You may have been told before that we spend a whopping third of our lifetime in the land of nod. So considering sleep affects almost every single process in our bodies & minds, surely we should be paying as much attention to our sleep as we do our nutrition, exercise & mental health. So this week we thought we'd try & make that a bit simpler for you. It is worth remembering, however, that we are only touching the surface here. So if you'd like more in detail help that is specific to you, your body & your lifestyle, get in touch!
To improve our relationship with sleep, we first need to know how it works. Sleep works in 2 main stages that repeat several times in a night. We call each one of these repeats a 'cycle'. Each cycle lasts roughly 1.5 hours & we all typically need a minimum of 4-6 cycles per night to function properly.
Each cycle passes through:
Stage 1: Non REM sleep - The first few minutes allow your muscles, breathing, heartrate & brainwaves to slow down into a relaxed state. This is followed by a state of deeper sleep, in which your body temperature drops by 1-2ºc & you become the most relaxed you'll be all night. This latter state is the part of sleep that you need to feel refreshed in the morning.
And stage 2: REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep - First occuring an hour or so after you drop off, REM sleep is when brainwaves, eye movement & breathing rate increase to near waking levels. In this time the body consolidates on new information in your life, you experience dreams & your limbs become temporarily paralyzed to prevent your body acting out your brain activity. This stage is experienced less & less as we age, which might explain loss of memory & brain function in those over 40.
Now that you've had a whistle stop tour on how sleep works, you might start to understand why we are recommended 7 hours (4-5 cycles) to 9 hours (5-6 cycles) of sleep per night. As a general rule, we are all getting less sleep than we need due to long working hours, social events & bad habits (e.g. evening entertainment options such as Netflix keeping us up). However there are a few things we can do to improve sleep aside from just "get more" (although that is definitely something we should be aiming for). We will outline a few tips at the end of this article.
The final important component to sleep is what time we go to sleep &, more importantly, wake up every day. This is sometimes referred to as our 'circadian rhythm'. Anyone who has experienced jet-lag before will understand how powerful this bodily process can be. Our circadian rhythm is the body's attempt to predict when it will have a sufficient opportunity to rest & recovery from the day. It can then plan the most energy-taxing bodily processes (such as muscle building/recovery) for that time & communicate with your homeostasis system (mainly the release of sleep hormones such as melatonin). We can help our circadian rhythm by simply going to bed & waking up at similar times each day, including weekends when you can. This means rather than guessing when you might be going to bed, the body can be fairly certain of the times each day that it needs to sleep or wake up.
A good way to tell if your circadian rhythm is in a poor state is if you struggle to wake up to the same time alarm each morning. Another tell is if you experience a particularly bad "afternoon lull" each day, although this is an inevitable part of everyone's circadian rhythm to an extent.
Just a couple of weeks of waking up at the same time & going to bed at the same time where possible & I would go as far as to say I GUARANTEE you'll notice a positive difference in how fresh you feel in the mornings & your energy levels throughout the day. In the early stages of trying to improve your relationship with sleep, relaxation methods an hour or so before bedtime can help to manually tell the body that this is the new time for sleep. Some favourites from our coaches are reading, meditation, podcasts & nature sounds.
So here are some of our best tips for better sleep:
Go to sleep & wake up at the same time every day whenever you can.
Get some exercise in every day at least 3 hours before bed (20-30 mins is plenty to).
Avoid caffeine, nicotine & alcohol before bed.
Wind down an hour before bed using the techniques above, by avoiding screens or whatever works for you.
Don't let daytime naps go on longer than 30 mins & don't nap within 5 hours of bedtime.
Journal or "list-write" to get any worries, work concerns or to-do lists out of your head for the night. Then you know where they are for tomorrow.
Try to avoid overeating within an hour or two of bedtime, digestion is a costly process that could keep you awake.
Drink more water throughout the day. We dehydrate slightly as we sleep, so having more water can help keep the body functioning better (just as it does when we are awake), leading to better recovery.
Try a morning walk. Walking out in daylight within 2 hours of waking up can massively help solidify your circadian rhythm & can help you to feel tired by bedtime.
Sleep is one of the 4 key pillars of all-round wellbeing & something we can all improve on. So start small, use the list above to add in some good habits & just give it a go! We'd love to hear about your progress & we're always here to help, even just for a quick phone call to get our advice. See you next week for another dive into an interesting topic that can easily improve your life.
Elliot Hutchinson // 26.05.2024
© 2024 The Coaching Collective
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