Sleep well, live better

Sleep - it's not just beauty rest anymore. Scientists are adding more and more to the list of benefits to getting enough quality sleep.

There are two components to quality sleep, your sleep being uninterrupted, and the duration of your sleep. Most women need 6-7 hours of sleep each night, and most men need 7-8. Good news for men, the hour difference allow wives to get up early and cook breakfast for their husbands. Sorry, ladies, but you can't argue with science.

Okay, just joking about that last part. But seriously, sleeping long enough is only half of it. The other half is getting uninterrupted sleep. The two most important type of sleep for improving health and performance are called REM (rapid eye movement), and slow-wave sleep. Unfortunately, these types of sleep don't occur until we have been sleeping for 90 minutes of continual sleep. So if you a constantly awakened by a baby, the need to urinate, and uncomfortable pillow, or your husband's snoring, you will not get the most restorative sleep you could be.

This also show that afternoon naps can't make up for not getting enough sleep at night. A nap may increase your short term energy, but they a usually not long enough to produce the type of sleep you need for your best health.

So why should you be making this effort to sleep anyway? Sleep is when your body is most efficient at healing and restoring itself. Regular quality sleep also reduces the risk of obesity, cancer, heart disease, heart attacks, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Sleep improves the immune system response. Sleep improves your mood, helps you deal with stress, and reduces anxiety and irritability. Quality sleep helps you recover faster from your workouts.

As a shift worker, I completely understand how hard it can be to get quality sleep. I battle rotating sleep patterns, sleeping while neighbor's lawn work is going on, kids getting ready for school, and sunlight in my bedroom. So I have a few tips to share about falling asleep and staying asleep. And none of them involve sleeping pills, melatonin pills, or shots of whiskey.

My first recommendation is to exercise more. A study published in Psychophysiology found that fit runners who average 45 miles per week spend 18% longer in slow-wave sleep than deconditioned people. While I don't expect anyone to start logging 45 miles per week of running just to sleep better, I do want to show that there is a benefit to exercise that we probably all recognize already - we sleep better. One caution about exercise would be to try not to exercise within 2-3 hours of going to bed.

You can also try these suggestions:
Sleep in a cool room.
Maintain a regular bed time and waking schedule.
Don't eat heavy meals close to bedtime.
Avoid caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol close to bedtime. (coffee, colas, tea, and chocolate)
Don't watch stressful news programs.
Don't eat, plan, or problem solve in bed. You may want reconsider bringing your work laptop to bed.
For me, reading is almost a necessity at bedtime, and always helps me fall asleep more quickly.

Just like changing your diet or adding exercise to your life, getting better sleep will require a change in your habits. But since sleep improves how you look, how you feel, your mood, and your general health, I think it is worth it. Just the feeling of waking refreshed and having energy throughout the day is worth it. And it will give you the energy you need to spend time cooking a healthy meal instead of grabbing fast food, and the energy to stop at the gym on the way home from work instead of skipping your workout.




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