I know that sleep is important, but I often wake up feeling more tired than I was when I went to bed. My workouts are lethargic and I feel as though I’m running on reserve at work. Do you know of any sleep tips that actually work?
Sleep is probably the most overlooked but vital aspect of general wellness and exercise performance. The irony, of course, is that if you worry about it obsessively, it will become even more difficult to fix.
I’m almost certain you’ve done Google searches and read that most adults need somewhere between seven and nine hours of sleep. Sleep deprivation disrupts work, mood and physical performance, and impairs focus and reaction times. Chronic sleep deprivation can make it harder to read other people’s emotions and reactions.
I can’t remember exactly the number, but a few years ago DA federal chair and now Johannesburg mayoral candidate Helen Zille said she didn’t need much sleep. That’s great, because she’s going up against a competitor list of people who’ve been sleeping on the job for decades. Perhaps they weren’t all sleeping. Maybe some just closed their eyes.
Arnold Schwarzenegger famously said that if people needed more than six hours of sleep they should “sleep faster”. In other words, he advised people to make the most of their six hours of sleep and then use the remaining 18 hours for work, family, hobbies and learning.
It’s that relentless “one percenter” mindset of working on yourself and becoming better while your competitors and adversaries are sleeping. Decent in theory, brilliant as a meme, but quite impractical as it assumes everyone’s body, health and mental state are the same. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Interesting research talks about how we, as humans, actually evolved into biphasic sleeping before the Industrial Revolution and the introduction of artificial light. Our ancestors would go to sleep soon after sunset, wake around midnight and pray, tell stories or do chores, and then retire for their “second sleep” until dawn.
I keep a flock of hens. They’re the most disciplined creatures I’ve ever encountered. They know precisely when to retire to the safety of their coop, have a few conversations, and then sleep until dawn. Of course, it’s not discipline; it is nature’s divine circadian rhythm. We have thoroughly destroyed ours through stress, diet, stimulants, alcohol, entertainment and artificial light. Sleep clinics wouldn’t exist if it weren’t a problem.
Earlier this month a study published in PLOS Biology identified broad sleep patterns, or sleep types, through analysing 770 young adults. The implication is that sleep exists in a complex interplay between health and environmental factors, and that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to improving sleep.
The first type, which researchers call LC1, combines poor sleep and psychological distress. They struggle to fall or stay asleep and wake up feeling tired. They score higher on measures for depression and anxiety.
LC2 displays what researchers call “sleep resilience”, where participants often experience stress or other psychological symptoms but report relatively normal sleeping patterns. The LC3 cohort makes frequent use of sleep medication, reports good physical health and strong relationships, but testing reveals small declines in emotional awareness and memory.
The LC4 group has a short sleep duration, often less than six hours a night. They often don’t feel any negative consequences, but the researchers said they performed worse on memory and attention tasks. LC5 involves disturbed and fragmented sleep. They wake often due to discomfort caused by things such as temperature or difficulty breathing comfortably. This group is more prone to anxiety and substance abuse.
To use an awful boardroom cliché, the “take-home” message is that sleep is personal and exists in the interplay between our routines and environment, emotional wellbeing and physical health. It means a personalised approach — most likely under the guidance of a professional — is recommended. Simply buying blackout curtains won’t address other variables such as stress, sleep apnoea or even alcohol or caffeine intake.
If you obsess about sleeping, expect to toss and turn. To sleep more, we need to spend more time in bed without scrolling on smartphones. Remember, wellbeing is multidimensional. Sleep fits into a bigger picture of taking care of yourself. Take a leaf out of my hens’ book: wind down when it gets dark and worry about scratching for worms and laying eggs in the morning.
