Tips for Getting More Sleep

Food and Drink

This may seem like an obvious tip, but avoid caffeine later in the day.  Many people don’t realize that their afternoon mocha or coke with dinner can affect their sleep.  Caffeine can last in our bodies for 8 hours or longer.  If you love your coffee, try to keep it limited to the morning time.  Also, foods that seem like they are morning foods, like oatmeal, cereal, yogurt, and bananas actually can help you fall asleep.  Avoid any sort of big meal before bed because if the body is busy digesting a large meal, that can keep you awake.

Exercise

Not everyone loves going for a morning run, and that’s okay, you can exercise later in the day as long as it is not before bedtime.  Exercise is a great way to tire yourself and make yourself sleepy, just don’t do it in the hours before bed.  Exercising gets the heart rate up, and that is the exact opposite of what you want when you are trying to relax and fall asleep.

Light

Our bodies all have an internal biological clock called our circadian rhythm.  The circadian rhythm regulates when we are sleepy and when we are awake.  Our circadian rhythm responds to light and dark signals.  It’s a complex process, but to put it simply, light cues can alter our biological clock, causing us to feel awake when we should be feeling sleepy.  The best way to help ourselves get more sleep is to be aware that the light coming from our computer screens, phone screens, TV screens, etc. is affecting how sleepy we feel.  About an hour before you plan to go to bed, start turning the screens off, or lowering their brightness.  Then about a half-hour before you plan to go to bed, lower the overhead lights in your bedroom, or turn them off completely and just have on a low-lit table lamp.  This lowering of the lights helps to mimic a sunset and helps you to feel sleepy.  (There are alarm clocks that you can buy that will slowly dim the light as you approach your sleep time, and then slowly light up at the time you set the alarm to wake up.  This makes it easier to wake up, and is much less jarring than a loud alarm noise in the dark.  I highly recommend them, I have one and I love it!)

Room Temperature

It’s tempting to pile on the blankets and want our beds to feel super cozy, but we actually sleep better when the temperature is cool. This doesn’t mean that the room should be freezing, because being too cold will wake you up, but when things are on the cool side we tend to have less disrupted sleep.

Thoughts

One way to guarantee that you won’t fall asleep is to put your head on the pillow while thinking of everything you have to do the next day.  If you need to do this, do it before getting into bed.  For many people, it is helpful to read for a few minutes before turning out the light.  Read something for fun that is entertaining, but not so engrossing that you won’t want to put it down.  After you finish reading, lie down and close your eyes, continuing to think about the characters and the story that you just read.  Let your thoughts drift there, until you drift off to sleep. 

Next time I will share some tips on what to do if you have a hard time staying asleep.

The Importance of Sleep

Sleep is an activity that can take up a third of our life.  We all know that we need to sleep, many of us know how bad we feel when we don't get enough sleep, but some of us don't know exactly why we need to sleep and end up sacrificing sleep to do other things.  There is a vast array of new research on the importance of sleep that goes beyond sleep as just serving a revitalizing function.  I think that we all can agree that sleep is important, but the current information on just how important it is may surprise you. 

Brain Processing and Memory
Sleep is important for memory consolidation.  When sleep is disrupted, memories are unable to consolidate, which means they do not stick.  For example, students who stay up all night cramming for a test will have a hard time remembering the material later.  They would do better to sleep and give what they are learning an opportunity to consolidate.  In terms of processing, we are three times more likely to come up with novel solutions to complex problems if we have had a good night's sleep.  Sleeping also enhances our creativity by strengthening important synaptic connections (the links between nerve cells in the brain's circuitry).

Weight Gain
The hormone ghrelin, the hunger hormone, is released when a person does not get enough sleep. When ghrelin is released, it goes to the brain and then the brain seeks out carbohydrates and sugars, which can then lead to weight gain. 

Clearing Out Brain Waste
Different parts of the body create waste, and there are designated systems in the body to remove that waste.  Up until recently, no one knew how the brain cleared out the waste that it creates, but recent studies have found that while we sleep, our brains clear out waste products through our cerebrospinal fluid.  It's our bodies way of taking care of clearing out amyloid-beta, which is a protein that is regularly made in the brain and which can accumulate during the day.  The brain only clears out this waste while we sleep, which is important for a healthy brain.  

For Further Reading

For Further Reading

Now that you know some of the reasons that you need sleep, the next question to ask yourself is are you getting enough sleep?  My next post will focus on some things that you can do to try to get more sleep. 

Your Physical Health and Your Emotions

When I begin working with a new person, some of the first things that I ask about are sleep, diet, and exercise.  Sometimes people are confused, thinking those are questions that a medical doctor should be asking, not a psychologist.  I explain that these three things play a huge role in our emotions and are called vulnerability factors.  They are called vulnerability factors because they can affect our mood and emotions, and leave us vulnerable to some moods and emotions that we don't want.  I'm sure that we all can relate to that grumpy feeling we get when we haven't gotten enough sleep, or that lethargic feeling when we oversleep.  Our bodies are connected to our emotions.  How do you feel when you are hungry?  Does it affect your emotions?  I am sure that many will say yes.  I know for one that I can become very emotional when hungry, and can be what people now are jokingly calling "hangry," that anger that comes from being hungry.  And lastly, exercise is considered by some to be the body's natural antidepressant.  There is a treatment in psychology known as behavioral activation, and one facet of this is that being active can serve to reverse feelings of depression.  When you feel depressed, you feel slowed down and you just want to pull the covers over your head.  By becoming active and doing the opposite of that slow-down urge, you are in a way systematically reversing the feelings of depression.  Exercise works great for anxiety and stress as well.  When those emotions increase, it can feel like they are being stored up in the body, and exercise helps to release them.  I hope that this helps you to understand the importance of sleep, diet, and exercise in relation to your psychological health.  In future posts, I will go into more detail on the research of all three areas.