Sleep Hygiene
Let’s talk about sleep. What happens during sleep? Why is sleep important? Do I REALLY need 8 hours of sleep? What happens when I don’t sleep enough? Do I actually need to go to bed and wake up around the same time each day? What is the best temperature to keep my home to sleep optimally? Does alcohol consumption actually affect my sleep? How can I adjust my routine to sleep better? Keep reading to find out these answers. We have all heard that sleep is important. I don’t think a lot of us realize just how important sleep is and how much it impacts our lives on a daily basis. The average person spends about 26 years of their life sleeping. That’s A BIG chunk of your life. Let’s dig into it…
Why is sleep important?
Let’s start with talking about what is happening to our bodies when we sleep. I could spend an entire blog post just on this topic, but I’ll narrow it down to a few important things that are going on during sleep. Your brain sorts and processes the day’s information.
This process is important for creating long-term memories as the brain consolidates all the information and stores it away for later use. Hormones flood the body. Melatonin, which is released by the pineal gland, controls your sleep patterns. Growth hormone is released by your pituitary gland, which helps the body to grow and repair itself. The sympathetic nervous system gets to chill out. This is the system that controls your flight or fight response. With how our world is today, a lot of people spend the majority of their day in the fight or flight response. This is not a good thing. Studies have shown that when you have a lack of sleep, your sympathetic nervous system activity increases during your waking hours, which is also shown to increase blood pressure. During the first few hours of sleep, your stress hormone (cortisol) decreases. This is a good thing, cortisol will rise when you wake up, and this makes you feel perky and switches on your appetite. During sleep, your immune system releases inflammation-fighting cytokines. If you are sick or injured, these cytokines help your body fight inflammation, infection, and trauma. If you don’t sleep enough, your immune system will not be functioning at its full capacity.
Do I REALLY need 8 hours of sleep?
I have read numerous articles on this topic from scholarly journals & the overall consensus is the average adult (without sleeping disorders) requires anywhere from 7-9 hours of sleep for optimal well-being. Two hours is a pretty wide range, so like I have said before about basically everything else around health, we are all individual beings and require different things. However, based on the studies, less than seven hours consistently will not be giving yourself what you need to feel your best.
What happens when I don’t sleep enough?
When you don’t get enough sleep, every system in your body is impacted. Here is a list of some things that occur:
Lack of alertness (even missing as little as 1.5 hours can have an impact)
Excessive daytime sleepiness
Relationship stress
Impaired memory
Quality of life
Greater likelihood of car accidents
Hunger hormones will be off: Grehlin (hunger hormone) increases 15% next day where as Leptin (hormone that tells you that you are full) decreases by 15% next day. So that’s a 30% hormone gap.
These are all short-term effects of lack of sleep from one night, however, if it becomes a common occurrence you can have more long term effects such as high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, & heart attack. Other problems can include obesity, depression, and impairment in immunity and lower sex drive. In summary, SLEEP AT LEAST 7 HOURS PER NIGHT WHEN POSSIBLE!
Do I actually need to go to bed and wake up around the same time each day?
The short answer is YES. Here is the explanation as to why… as humans, we thrive on routine, when you live in accordance to your circadian rhythm, every system in your body will work better. We all have an internal clock that regulates certain biological functions over a 24-hour period. That clock is referred to as your circadian rhythm. Hormone production patterns, appetite, and cell regeneration are all based around circadian rhythm. In saying all of this, yes it is important to go to sleep and wake up around the same time each day. Typically, within an hour is a good rule of thumb. This can take some getting used to, if you are used to sleeping in on the weekends, but I PROMISE, once you get used to it, your body and mind will feel so much better, you won’t miss sleeping in at all. When your sleep patterns are all over the place, your body will not feel it’s best, so you may think sleeping in will help, but in reality, it isn’t helping.
**This is if you are healthy, not including when you are sick, which is a different story.**
What is the best temperature to keep my home to sleep optimally?
For adults, the best temperature to sleep at is 60 to 67 degrees.
Does alcohol consumption actually affect my sleep?
