11 Healthy Sleep Tips: If You Don’t Snooze, You Will Lose!
If I were to ask you to name the single most effective thing that we can do every day both to reset both our body health and our brain health, what would you say? Before you answer, let me also tell you that it can also help regulate our appetite, ward off many types of sickness, and keep our hearts in great condition. In fact, one bad night of this is said to cause physical and mental impairments much more significant than an equivalent absence of food or exercise.
Now, if you answered ‘sex’ to the question above, I LOVE the way you think!
But unfortunately, you would be wrong!
That’s right, according to Matthew Walker, Ph.D., the single most effective thing we can do every day to reset both our body health and our brain health is to engage in healthy sleep.
A professor of neuroscience and psychology at Cal-Berkeley, he is the author of the bestselling book, Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams.
Walker, who has had a 20 plus year research career believes “A balanced diet and exercise are of vital importance, yes. But we now see sleep as the preeminent force in this health trinity.” 1
If the fact that most of us will spend at least 30 years of our lives sleeping isn’t enough motivation to learn more about sleep and how to sleep better, I don’t know what is!
In today’s blog post we will explore 11 tips from Walker on how to get healthy sleep. But before we get to that, let’s dig into some more of what he shares in the book a little further.
Some of the Risks of Not Getting Healthy Sleep…
According to Walker, sleeping less than six or seven hours a night on a regular basis can have a profound impact on your health by:
Beating up your immune system and increasing your chance of cancer by more than double.
Being a key lifestyle factor that can determine whether you get Alzheimer’s disease or not.
Affecting your coronary arteries by increasing the chance that they become blocked and brittle and thus increase your risk of stroke, congestive heart failure, and cardiovascular disease.
Causing you to eat more as a lack of sleep increases hormones that make you feel hungry while suppressing hormones that signal good satisfaction. This makes you want to eat more even though you are full.
Some of the Benefits of Healthy Sleep…
While not getting a healthy sleep can have many negative consequences as we just discussed, getting a healthy sleep offers a ton of benefits, such as it:
Helps us learn and memorize and make logical decisions better as sleeping is a learning restoration benefit.
Restocks our immune system which helps prevent infection and ward off all types of sickness.
Improves our psychological health by recalibrating our emotional brain circuits. This helps us get through social and psychological challenges we face the next day with calm and cool-headed composure.
As I said in the previous section, it can help regulate our appetite as we are more likely to select healthy food when we are rested rather than impulsively choosing junk food when we are tired.
Can lower blood pressure and keep our hearts in good condition as it is intimately tied to our cardiovascular system’s fitness.
Now that we have a better understanding of some of the risks of not getting healthy sleep and some of the benefits of getting healthy sleep, let’s move on to…
11 Tips for Getting a Healthy Sleep
In the book, Walker gives 11 great tips for getting a healthy sleep:
(1) ‘Rise and shine’ and ‘hit the hay’ at the same time
This is what Walker says is the most important tip that he shares, and it involves sticking to a consistent sleep schedule. Meaning get up and go to bed at the same time every day, even on the weekends. Being creatures of habit, we have a hard time adjusting to changes in our sleeping patterns. So by sleeping in on weekends, it will be harder to get up during the week, plus it won’t make up for a lack of sleep during the week anyway.
(2) Be mindful of when you exercise
While exercise is great, exercising too late can be problematic for healthy sleep. He recommends exercising not later than two to three hours before you go to bed.
(3) Cut out the ‘ines’! Say no to caffeine and nicotine
Anything that contains the stimulant caffeine such as coffee, certain teas, soda, and chocolate can take as long as 8 hours to fully wear off! So, consuming any of those in the late afternoon can make it hard for you to fall asleep later that night. Nicotine is a stimulant also, which causes smokers to sleep very lightly as well as wake up early due to withdrawal.
(4) Booze can affect the snooze too
Having a nightcap or alcoholic drink before you go to sleep may help you relax. But heavy use may affect your REM sleep and cause you to experience only light stages of sleep. Heavy consumption may also affect your breathing as well as cause you to wake up once the effects of the alcohol wear off.
(5) Don’t eat late at night
A light snack is fine, but you need to avoid large meals and beverages late at night. Large amounts of food can cause indigestion which can mess up your sleep. Drinking too many fluids can cause you to get up and pee during the night.
(6) No naps after 3!
While naps can be a great way to recharge your body and mind, naps after 3 can be problematic. The problem with napping too late is that it can make it harder to fall asleep at bedtime.
(7) Unwind before bed
Always give yourself some time at the end of the day to unwind and relax. Some activities recommended are reading, listening to music, or meditation.
(8) Try a hot bath
Taking a hot bath before bed can cause your body temperature to drop when you get out which can make you feel sleepy. The bath itself can make you relax and chill out so you are more prepared to get your zzz’s!
(9) Be cool, have a dark side and ditch the gadgets!
Cool temperatures are more conducive to better sleep, so turn down the thermostat. You will also want to limit the distractions, so using blackout shades to block out bright lights will help as well. TVs, phones, and computers can distract you as well and deprive you of sleep – so get rid of those too! Finally, you spend 1/3 of your life sleeping, so having a comfortable mattress and pillow are super important as well!
(10) Got sun?
