According to the CDC over 35% of adults suffer from lack of sleep [16].
What may seem like a small detail, or minor aspect of life is pivotal to how you recover from workouts or even perform in a verbal dispute. The difference between getting 4 and 7 hours of sleep is the difference between your mental faculties remaining intact and you struggling to string coherent sentences together.
So let’s do something about it.
There are simple measures that’ll take you from casual to competent when it comes to sleep hygiene. In this article you’ll find: What sleep is, how much you need, the benefits, side effects if you miss out on sleep, the importance of deep sleep, causes of sleep trouble, and how to get quality sleep.
SECTIONS:
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What Is Sleep
With age seems to come less free time. The days feel shorter, the nights feel the same. It’s as if 24 hours is now somewhere between 4 and 14.
Whether your sleep disturbance is from staying up preparing for the next 24, still taking care of work for the current 24, scrolling social media to catch up on the latest, avoiding required sleep patterns playing NBA 2K, or letting the YouTube algorithm keep you online - we’re influenced to neglect a key component of fitness and life success.
Sleep.
Based on Oxford Languages, sleep is defined as a condition of body and mind.. in which the nervous system is relatively inactive, the eyes closed, the postural muscles relaxed, and consciousness practically suspended.
If there’s a such thing as a sedative definition that was it 😆, but before I nap..
The same sleep we neglected as kids we yearn for as adults, but can’t seem to ever get enough. Why?
Sometimes you just have trouble falling asleep.
Sometimes you don’t prioritize sleep.
Sometimes you wake in the middle of the night and can’t seem to get the Zs back.
Sometimes your sleep isn’t deep enough.
Whatever your issue, it can be fixed if you’re willing to “sacrifice”. I’ll tell you how, but first how much sleep do you actually need?
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How Much Sleep Do We Need
Quantity matters, but precise sleep needs vary person to person. Factors influencing how much sleep you require include:
Genetics
Physical condition
Nutritional habits
Physical exertion of today and previous days
Sleep hygiene as of late
Your sleep requirements are adjusted by what’s called sleep-wake homeostasis.
What happens is your homeostatic sleep drive gives your body the “Yo, go to sleep!” signal that gets stronger the longer you avoid the sheets.
Although sleep needs vary, we adults tend to fall somewhere in the 7-9 hours per night range.
This allots enough time to experience the sleep cycle for at least 4 rounds. The sleep cycle is the 4 stages of sleep you hope to experience over and over every night.
The 4 stages of sleep include 3 non-REM stages and 1 REM stage. REM stands for rapid eye movement, which occurs solely in stage 4 as you vividly dream about your next workout.
It’s true by reaching stage 3 a few times in sleep you get a feeling of rejuvenation, but REM sleep is where the cognitive benefits truly kick into gear, for you begin to store memories.
REM sleep steps up at approximately 90 minutes into a cycle and gets deeper with each turn.
A cycle lasts 90-120 minutes. Your goal is to squeeze 4-5 of these in per sundown. Do that and you’ll reap the following benefits.
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Benefits Of Sleeping
What’s comes to mind first when you think of sleep benefits?
For me it’s always energy.
You have to recharge that battery, right? That’s not even close to all sleep does..
We release a superior amount of growth hormone while sleeping. Growth hormone is responsible for cell reproduction, regeneration, and is a key player in muscle growth.
Soooo if you can improve not only your amount of sleep, but your sleep quality, you'll also improve your ability to build muscle and lose body fat (more muscle means more fat burning at rest).
But don’t touch that dial!
Elevated sleep quality and length leads to:
A lesser amount of inflammation
Enhanced immune system
A brain less downtrodden with toxic proteins [8]
Typically, a longer lifespan [3]
I was prepared to dismiss you, but wait there’s more!
All it takes is quality sleep, along with exercise and a solid diet for your brain to be and remain at its peak.
This applies to all aspects of your body’s command center to include CNS recovery, memory formation, and even memory access.
This applies to your ability to create, which includes the imagination and bridging of unrelated concepts
This applies to your power to be alert. Stay alert, stay alive.
But if the benefits won’t motivate you we’ll try another route. Here’s what you can expect if you’re one of the ones that continue to push sleep hygiene aside.
