Part 3: 7 Steps to Better Sleep
Seven Top Tips to Improve the Quality - and Quantity - of your Sleep
1. Stick to a sleep schedule – be consistent with sleep and wake times.
Circadian rhythm (our 24-hour clock) is one factor that determines wake and sleep. As the sun goes down, our bodies release the hormone melatonin - a response to darkness that helps to regulate the timing of when sleep should occur.
Humans have risen with the sun and slept with the moon for thousands of years, until the relatively recent invention of the lightbulb. The further we stray from this primal sleeping pattern, the more out of sync our circadian rhythm becomes. Jet lag is the perfect example of how a disrupted circadian rhythm can negatively impact sleep.
We recommend getting outside in daylight for at least thirty minutes per day. Exposure to sunlight is crucial to regulating our sleep pattern. If possible, waking with the sun or using bright lights first thing in the morning could be beneficial.
2. Don’t exercise late in the day – ideally not within three hours of your planned bedtime.
Exercising increases our core temperature and can keep our heart rate elevated long after finishing a workout. Ideally, our core temperature should naturally decrease as we near our bedtime.
Taking a hot bath before bed is a useful practice for lowering core temperature. The warm water teases blood to the surface of the skin, creating a flushed appearance. Upon leaving the bath, the dilated blood vessels on the surface radiate internal heat, causing core temperature to plummet. Our cooler core temperature makes it easier to fall asleep quicky.
3. Avoid caffeine and nicotine after lunch.
Along with circadian rhythm, the second factor affecting sleepiness is adenosine, a chemical released in the brain that causes sleep pressure to accumulate.
Rather than providing an injection of energy, caffeine blocks the receptors that adenosine affects, thereby not allowing sleep pressure to accumulate as normal. The half-life of caffeine is around 5 hours, meaning that half of that espresso you had at 4pm is still working to prevent a normal build-up of sleep pressure at 9pm. It can take around ten hours to completely clear caffeine from our system.
If you’re a coffee lover (like us), try to limit them to the hours before lunch, thus allowing sleep pressure to build as normal throughout the afternoon.
4. Avoid alcohol before bed.
Alcohol is one of the most powerful suppressors of REM sleep that we know of.
Alcohol causes sleep fragmentation – littering the night with brief awakenings. We typically don’t remember these brief interruptions and are confused at how tired we feel in the morning despite “just having a few”. Because sleep is not continuous, we never reach the later, deeper phases, meaning that sleep is therefore not restorative.
Fragmentation results in reduced sleep efficiency, defined as the percent of time you were asleep while in bed. Most sleep doctors consider good quality sleep to involve a sleep efficiency of 90 percent or above.
Fragmented sleep can also be caused by eating or drinking too much before bed, or by medicines that have the side effect of delayed or disrupted sleep.
5. Don’t take naps after lunch.
Despite our best efforts, no amount of willpower can replace sleep. Nor can any device or drug offer anything close to the restorative benefits of a good night’s sleep.
When struggling with sleep deprivation, “power naps” may momentarily increase our basic concentration. While they provide a temporary boost, naps cannot salvage the many benefits associated with deep sleep, such as learning, memory, emotional stability, complex reasoning, and decision making.
6. Avoid screens for the hour(s) before bed.
Being exposed to screens such as TV’s, computers, or phones at night can block melatonin production, making it harder for us to fall asleep.
Compared to reading a traditional book, reading a tablet in the evening suppresses melatonin by over fifty percent. Indeed, tablet reading delays the rise of melatonin by up to three hours, relative to the natural increase we experience when reading a book.
7. Control your sleep environment.
Well insulated homes combined with central heating and regularised temperature control have led to a suboptimal sleeping environment in many of our homes.
The optimal sleeping temperature for our bedroom is lower than what would be considered comfortable in the rest of the house. We want a cool room to sleep in, ideally around 18 degrees. The bedroom should also be as dark as possible, and free of any distractions or electronic gadgets.
The take home point: Sleep is where we start with all our individual clients; it is the foundation of the human lifestyle and must be addressed before we can make effective exercise or nutrition prescriptions.
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Robbie Price | Aristos Owner & Coach