This is the third blog in my current series – helping you to become ready in mind and body to reach success! The topics are:
• Eat your way to success
• Move your way to success
• REST your way to success and
• Play your way to success
In the first week – EAT your way to success we talked about healthy diets to promote a healthy body and a healthy mind.
The second part – MOVE your way to success – talked about how exercise can benefit mind and body.
This week I want to talk about Rest – and in particular SLEEP!
Sleep is important – in fact after water it’s probably THE most important thing for your health. Yes – you can die from lack of sleep – not just because you might drive into a bus – but simply from the physiological effects. It has been used as a form of torture for hundreds of years – and probably still used today.
Sleep is also important to our mental health and to aid our ability to learn and remember.
Most of us don’t get enough sleep.
Babies can sleep up to 20-22 hours a day and they need this in order for their brain to develop. Luckily no one has yet deprived babies of sleep just to see what happens.
As we get older we need less – but there is more and more evidence that even as older adults we need 8 hours.
Here’s a question – who here regularly gets 8 hours – tell me in the comments!
The perception that elderly people need less is just that – it’s not true – they need 8 hours too!
We will come on to naps later!
Your brain needs sleep – during this time everything that has happened to you that’s in short term memory is converted to long term memory. And – there is evidence that some there is some “flushing out” of the fluid in the spaces in the brain to get rid of things like Tau proteins which are thought to be implicated in conditions such as Alzheimers Disease.
We may suffer from intermittent issues:
- Lack of ability to fall asleep
- Waking frequently or early
- Issues such as snoring or sleep apnoea
- Disturbance by children or other outside factors
Sleep deprivation can cause:
- Lack of concentration
- Irritability
- Poor co-ordination
- Poor memory and decision making
- Stress
- Ultimately degenerative diseases
And the type of sleep is important too – there are phases:
Light sleep – very easy to wake
Non REM – heart rate and breathing slow
Deep sleep – necessary for growth / recovery and the immune system – hard to wake you
REM (Rapid Eye Movement) – this is the dreaming sleep – heart rate and breathing are quicker. Happens at the end so that’s why you often wake up remembering a dream.
And you can cycle through these more than once in a night.
Naps have been shown to be very useful – they are not just for babies – or old people! They can boost memory – improve performance – lift mood – ease stress.
If you have difficulty sleeping then there are things you can do to help – wind down before bed, digital switch off etc. These have been shown to work – this is often called sleep hygiene. Keep your bedroom – not too hot – calm. Breathing techniques can also be useful – square breathing is one which is easy to do. Getting thoughts onto paper by journaling is helpful for many too – or having a pad and pen available to write things down in the middle of the night. (use a pen with a light – not just to avoid disturbing a partner, but also to stop too much light waking you up).
Sleep is a massive topic – all the more so because of how important it is to our physical and mental wellbeing.
So are you getting enough – Sleep? Keep a diary for a week – you will probably be surprised at the amount you are getting. Fitness devices can help but they are not infallible – sometimes they judge you to be sleeping when youare not. You also probably get more sleep in a night where you “didn’t sleep a wink” than you thought.
Let us know in the comments below what you discover.
Get in touch if you would like to discuss further.