How to Get More Sleep

It's more important than you think

With the demand for our time and performance always on the rise, it’s far too easy to cut corners on our sleep schedule to free up some time for other, more (ostensibly) important activities. Many of us feel as though we can always fall back on our early morning coffee or other caffeinated drinks to pick up the slack when it comes to our energy levels, but that only makes it easier for us to deprive ourselves of the recharging, natural sleep that we need.

Droopy eyelids aren’t the only things caused by lack of sleep; an insufficient sleep regimen has been linked to obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, and even type 2 Diabetes¹. A good night’s rest is what your body requires to carry out many of the tasks necessary in maintaining physical and mental welfare. Without allowing your body the time to do these things, you are preventing it from protecting you from future health concerns.

Additionally, stress can have a severely negative effect on your sleep cycle. Pressure or frustration releases glucose into the bloodstream which, in turn, gives the body energy. This energy keeps you awake, leading to insomnia, which doctors think can allow your body to release even more stress hormones. So not only does stress keep you from sleeping properly, but poor sleep increases the stress your body is under; lack of sleep can result in an unending cycle of restlessness.

Because sleep is such an integral part of your success, here are a few ways that you can ensure that you and your entire family are getting the sleep necessary to get through the day-to-day. Keep in mind, seven to nine hours of sleep each night is what is clinically recommended for an adult to remain healthy, so this is how you can fit that extra sleep time into your schedule for a healthier more well-rested future.

Follow a regular schedule

Establishing a predictable circadian rhythm (the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle) is one of the most effective ways that you can get your sleeping back on track. It takes motivation, since you will essentially be forcing yourself to designate certain parts of your day to sleep, but in the long run it can totally reschedule your body’s internal clock.

The first step in doing this is to set regular bedtimes and wake times for every day. But rather than trying to quit your nocturnal habits cold-turkey, you can work your way gradually into this habit by going to bed just 15 minutes earlier than usual every night. This way, it’ll only be just over a week before you are comfortably going to bed two hours before your original late-night (early morning?) bedtime. Likewise, you’ll also want to make sure that your wake patterns follow accordingly. Try to get your body accustomed to getting the same amount of sleep every night, so adjust your wake patterns to those of your gradually earlier bedtime schedule.

Also, following a regular schedule means that you ensure that your body receives a certain amount of sleep every day, no matter what. Let’s say that eight hours of sleep is enough for you to feel refreshed and energetic in the morning - bedtime at eleven, and you wake up at seven – but you need to stay up until midnight working on a work project one evening. In order to maintain your circadian rhythm, you’ll want to make sure that you make up that lost hour of sleep sometime the next day with a nap, but at a time that won’t disrupt your scheduled bedtime later that night.

Exercise

I know this probably isn’t the most popular way to regain some sleep, but regular exercise might be one of the best ways to keep you from tossing and turning throughout the night. Not only is exercise the absolute best way to manage your weight, it also makes your body more likely to be prepared for sleep once you actually get into bed.

The obvious contribution exercise has to your sleep cycle is the exhaustion that comes from activity, but exercise also has two other great ways to help you sleep: reinforcing your circadian rhythm and reducing stress. If you were to schedule regular exercise at the beginning of your morning, your body would begin to associate the activity with sunlight; your body starts to program itself to respond to the changes in light, and prevents you from sleeping in too late. Also, as mentioned before, the amount of stress you have impacts your sleep in a big way. Since exercise is a wonderful way of reducing stress (and can really just put you in a better mood) it can’t be neglected as a way of getting you to bed on time.

No TV or reading in bed

Even though many of us enjoy the sound or white noise associated with watching TV, it’s a risky bedtime ritual if you intend in getting good sleep consistently. Although you might think that boring programs and late-night infomercials will help lull you to dreamland, Television as a visual stimulus will often excite your mind rather than turn it off. This goes double for our beloved portable devices like phones and tablets, since not only do the illuminated screens keep our minds active, our access to interesting material makes it likely that we’ll accidentally happen upon an interesting link, which will probably lead to another one, which will probably lead to another one…

Reading is also typically assumed to be a good way to fall asleep, and while it might have been a sure-fire method in your junior history class, it doesn’t work as well to cure legitimate insomnia. Again, any kind of engaging material is going to excite your mind, and the kind of attentive thinking that comes from reading a good book is the very thing that keeps you from sleeping soundly through the night.

Be mindful of what you eat

Your before-bed diet can have a lot to do with why you may be unable to fall asleep at night. Many people are liable to mindlessly munch right before bed, and introducing some new material into your system may affect your nighttime cycle adversely.

Mainly, you need to stay away from anything that has a detectable amount of caffeine in it. Coffee and soda are the most obvious culprits when it comes to robbing you of sleep, but chocolate is another way that caffeine can weasel its way into your system before you call it a night. And though they don’t have caffeine, things like bacon and cheese contain an amino acid called tyramine, which scientists say stimulates the brain and, therefore, keeps you awake. I suppose the rule of thumb should be if it’s something that you typically eat in the morning, you’ll want to avoid snacking on it at night.

You’re not the only one who is losing sleep

Now that you’ve taken care of your sleep issue it’s important to recognize that sleep deprivation among children is also a very serious issue. We tend to think that natural youthful energy will be enough to get our little ones through the day, but the truth is that a lack of sleep that can mitigate their physical and psychological performance throughout the day. In fact, a study conducted in Montreal last year tested students under both an extended and shortened sleep schedule. The study concluded that the students who were allowed approximately 30 more minutes of sleep demonstrated discernible improvements in activity, as well as a decrease in sleepiness. The other group of students, who were allowed about an hour less of sleep, showed an observable deterioration in these same areas.

Getting kids to sleep more

The methods of ensuring that children maintain a regular sleep cycle are similar to those that should be exhibited by adults. Avoiding energizing food/beverages and reducing the use of electronic stimuli around bedtime are a must. But enforcing a “quite time” at night ensures that they won’t be tempted to interact with their siblings instead of getting their much-needed sleep. However, as a parent, it is imperative that you strictly adhere to these practices because, as you probably already know, no kid ever wants to go to bed.

Other steps

Sometimes behavioral modification isn’t enough for you to correct an erratic (or nonexistent) sleep cycle. No matter how much you exercise, what you eat, or when you get into bed you still can’t seem to get the rest necessary to function properly the next day. This is when you may want to consult your physician about potential methods of treatment; issues like sleep apnea can be huge inhibitors to healthy sleep, and your doctor can help you diagnose these problems and evaluate some solutions that can help you regain a good, natural night’s sleep.

The Medical Center of Plano: Health Matters, Winter 2013 ¹