Sleep More, Live Better...

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Sleep is imperative to our health. On average, humans spend 26 years of our lives asleep. But did you know, sleeping well is a proven way to live a happier, more fulfilling life?

Often times, people, including myself, overlook the importance of an adequate night’s sleep. Taking rest is viewed as a sign of weakness in society. For too long I was putting my body under extreme stress. I was in the pool at 6 am for swim training every morning, and went straight to my lecture halls from 9 am until around 4 pm. Then, I went to another two-hour swim session, before arriving home to cook my dinner, spend a few hours at college work before retiring to bed around midnight. My social and academic life suffered greatly and I did not reap the rewards I had expected from my swimming. Over time I learned that allotting adequate time for sleep was crucial to achieve balance in my life and to maximise my sporting, personal and academic performance.

In this post, I will set out the required number of hours of sleep per night, tips for creating the optimum environment and the negative impacts of sleep deprivation. If you stick around until the end, I will reveal the my true secret to sleeping better and living better in the long-term!

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Required Sleeping Hours:

Research from The National Sleep Foundation has proven that meeting the standard requirements for sleep will result in us becoming healthier in the long-term. A lack of sleep has been proven to contribute to heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Don’t you want to avoid these? Spending more time under the sheets is one of the best ways to avoid this.

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The National Sleep Foundation has recommended the following guidelines to ensure you get sufficient sleep based on your age:

Older Adults (aged 65 and older) should receive 7-8 hrs but not less than 5 hours or more than 9 hours

Young Adults (aged 18-25) and Adults (aged 26-64) should get 7-9 hours but not less than 6 hours or more than 10 hours for adults or 11 for young adults

Teenagers: (aged 13-17) 8-10 hours should be sufficient

School children: (aged 6-12) 9-11 hours per night is optimal

Young children: (aged 3-5) 10-13 hours is recommended

Toddlers: (aged 1-2) within the range of 11-14 hours is recommended daily

Infants: (11-14 months) recommended to be within the range 12-15 hours daily

New-borns: (0-3 months) ranges from 14-17 hours daily

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Creating the Optimal Sleep Environment:

There are a number of key aspects to be addressed to create a perfect environment to enable sleep:

1. Temperature: if our room is too hot or too cold, our sleep is affected. Our body heat peaks in the evening and reaches its lowest point while we are asleep, so a temperature of 16-18 degrees Celsius is recommended. A temperature above 24 degrees will cause restlessness while sleeping in an environment below 12 degrees will make sleeping difficult
2. Lighting: darkness is key to a good night’s sleep. When it is dark, we release melatonin, which relaxes the body and helps us to fall asleep. When we see light, our bodies assume it is time to wake up.
3. Comfort: the average person spends 26 years of their life asleep. Don’t you want to be comfortable during all this time? Investing in a high quality mattress, duvet and pillows will go a long way to ensuring you get a restful night’s sleep.
4. Screens: depending on the nature of your job, screen time may take up a considerable portion of your day. Try to reduce your screen time each day, especially in the hours leading up to bed-time.
5. Alcohol and caffeine: consumption of these substances should be avoided ideally past 6 pm. Did you know that black tea, decaf coffee and even green tea contains caffeine? Many people often overlook these beverages and how they impact our sleep.

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Long-Term Impacts of Insufficient Sleep:

Sleep plays an important role in our long-term health and well-being. The stress hormone, cortisol, which responds to physical and emotional demands, plays a key role in sleep. Sleeping the required number of hours per night ensures that cortisol levels are regulated. If we do not get sufficient sleep, cortisol levels rise and disrupt daily hormonal patterns. This increase in cortisol can have a negative impact on the performance of our daily activities. If this builds up overtime, it can lead to mental health issues such as depression and anxiety; all of which are becoming a common trend among young people in today’s society.

It has also been proven that sleep deprivation leads to long-term behavioural and metabolic changes in our bodies. The hormones ghrelin and leptin play an important role in our bodies as they help to control both our appetite and our body weight. The balance of these hormones is disrupted when sleep patterns are altered, which makes weight control difficult. This may lead to adverse health such as obesity and diabetes.

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The Key Sleep Factor to Better Well-Being:

If you’ve made it this far, then kudos to you! You really are interested in making long lasting changes to your sleeping habits! It’s time for the big reveal...

Research has shown that constructing a plan to meet you required hours of sleep will result in you living a more fulfilling life. The key point to remember is to create a plan that is realistic and to stick to it. There will be times where life will get in the way of you and your pillow but it’s important to remember that you cannot catch up on sleep. When I know I have an event on, I have to plan for short, 30 minute naps both before and after the event. This helps me to minimise the impact the late night would have on my ability to function for the week to follow.

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After reading this post, do you feel you are better educated to make smarter decisions about your sleep schedule? From my own experience, I have found that getting 40 minutes more sleep per night per week has enhanced my productivity the following day. I hope you all can take something from this post which will be of benefit in your own lives.

With all this in mind, I wish you a great night’s sleep.

Good night

Sources:

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