One of the popular beliefs is that you have enough time to sleep when you are dead. I have to admit that until recently I did not pay attention to my sleep. But over the last year I taught a wellness class for my resident physicians and sleep is an essential part of a healthy living. I felt I had to read more about sleep. One book that I really enjoyed was: “Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams” by Matthew Walker.
Matthew Walker makes a great case for sleep. Sleep is pretty much the Swiss army knife for health and it is free. Poor sleep has been correlated in studies with all the diseases you can imagine from heart disease, obesity, diabetes, degenerative brain diseases (Alzheimer’s) to cancer. The obesity connection is really interesting. Humans are the only animal who voluntarily deprives itself of sleep. The other animals decrease sleep only when they don’t have enough food. This connection sleep/food is likely preserved in us. When we don’t get enough sleep our brains/bodies are guessing that we are food deprived and we feel like eating a lot of food high in calories (junk food).
Basically the recommendations I found so far are:
- Allocate enough time for sleep - at least 8 hours per night
- Use dim lights in the evening (or red lights if you have them), no screen time, turn your devices to night mode (reddish color of the screen)
- Cold room: 65-68 degrees F (use socks if needed, obviously this temperature is much easier to achieve in the winter)
- Decrease worry/anxiety: best is meditation, another option is to do journaling one hour before bed and end the journaling with a couple of things for which you are grateful that day
- No food/exercise for 2-3 hours before bed
- No alcohol in the afternoon/evening
- Limit/give up coffee (including decaf) or caffeinated beverage (i.e tea, Coke, Pepsi). If you sleep enough you might not need any of these
- Create the connection between bed and sleep, go to bed only when sleepy, don’t do anything else in bed (like reading or watching TV). If you don’t fall asleep get up and do something else
- Avoid sleeping pills, they do not induce normal sleep
And even more recommendations:
- If you snore discuss with your doctor about a sleep study, maybe you have sleep apnea
- If your sleep partner interferes with your sleep, consider sleeping in different beds/rooms
Matthew Walker appeared on a few podcast shows that I follow. You can listen to him on Peter Attia podcast: episode 1, episode 2 and episode 3.