Studio Australia Blog
Sleep Hygiene
How healthy are your sleep habits?
How did you sleep last night?
Monday morning this week, and everyone I spoke to in the studio slept poorly.
So what is SLEEP HYGIENE?
Basically it’s a practice developed in the ’70’s by a group of clinicians to assess people suffering with insomnia. These days it’s a term that describes good sleep habits.
Why do we need good SLEEP HYGIENE?
- To function at our best during waking hours we need to have sufficient sleep.
- It is recommended that adults need to sleep 7 to 8 hours per night.
- Insufficient sleep has been linked to chronic diseases and illness such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and depression.
- Sleep enables our bodies to repair both physically and psychologically.
Sleep well and you live longer!
What happens when we don’t get enough sleep?
The body uses the time when we are asleep to repair itself.
We have different forms of sleep and these repair us:
- physically – organ cleansing, wear and tear of muscles etc or
- psychologically – working through anxiety, laying down memories etc.
Both of these states are associated with different brain wave patterns:
- physical repair is associated with slow brain wave patterns whereas
- psychological repair is associated with active dream states
As adults we average a cycle of all types of sleep patterns very 90 minutes. So if we sleep 8 hours we have 5 opportunities to repair our bodies.
The thing is, each of these 90 minute cycles are programmed by our bodies to serve a unique function while we are asleep. We a start the cycle with the majority of repair being physical when we first fall asleep and as the night wears on our bodies shift the repairs to psychological repair. This is why we are more likely to remember our dreams in the morning when awakening as this is the time when most of the brain is dedicated to the cycle of dreaming.
So if we don’t get enough sleep not enough psychological or physical repair can take place and this leads to difficulty in thinking, poor memory, fatigue and pain.
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So what can we do to improve our SLEEP HYGIENE?
I found these recommendations:
- go to bed and get up at the same time each day – in Barcelona???
- don’t nap during the day – obviously this was written by someone out side of the Mediterranean!
- go to be only when sleepy – this seems to contradict the 1st point?
- use the bed for sleep or sex only – mmm…..a little boring no?
- don’t lie in bed for more than 15 minutes if you can’t sleep – get up and engage in a quiet activity or sit in the dark – repeat as many times as necessary….they obviously don’t have kids or dogs that sleep with them!
- raise your temperature by exercising 3 to 4 hours before bed – regular exercise is recommended for good sleep….now we are getting there or have a warm bath 20 minutes before bed….this is more like it!
- maintain a steady temperature in the room throughout the night as fluctuations in the temperature disrupt the dream state
- keep the room dark
- don’t drink caffeine or sports drinks
- 4 to 6 hours before going to bed
- avoid smoking cigarettes near bedtime or when waking during the night…..STOP SMOKING
- avoid alcohol – it may help you to go to sleep but causes you to wake later in the night as your body metabolises it….mmmm…..
- don’t go to sleep hungry as this will wake you up – but don’t go to sleep on a full stomach as this will wake you as your body digests….again difficult in Barcelona…
- avoid mental stimulation before bed – work, arguments, worry, action movies….I can manage 2 out of 4!
- use relaxation techniques such as mediation, breathing and visual imagery
- ensure adequate exposure to natural light – this helps to maintain a healthy sleep-wake pattern
sleep should not be forced….
One point I didn’t find on most of the lists was using computers and tablets in bed. This is a big NO NO. Apparently using a table 2 hours before bedtime can drop your melatonin levels by 22%.
I have been doing this for the past 6 months and last week, after some research, and a good telling off from a friend, I realised that my poor sleeping patterns were probably in most part due to this habit.
Let’s see if it works. I’ve stopped taking the computer to bed and using it in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep to occupy my time. Nat’s happy! Right now I’m still in SLEEP HYGIENE training!
My motivation, my health.
References:
Sleep Foundation
CDC Sleep and Chronic Disease
CCI Health Sleep Hygiene
Wikipedia Sleep Hygiene
Michigan Medicine – Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center
Webmd – Sleep Disorders
