sudden drowsiness in the afternoon is a sure sign. A dependency on caffeine is another. Falling asleep in a heartbeat or two once you finally go to bed in the evening is a third.

Most of the time, we lower the priority of sleep to have time for other things. Right now, for example, I’m sitting in front of the computer writing this entry after midnight when I know that I have to wake up only six and a half hours later. Maybe I’m not setting the best example in the world here.

Prioritizing other things ahead of sleep is often a large mistake as the lack of sleep can cause a host of problems in our bodies. Sleep deprivation has been linked to everything ranging from depression to weight gain, poor immune systems and diabetes. Just like we need to set aside time for physical exercise, eating and study, we also need to set aside time for sleep.

How to fall asleep
Just like there are tips and tricks to waking up (and I’ll be covering these in a future entry), there are tips and tricks to falling asleep. For example, avoid eating, exercising and any consumption of caffeine, alcohol or nicotine for three to four hours before going to bed. The half-life of caffeine is around six hours (depending on your individual metabolism) meaning that if you drink a cup of coffee at five o’clock, half of the caffeine is still in your body at eleven. No caffeine after six or seven in the evening is usually a good guideline. Remember, caffeine isn’t only found in sports drinks, Coca Cola and Coffee; you’ll also find it in tea, chocolate and many other sodas.

Similarly, eating puts strain on your body as it needs to perform a lot of work at the same time that it tries to relax. If you have to eat shortly before falling asleep – because falling asleep on an empty stomach is hard too – you wil find that things that the stomach can take care of quickly is best. Crackers, light fruits and vegetables or something similar is best. Avoid cooked or boiled foods, cheeses, nuts and things that take the stomach a long time to take care of. One of my favorites is fresh strawberries.

Smoking, and the nicotine that the body absorbs through it, is also a bad idea before sleep. Nicotine acts as a stimulant that can disturb the healthy rhythm of sleep. Also, the nicotine withdrawal that can occur during the night causes even more disturbances to a healthy routine.

Avoid any difficult mental work one hour before falling asleep. Even though you can say “I’m done for the night”, your mind will still be busy processing and working on whatever it was you were doing.

Despite the warning against exercising in the evening, there is good proof to indicate that a healthy regime of exercise during the day can improve your sleep.

No napping!
This might sound like a paradox, but if you want to sleep well; avoid sleeping! Taking naps during off-hours, on your way home from work (a definite no-no if you’re driving home!) or after you get there is actually something that can make your sleeping patterns even worse. Even though you feel rested after the nap itself, it has probably skewed your rhythm enough to make it difficult to fall asleep and get a proper night’s sleep that same night.

A quick power nap, however, is still okay, as long as you don’t do it too often. Once you’ve slept for more than half an hour, you’ll notice that you’re going from light sleep into deep sleep, something that usually just makes you more tired once you wake up. If you’ve missed out on sleep, the best option is generally to try to stay awake and go to bed an hour earlier instead of napping.

The bedroom at night
It’s probably no surprise that we’re usually tired during the night and that our bed is the best place to sleep in. The body has a natural way of making us tired when it’s dark; it has to do with the pineal gland leaking melatonin into the brain, causing yawning and tiredness. A dark room, for the same reason, is easier to sleep in than a brightly lit room, not just because of the way the light can irritate our eyes when we try to fall asleep.

Similarly, the bed has to be associated with sleep. If possible, the entire bedroom has to be associated with sleep. Avoid placing your bed in the room where you watch TV, exercise or work; it will cause negative associations making it harder to sleep. Avoid reading, solving crosswords or planning new and exciting adventures in bed. In general, the bed should be used for two things and two things alone: sleeping and making love. If you’re doing anything else, you’re beginning to associate the bed to wakeful activities. Only go to bed when you’re sleepy and ready to fall asleep.

Also, make sure that your bed is proper for your particular needs. If you regularly wake up feeling stiff or cramped, you may need to experiment with different types of mattresses and pillows. If the mattress is too hard, try adding a layer of foam to make it softer. Also, make sure that you’re warm enough without becoming too warm.

Also, make sure that the room you’re in is quiet enough and neither too warm or too cold.

The pride of the sleepless
For some reason, it’s become ‘cool’ to lack sleep. If we come to work in the morning saying “God, I’m so tired, I only slept for three hours last night”, our colleagues are sure to think that we’re important and busy enough to have to prioritize sleep down. Lack of sleep suggests that we’re being extremely efficient and busy people. In my opinion, the opposite is true. If we are able to regularly get eight hours of sleep every night, we’re proving to ourselves – and others – that we’re taking care of our bodies while having a healthy and well organized life. Think about it; if we have time to sleep for eight hours a night, doesn’t that mean that we’re not stressing and feeling busy?

Summing up
Getting a good night’s sleep is one of the foundations in living a healthy life. If we can get our sleeping routine in order, many other things begin falling into place along with it.