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Side Effects Of Not Sleeping
When you regularly dodge the Z monster you can expect a combination of the following:
Elevated stress
Lofty cortisol release
High irritability
Mood swings
Plummeted energy
Muscle loss [2]
Memory lapses
Depression
Accelerated body fat storage
Higher blood pressure
Interrupted concentration
Raised difficulty with fat loss [1]
Impaired insulin signaling [9]
Weakened hormonal response related to appetite [7]
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Why Is Deep Sleep Important
Some sections ago it was about sleep quantity. That’s important, vital.. it’s cool fine and dandy, but quality/depth of sleep is another animal. In certain ways the more important animal.
8 hours of shallow, poor sleep takes a loss against 6 hours of deep sleep. Giving you a number (that you probably already knew) isn’t enough. What you do during the number counts most.
The back half of the sleep cycle is where restorative and cognitive effects really take place. If you’re not getting your share of REM sleep it’ll eventually show.
So the wait ends now.
In the upcoming section you get everything you’ll need on how to get to sleep, how to make your sleep deep, and how to create an environment where sleep is all, but assured.
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How To Sleep Better At Night Naturally
Reasons You Can’t Sleep
Slumber woes plague the lot of us at one point or another. For me it’s highlighted after an eventful day. Those days where you put faith in the sleep.. where you’re telling yourself how much you need it, how monumental it shall be, how sure you are it’ll be the cure to your physical sorrow.
It always ends up begging the question: Why am I tired, but can’t sleep? I probably get sleep performance anxiety or something.
Then the number of sheep I must count accumulate to greater numbers than I care for 😆. I find myself with closed eyes for minutes that feel like hours and hours that feel like days - suddenly doing mental math about how much sleep I’d still get if I finally passed out.
“If you fall asleep now, you’ll manage to clock 4 hours. You can survive on that.” Heartbreaking, but there are ways around this pitiful state of existence. Ways you can guarantee sleep is all you need it to be, but before that let’s get to the bottom of why you have sleep loss in the first place:
Chronic or unaddressed stress
Inconsistent sleep schedule
Too bright of a sleep area
Electronic blue light emission interrupting natural sleep digression
Too much entertainment or mental stimulation when it’s time to wind down
Excess noise during sleep hours
Poor overall diet, particularly sweets at night
High alcohol intake close to bedtime
Caffeine servings too late in the day
Room temperature too high
Uncontrolled body weight
Overactive brain
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Tips For Good Sleep
As you can see the causes of sleep deprivation are often self-induced. Other times you fall victim to sources you may not have known impact your trip to dreamland, but without further ado - here’s how you fix poor sleep:
Deal with stress. This is in line with the ethos for many of my bodies of work. Building muscle, losing fat, simple happiness, achieving success, and sleeplessness at night are all impacted by stress. To help put your body to rest, manage the daily stress life brings in healthy ways. Not exactly a one-off fix, takes time, but if emotional distress overtakes you.. you are in a constant state of adrenaline and cortisol influx that’ll take away from how you sleep. Use these keys to deal with stress and keep yourself from waking up in the middle of the night with anxiety.
Stay on schedule. When you vary your bed-wake times with high frequency your internal sleep clock is always resetting. You throw your circadian rhythm out of whack. If your circadian rhythm has no time to settle into consistency your body won’t begin the winding down process at the right times, so to avoid sleep pattern disturbance try going to bed at about the same time each night more often than not.
Limit light. Darken your room or use a sleep mask to create the right setting for a snooze fest. Yet it’s more than just setting a mood. You naturally release more melatonin in a dimmer location, melatonin is a relaxation agent allowing for deeper sleep. It’s released by the pineal gland and helps regulate your cycle between time to be up and time to lay it down. My go to move is a sleep mask and thick, dark blinds. That way if I need to nap it comes about much more easily because the room is always ready. Light interrupts the melatonin release process leading to greater difficulty falling asleep.
Put your phone on the night shift. At least an hour before sleep shed the blue light. Night shift, blue shade, or whatever version of hue change your device has is a feature that alters your screen’s color from its typical blue light, helping the pre-sleep process. Like regular light, blue light contributes to your inability to sleep by adding resistance to your body’s ability to release melatonin [5].
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Turn the shows off. Whatever device you utilize, the flashing lights do injustice when attempting to fall asleep and even after sleep takes place the noise/lights spike the difficulty rating for leaning further into Z-topia. Remember you don’t just want sleep you want it to have some depth. If you absolutely need sound to help settle your thoughts try a sleep timer. This way the device of choice isn’t on all night disrupting your sleep cycle.
