When I meet a client for the first time, I always ask about sleep habits. How many hours do you get per night? Do you fall asleep easily? Do you stay asleep once you’re asleep?
Sleep is one of our most important body functions to keep everything in sync and sadly, it is chronically undervalued in today’s 24/7 world. Research says adults need 7 to 9 hours per night, however about 40 per cent of us get less than this each night.
Think it doesn’t matter? Consider this: when you short change your sleep by just 1 or 2 hours per night over several days, your body will start to act like it hasn’t slept at all.
So if sleep isn’t something you prioritise, let’s look at why it’s so important and see if I can get you to reframe your thinking.
The many benefits of sleep
Just like our ubiquitous electronic devices, our bodies need time overnight to recharge and prepare us for the next day. Sleep keeps things in balance physically, mentally and emotionally.
To begin, sleep is critical for our brains. It keeps pathways of information running smoothly and also helps file and retain anything we learned during the day, be it a new yoga position, a complicated recipe or the latest vocab words from Rosetta Stone.
Sufficient sleep also allows our brains to effectively solve problems, cope with change and keep emotions balanced. Ever feel like a simple decision was impossible? Or what about when everything feels overwhelming? This brain fog goes away once you’ve given your brain a break in the form of a full night’s sleep.
Sleep is also critical to keep our bodies running as they should. Lack of sleep has been linked to heart and kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and stroke. So if you’re staying healthy with a balanced diet and regular exercise, certainly your sleep should support this pursuit as well.
Finally, sleep is key to keeping your immune system operating at optimum. No doubt, you’ve noticed you are more susceptible to colds when sleep has been in short supply. When you shift this, you’ll allow your body to more easily combat the numerous germs we encounter each day, without loads of anti-bac gel.
Ok, I hear that, but I’ve had a crazy week and I’m going to recover at the weekend
Unfortunately, this will not work. If we have a one-night sleep debt, then it can be reversed the next night. But if you’ve been burning the candle at both ends over multiple days, sleeping through the weekend won’t make up for what has been lost. The better solution is to be careful about how many nights your sleep in compromised in a row. In other words, you need an established bedtime and you need to stick to it. No one said being an adult was fun.
While it’s always tempting to have a lie-in at the weekend, our bodies love routine and would actually prefer the same sleeping and waking routine every day of the week. I know, the idea of getting up at 7 am on Saturday sounds grim. But think about this, if you sleep till 10 on Sunday, when you normally get up at the crack of dawn, it’s going to be tough to go to bed at your regular time that night. And when you miss your bedtime, that alarm on Monday morning will sound extra unpleasant.
How to get the right amount
Hopefully, you know how much sleep you need, but if not, I’d suggest you make a plan to figure this out. Start by getting 7.5 hours per night for a week.
To do this, be consistent with your bedtime and your alarm in the morning. And be honest about how you feel. Was it hard to fall asleep? How did you feel when you got up? Groggy or refreshed? Make a note of how each day begins and ends.
When you’ve finished your week of consistency, you can determine if 7.5 is the magic number for you. If it was hard to fall asleep, try a week of sleeping for 7 hours. Or if you felt tired when you got up, try a week of 8 hours per night. Through a bit of experimentation, you should be able to understand what your body needs and determine your optimal amount of shut eye.
Once you have this knowledge, the challenge is consistently giving your body what it needs. Next time, I’ll talk about how to establish a healthy sleep routine.
In the meantime, sweet dreams.