Getting a good night's sleep

In my last blog post, I wrote about the importance of sleep.  I touched on some of the compelling evidence about its effects on mood, concentration, and a range of physical conditions.  I also wrote about the tendency for people to tell themselves that they can get by with six or fewer hours of sleep.  According to sleep researchers, the vast majority of these people are kidding themselves.  Their caffeine dependence, afternoon sleepiness, difficulty staying focused and marathon sleep catch-up sessions reveal the truth about their true sleep needs.

I hope that my last post convinced you to take sleep seriously.  Today, I provide some tips for getting a good night’s sleep.

• Cut out caffeine 10 hours before bedtime.  When you enjoy a cup of coffee or other caffeinated drink, it takes about five to seven hours to eliminate half the caffeine from your body.  After eight to 10 hours, around 75% of the caffeine is gone.  For most people, a cup of coffee or two in the morning won't interfere with sleep at night.  But a mid-afternoon pick-me-up is a different story.
• Limit alcohol.  A drink before bedtime might help you fall asleep, but it will disrupt your sleep in the middle of the night.  You might find yourself lying awake at 2AM, wondering what you did to deserve this sleeplessness.  Chances are likely that your nightcap was at least partly to blame.
• Exercise during the day.  Regular aerobic exercise leads to better sleep quality, researchers have found.  But be careful about exercising too late in the day. Some (but not all) people find evening exercise makes it difficult to get to sleep.
• Create an evening ritual for relaxing before bedtime.  My ritual involves drinking chamomile tea and looking through catalogs that came in the mail that day.  Other people listen to music or take a bath.  Find a way to involve your senses in the process of relaxing, whether it be taste (chamomile tea), hearing (music), touch (a hot bath) or something else. 
• Go to bed at the same time each night and get up at the same time each morning.  This teaches your body a predictable rhythm for sleeping and waking.  It is important to keep to the same schedule even if you didn’t get a good night’s sleep.  Oversleeping or daytime napping to compensate for insomnia the night before only fuels the problem.
• Make your bedroom a relaxing and comfortable place.  Do not bring work into the bed with you.

This is only a partial list.  If you have recurrent insomnia, you probably will need to take additional measures.  I list a few resources below.

Sleep well!

Additional resources on getting a good night's sleep:

National Sleep Foundation - What to know about insomnia

Stanford Hospital and Clinics - Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia

Uptodate - Insomnia treatments

  

Sleep: the often-forgotten health booster

In the course of my career, I have encountered many people who have an impeccably-healthy diet and who exercise daily, yet at the same time routinely deprive themselves of a complete night's sleep.  In fact, it is not uncommon to hear colleagues bragging about how little sleep they have obtained in the past week due to a pressing work deadline or other seemingly-important priority.  And, in our modern world it is literally possible for people to work through the night, night after night.

In our culture, many people believe that acknowledging any sort of natural limitation, such as needing eight hours of sleep per night, is a sign of weakness. Making the general statement that humans have these kinds of inherent limitations, or even worse, admitting that you have these limitations, is sacrilege in certain business and social circles.  "When the going gets tough, the tough get going," or so the saying goes.  In other words, you must be prepared to sleep less and work harder on demand.  But for many people, "on demand" never ends.

The irony of this situation is that when people attempt to defy their natural limits by working longer and harder, they deprive themselves of exactly what they need to think clearly and perform well.  They end up working longer, but not smarter.  As a result, their performance frequently suffers.  Common effects are poor concentration, depressed mood, and decreased ability to perform automatic, skill-based tasks. 

Sleep deprivation also has many negative health effects.  Hormonal and metabolic functioning is disrupted, leading to obesity, high blood pressure, heart problems, and diabetes.  Total sleep deprivation is almost always fatal, and people who sleep less than 6 hours per night die at younger ages than those who sleep 6 to 8 hours per night. 

People vary in how much sleep they need.  According to the National Sleep Foundation, adults typically need somewhere between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night.  Nevertheless, it's important to pay attention to your own individual needs by assessing how you feel on different amounts of sleep.

There is no way to sugar coat the following fact: devoting more time to sleep results in less time for other activities.  But the clear advantage to making this change is that, with adequate sleep, you can expect to be more efficient and productive during the time that you are awake.  You will be able to accomplish more in less time, and make fewer mistakes.

Convinced? Future blog posts will provide research-based tips for getting a good night's sleep.

Additional resources on sleep:

National Sleep Foundation

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Yoga: what's behind the craze?

These days, it seems like everyone is doing yoga.  In my home city, Seattle, yoga classes can be found just about everywhere: gyms, workplaces, neighborhood community centers, and nursing homes.  Anyone with an Internet connection can access hundreds of free, full-length yoga classes via YouTube or iTunes.

What is behind this craze?  In reality, yoga is far from a trend: yoga originated in India and has been practiced in different forms for thousands of years.  That being said, it is true that yoga has has gained tremendous popularity in the USA and other Western countries over the past 10 to 20 years.

In the United States today, 'yoga' typically refers to some form of hatha yoga, which uses physical poses, or asanas, combined with breathing techniques meditation to achieve better health. Subtypes of hatha yoga that you might see advertised include Bikram, Baptiste, and Vinyasa yoga, to name but a few.  All are variations of the hatha approach.

Perhaps the best way to understand yoga’s popularity is to go right to someone who practices it. Full disclosure: I started practicing yoga about seven years ago. At the time, I chose to enroll in a worksite yoga class because it was the only fitness class that fit my schedule.   When I started, I couldn't touch my toes and I didn't know the difference between a downward facing dog and an upward facing dog.  It took me awhile to touch my toes (and I am still learning the names of all the poses), but I quickly found that yoga made me feel great.  I kept coming back for more.  And the more I practiced, the greater the benefits I experienced.  

Anyone who has regularly practiced yoga can attest to its positive impact on muscle strength, flexibility and balance.  According to the National Institutes for Health, current research also suggests that yoga reduces certain types of pain, improves quality of life; reduces stress; lowers heart rate and blood pressure; and helps relieve anxiety, depression, and insomnia.

Ready to get started? If you a beginner, try to find an instructor (as opposed to watching a video or reading a book).  A qualified yoga teacher will teach you proper alignment and correct your positioning as needed.  He or she also will teach you modifications for different poses if you have physical limitations or if you are at risk for an injury.  Once you learn the basics, you can practice on your own (although many elect to continue with a teacher for at least some of their practices).

Anyone can practice yoga - regardless of age or level of physical disability.  But pay attention to how you feel during your practices and never push beyond your edge.  A key principle of yoga is to notice and respect your limitations.  If you follow these suggestions, you will most likely find that you want to continue yoga because you it helps you feel so great.