Cut off the noise. As covered, electronics and so on put a wedge between you and quality sleep [10]. In the best case scenario where you don’t awaken - your mind still processes sound. This added processing forces greater brain activity to occur than what is called for during a sleep session. If that’s going on your Zs won’t be of the highest quality. More so this spells bad for cognitive function. Low constant sounds like the air conditioner won’t be much of a problem, but other sounds like a theatrical gunfight is. So end the noise, this also means your phone on do not disturb.
Ensure any contacts that would call in an emergency can still get through, then you’re war ready. If bold enough, take it a step further and use ear plugs; you’ll thank me later.
Eat wisely closer to bedtime. Of course, I want you to “eat right” more often than you “eat wrong”, but if you want to be a titan of snooze-ology your diet plays a role. High glycemic foods that may fall in the cheat meal category cause an insulin rush and heart rate spike that may not hit you right before or as you fall asleep.. but they’ll definitely tap your shoulder mid-snooze. Avoid these foods around bed time and you’ll improve your chances at a well-rested night.
Watch the booze. Alcohol in the afternoon impacts the sleep cycle [4]. Don’t be fooled. You may fall asleep quickly with the brew, but you’ll arouse many times throughout the night because alcohol also has a stimulating effect [17]. So limit alcohol near bedtime or keep your intake restricted to specific days.
No evening caffeine. I know, coffee is loved by many and hated by few, same with pre workout, but they both tend to be riddled with caffeine and your adenosine A1 receptor promotes sleepiness. Caffeine blocks the A1 receptor as it increases your liveliness [12]. To still get a caffeine kick out of your chosen pre workout, coffee, energy drink, or whatever it is you do and leave sleep unaffected – avoid gobbling your servings of caffeine within 6 hours of bedtime [13].
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Make it chilly. An elevated core temperature puts sleep in the complicated column [11]. The opposite, to a degree, is true as well. Maintain a sleep space of 60-67 degrees and the sheep will count themselves [8].
Keep your body fat in check. By controlling your weight you assist the natural sleep cycle [6]. Obesity and other related conditions make getting to sleep a task and staying asleep an additional task. Avoid a raised likelihood of sleep apnea by staying in the healthy body fat range.
Write your thoughts down. This’ll probably be on some app or a notebook if you’re old school, but if you’re like me - thinking can be a sleep deterrent. My mind manages to run 1000 miles a millisecond and if I don’t get some of those thoughts, ideas, or to-dos down I’ll be up until the early bird has a mouth full of worm. Try putting thoughts in your notes, prep the next day’s schedule, and all that good stuff that runs through your mind when you should be in the sleep cycle somewhere.
Breathe deeply. Deep breathing or even meditation while in your chosen sleep position is a great way to end the night. Each puts you in a relaxed state and releases tension. If you lay your head doing so before you even realize it’ll be morning time.
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My Thoughts
Many suffer from lumbar pain and sleep posture can play a role in adding to those lower back aches, as well as interrupting sleep quality. Ensure your sleep posture is appropriate, I’m an on my back pillow under the legs kind of guy.
If we have a lot in common, dehydration influences your slumber. I’ll wake up.. middle of the night parched if I lacked in my water intake on a particular day. Stay hydrated.
The idea is to sleep 7-9 hours as much as possible, yet life is life and that won’t always be the case. On bad or short sleep nights try subsequently supplementing with a power nap once the chance presents itself.
One of my winding down tactics is to static stretch when bedtime is near. Static stretching relaxes the muscles and has other positive benefits like contributing to injury prevention.
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So, It’s About That Time
They say sleep is the cousin of death, but it’s really lack of sleep that shares that kinship. When you don’t get enough time on your thread count you suffer physically, mentally, and emotionally. Avoid undue life roadblocks by creating a conducive environment for incredible Zs. Oh yeah, put those muscles to use too, it’s incredible for sleep, and Be Great.
Sources:
[1] pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20921542/
[2] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20921542
[3] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25009494
[4] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8959467
[5] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3047226/
[6] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17309765
[7] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15602591
[8] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24136970
[9] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20054188
[10] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25774609
[11] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18603220
[12] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21489866
[13] pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24235903/
[14] sleepfoundation.org/article/how-sleep-works/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need
[15] ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Understanding-Sleep