YES. Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant that causes brain activity to slow down. Alcohol has a sedative effect and promotes feelings of relaxation and sleepiness; however, the consumption of alcohol has been linked to poor sleep quality and duration. Let’s break it down. After an individual consumes alcohol the substance is absorbed into the bloodstream from the stomach into the small intestine. Enzymes in the liver eventually metabolize the alcohol, but because this is a fairly slow process, the excess alcohol continues to circulate throughout the body. The effects on each individual can be very different depending on many factors such as how much alcohol has been consumed, if food was eaten with/before it, the person’s age, sex, body type, etc. The relationship between alcohol and sleep has been studied since the 1930’s and it’s still being studied today and more and more findings are happening each year. What we do know is that drinking alcohol before bed adds to the suppression of REM sleep. Since alcohol is a sedative, people report falling asleep quicker, however, the overall sleep quality is decreased even though it may seem that you fall asleep quicker/sleep harder, in reality this is not true. Moderate drinking (2 drinks for men, 1 drink for women daily) showed to decrease sleep quality by 24%, while heavy drinking (more than 2 drinks for men, more than 1 drink for women daily) showed to decrease seep quality by 39%. Sometimes, people start to think that they are sleeping better when they drink alcohol, this becomes a cycle and you are only harming your body more and more each night. Take the time to heal it instead of harm it. So in summary, alcohol does not help you sleep whatsoever, it impairs your ability to get quality sleep, which impacts every system of your body the next day.
How can I adjust my routine to sleep better?
Again, this could be an entire blog post, but I will give you my top 6 tips.
1. No screens 1 hour before bed and 1 hour upon waking. At night our bodies produce melatonin to cue us to prepare for sleep. If we continue to look at screens, that lights up our brains and interferes with the production of melatonin. It also is giving our eyes/brain a lot of artificial light right before bed, which is not helping either. I also think it’s helpful to stay away from screens the first hour of your day. This will help you to wake up slowly & allow your brain to adjust to a new day, instead of flooding it with information the second you wakeup. Create a morning routine that works for you and protect that and honor it.
2. Get sunlight & movement before 10 AM. This is going to support your circadian rhythm and help your body to release hormones properly. Yes, what you do all day, even the first few hours you are awake impacts your sleep at night. Movement and sunlight before 10 AM will help your body, this can be a 10-minute walk outside. If you can’t do that, stand on your porch for 5 minutes in the morning before leaving for work and park far away or take the stairs or do 20 squats while your coffee is brewing. If it’s important to you, you will make it a priority.
3. Take a warm shower or bath 30 minutes-1 hour before bed. Taking a warm shower or bath before bed will initially raise your body temperature. When you get out, your body temperature will drop, which will prepare your body for sleep.
4. Avoid alcohol, especially 4 hours before bed.
This may be unpopular to say, but there is no benefit to drinking alcohol for your body. Yes, that includes red wine, you can get polyphenols from other food (blueberries for example also have polyphenols, you don’t NEED to drink wine) However, I know that alcohol is something people enjoy and are going to continue to consume, so just be mindful of how much/when you are consuming it.
5. Be aware of your caffeine consumption. Caffeine is a stimulant and can interfere with sleep. If you are currently struggling with sleep, take a look at how much caffeine you are consuming. For example, I know I do well with one Americano in the morning; I need to stop consuming caffeine by noon. For some, they may be able to have caffeine at 3 pm. Find what works for you.
6. Keep your bed for sleep/sex. Keep your bedroom for sleeping/having sex. Do not work from your bed. This is confusing to your body. Also keeping the temp between 60-67 when sleeping and keeping the room dark will help.
If you are still reading, THANK YOU! This was a long blog post. It is a topic that I am passionate about for many reasons. I will write another post on my experience with the OURA ring as this has helped me to optimize my sleep. I have had the ring since January of 2021 and I have learned SO much about my sleep. Stay tuned for that blog post coming in the future. As always, reach out to me on Instagram or feel free to email me as well. I love connecting with you.
If you are a parent or caregiver to small children, do your best! :)
xoxo, Sara
