Before I tell you why you need to get more sleep, let me ask you a couple of very simple questions:
- Do you think you got enough sleep this past week?
- Can you recall the last time you woke up without an alarm clock, feeling refreshed, not needing caffeine?
If the answer to either of these questions is “no,” you are not alone. Most people in most parts of the world are failing to get the recommended seven to nine hours of nightly sleep. Insomnia, as many believe, is a public health epidemic.
But… what if we don’t get enough sleep?
Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience and psychology, explains the perils of not getting enough sleep in his book Why We Sleep. He says:
Routinely sleeping for less than six hours a night weakens your immune system, substantially increasing your risk of certain forms of cancer. Insufficient sleep appears to be a key lifestyle factor linked to your risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Inadequate sleep -- even moderate reductions for just one week -- disrupts blood sugar levels so profoundly that you would be classified as pre-diabetic. Short sleeping increases the likelihood of your coronary arteries becoming blocked and brittle, setting you on a path towards cardiovascular disease, stroke, and congestive heart failure.
So far we haven’t even touched upon the psychological impact of it. Fitting Charlotte Bronte’s prophetic wisdom that “a ruffled mind makes a restless pillow,” sleep disruption further contributes to all major psychiatric conditions including depression, anxiety and suicidality. You’d invariably find irritability in your mood, and if it persists, the immune system gets affected too.
And… that’s not it.
Perhaps you have also noticed a confusion whether you are tired and bored, or just hungry? This happens with a lot of us. Too little sleep swells concentrations of a hormone that makes us feel hungry while suppressing a companion hormone that otherwise signals food satisfaction. Which means, despite being full, we still want to eat more. Needless to say what happens next — you already know that, don’t you? More weight and more invitations to diseases.
In fact such is the importance of sleep that many therapists and psychologists have started lobbying doctors to start “prescribing” sleep (not sleeping pills). Sleep is a superpower that we all deserve but rarely get. So, what can we do about it?
Christopher Winter, a sleep researcher and neurologist, discusses different ways to find our way to sleep in his book The Sleep Solution. Of course, sleep deprivation can occur due to a variety of reasons and manifest differently in different patients, but we can still talk about the basics, which affect the most of us. Based on different studies, we learn that — at least in short term — three factors contribute significantly to our sleep:
- Comfort
- Light levels
- Temperature
A small investment in these three areas can significantly improve the quality of our sleep, consequently the quality of our lives. For instance, finding the right pillow and mattress has to be on the top of your list. And you’ll have to stick with them for a long period. Familiarity with your surroundings help you sleep better. The next is the light factor. You should turn off the lights and stay away from your phones at all costs. Similarly, you can find a way to adjust the room temperature and wear the right clothing. You can also try sleep meditation before going to bed. The idea is to calm the mind and let the body relax completely.
All right then… it’s time to relax and get more sleep than you’ve been getting of late. Good night!
Reference books:
Kalampedia 