Sleep Hacks

Increasing quality and duration for better health and recovery.

...like a baby

Whilst it’s hard to put a finger on the actualities of sleep, everyone knows when they haven’t had enough. So what you do you do to increase quality and duration aiding both mental and physical processes?

When sleeping, the body goes through processes that help you deal with stress, both physical and mental. Information is processed, a hormonal milieu is produced – including growth hormone and testosterone.

Sleep has been shown to have an effect upon short term markers of health like ability to mentally focus, coordination, reaction times, as well as longer term effects such as body composition, glucose metabolism and of course the ultimate – life expectancy itself.

What s sleep and how does it work?

Sleep is akin to a reboot and defrag that you might use on your laptop. It is partway between clear out & indexing, mixed with a physical overhaul. The brains ‘programming’ takes it thought a series of cycles whilst sleeping, indeed it has been suggested that it is not duration that counts, but rather the number of cycles you go through.

One Sleep Cycle can be broken down into:

Stage 1. Brain activity decreases, body relaxes (initial cycle).

Stage 2. Short bursts of brain activity.

Stage 3. Now in a state of ‘deep sleep’, slow brainwave activity.

Stage 4. Further slowing of brain activity.

stage 5. REM Sleep. The famous Rapid Eye Movement stage. Increased brain activity muscles ’switched off’. ‘Dreaming’ stage.

This cycle then repeats maybe 4-6 times in an 8 hour sleep period

So, deep restful sleep is what you need but how much?

Sleep quality versus quantity

Sleep needs are dictated by a variety of factors, your genetic make up can determine your needs, with multiple versions of genes (alleles) having been found. Everyone has heard of the person that can survive on 4 hours a night, this is thought to be largely genetic, however, these people are the small minority. For most of us 7-8 hours is needed but with the emphasis on 8 hours, so shoot for more than 8 hours – life will get in the way after all.

Any less than 6 hours on a regular basis will effect your performance. Stress from work, play or training can also increase needs. Although some forms of stress make for deeper sleep, physical stress like exercise generally, others will disturb it.

Of course, if it is just the cycles that count then the above still holds; some need less cycles than others and some factors can affect your cycle needs. Either way quality is an issue, if the sleep is of low quality the number or duration of cycles may be affected

The trick is to use a few simple hacks to increase the chances of deep restful sleep of the right duration. What should you do then to make sure you’re getting enough? Lets look at the environment and the behaviours that can set you up for a good kip.

ENVIRONMENTAL

The bedroom:

This is the crux of the matter, your sleeping enviroment sets the stage for sleep success

Comfortable: the bed’s mattress duvet and pillows should all be clean and fit for purpose. Studies clearly show that when your sleeping partner stirs of fidgets then usually so will you soon after so get as big a bed as possible. Pillows should be replaced every few years at the outside.

Cool: the air temperature should be a few degrees cooler than you would have your lounge and the room should have ventilation.

Dark: sleep cycles are dictated to a large extent by light so make sure you allow for deep sleep by shutting out as much light as possible. Also dimming the lights in the hours running up to bed will help trigger the chemical machinery responsible for sleep.

Quiet: this one is obvious. Environmental stimuli will disturb sleep so take a good look at this! White noise generators exist that help by generating a wide spectrum of noise, covering all sorts of extraneous noise, which your mind then ‘tunes’ out.

TV in your bedroom?

Also get rid of the TV, research clearly demonstrates a link between having a TV in the bedroom and decreased sleep duration. Also couples who kept the TV out of the room had sex more often.

• Leave the TV in the lounge

Lamps and lighting

Lamps like ‘bodyclock’ type lamps can help “dial in” circadian rhythms aiding both sleep and waking. The more natural fading of light can form part of a pre-bed routine as well as aiding getting up in the morning

• If lighting is an issue explore bodyclock lamps like THIS

it may be ugly but it works

Nocturnal wanderings

If you do need to get up in the night for any reason then don’t turn on the light unless you really have to. Turning on the light disturbs the internal mechanisms and can cause changes in hormonal balance.

BEHAVIOURAL

Training: working out will help sleep quality but try not to train too close to bedtime.

• leave at least 3 hours between the end of your session and bed. Yoga or meditation may help at the end of a session.

Pre bed routine: many who have trouble sleeping find boring repetitive and undemanding chores can help dropping off. Doing the same things each time cues the subconscious that sleep is imminent

• fold clothes and pack food for the next day.

Reading & TV: this can also be part of a pre bed routine. Reading is a more calming activity with TV, stimulating activity in many more parts of the brain. Of course lying in bed reading is going to help calm mind and body as well.

• Pre bed TV sucks for sleep, read for 5-10 mins instead.

Worrying about work: of course for many their job or career is a source of stress which can have the mind whirring away. Make sure you get down on a piece of paper your MIT’s: Most Important Tasks you need to do for the next day. Writing a list helps put you at ease and allows you to relax safe in the knowledge that you won’t forget anything.

• Task lists clear the head, try them before you get near to bed time.

Awake with ideas: connected with writing is a list is a trick entrepreneurs frequently use, this is keeping a notebook on the bedside table. If you get the spark of inspiration jot it down in the dark and go back to sleep.

Eating before bed

Eating before bed is fine, it just depends upon what you eat and your constitution. Large amounts of liquid and/or salt may mean night time trips to the bathroom. Large amounts of fibrous carbs or foods like cheese may sit on the stomach.

• Choose protein and a little fibre and oil
• Avoid caffeine, obviously
• Start cutting back on water about 3 hours before bed and
  
• Reduce salt intake in evenings

Hopefully some or all of these will help you. In a future post I go through some other tricks and also supplements that may aid sleep.

photo by peasap