Our sleep patterns are regulated by daylight, so getting proper sunlight exposure is key. It is suggested that we are exposed to at least 30 minutes of sunlight every day. Waking up with the sun or turning on very bright lights in the morning is recommended. For those who have a hard time sleeping, experts recommend getting an hour of morning sunlight and then turning the lights down before you go to bed.
(11) Don’t just lie there awake
If you can’t fall asleep or are starting to feel anxious after lying in bed after 20 minutes, get up. Do some type of relaxing activity until you feel sleepy. Being anxious because you cannot fall asleep can make it even harder to fall asleep.
If You Still Aren’t Convinced About the Importance of Healthy Sleep, Then Get a Load of This!
According to Walker:
“After being awake for nineteen hours, people who were sleep-deprived were as cognitively impaired as those who were legally drunk. Said another way, if you wake up at seven a.m. and remain awake throughout the day, then go out socializing with friends until late that evening, yet drink no alcohol whatsoever, by the time you are driving home at two a.m. you are as cognitively impaired in your ability to attend to the road and what is around you as a legally drunk driver.” 1
And if That Wasn’t Enough to Wake You Up to the Importance of Healthy Sleep, Then Check This Out:
If you are going on less than five hours of sleep, your chance of being in a car crash increases by 3 times! And if you slept less than 4 hours last night you are 11.5 times more prone to being in a car accident.
There are 1.2 million car accidents caused every year in the United States by driving while sleepy.
Car accidents caused by driving while drowsy exceed those caused by driving while under the influence of alcohol and drugs COMBINED! Walker points out in the book that he doesn’t mean to trivialize drunk driving at all. He is just trying to make a point and the point is this. Drunk drivers are typically late in breaking and late in making maneuvers to evade other cars or objects. However, those who have fallen asleep while driving do not break at all, meaning they cannot even make an attempt to avoid an accident.
If you get one thing from this blog post or the book if you read it, please make it this message from Matthew Walker, and please pass it on to your friends and family:
“Drowsy driving deaths are neither chance, nor without cause. They are predictable and the direct result of not obtaining sufficient sleep. As such, they are unnecessary and preventable… if you are drowsy while driving, please, please stop, it is lethal.” 1
For every 30 seconds that you have been reading this entertaining and actionable blog post, there has been an accident in the United States caused by sleeplessness. In other words, it will take the average person 8 minutes to read this post, in that time there have been 16 accidents caused by drowsy driving in the United States.
By the way, I hope you didn’t fall asleep reading this blog post!
Until next time, don’t drive drowsy and don’t let others drive drowsy, get healthy sleep and as always…PYMFP!
–Rick
P.S. Wanna know more? Check out the entire book.
Use it Or Lose It
The 11 tips for getting a healthy sleep that we discussed above are:
(1) ‘Rise and shine’ and ‘hit the hay’ at the same time
(2) Be mindful of when you exercise
(3) Cut out the ‘ines’! Say no to caffeine and nicotine
(4) Booze can affect the snooze too
(5) Don’t eat late at night
(6) No naps after 3!
(7) Unwind before bed
(8) Try a hot bath
(9) Be cool, have a dark side and ditch the gadgets!
(10) Get sunlight
(11) Don’t just lie there awake
When to Use It
Use these tips for healthy sleep every day!
What Do You Think?
Do you use any of these tips for healthy sleep? Do you have any other go-to tips for healthy sleep? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!
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References
1 Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker, Ph.D.
Very interesting information! It is true that exercising at night makes it difficult to fall asleep . I usually try to work out in the a.m.. This works well for me. I don’t usually have difficulty falling asleep but I know several people that do. I know that If I don’t get 7or 8 hours , I don’t have the same energy level. Thanks again for the summary.
Hi Eileen, Yeah it’s interesting, I exercise at night and pass out as soon as my head hits the pillow. I think alot of this stuff is dependent on the individual. I know some people who have coffee at night and can sleep like a baby. Thanks for reading and for the comment! Rick
I like to share one point,
when I stay awake late and check the time and calculate the amount of time I can sleep, it plays havoc with my sleep. So I’ll advise to never do that.
Hi Rashid, Thanks for reading and commenting! That’s a great point you make! Sometimes we ‘get in our own heads’ and think too much which just makes things worse. A related point that I forgot to mention in the article was to turn your clock so you can’t see the time or it may similarly play havoc with your sleep as you say. Thanks again and take care! Rick
Back from a short get-away to Vegas. Trips like that sure do rejuvenate the soul. Yesterday we are setting in the hotel bar at Wynn, our favorite watering hole, I’m pounding down Glenlivet (double shots) and Joan chocolate martinis. I ask Joan if I can use her porta-phone to check out doings on the net, including PYP, which depending on one’s viewpoint, might be good or might be bad. I’m reading your last two essays out loud to her, spontaneously interjecting appropriate comments, some rather obscene, and we are both laughing our asses off. Hey, I can always claim its the booze talking.
So let’s comment on today’s. Sleep – one of life’s major joys. It rejuvenates the body and the soul. You should sleep until your body wakes up naturally – easy for us retireds to say. Alarm clocks are probably the most detrimental causes of insufficient sleep.
OK, a few words on your numerical items:
(3) I drink coffee rarely, mostly when out at a restaurant or at a wedding reception. We don’t even keep coffee in the house. I gave up smoking over 2 years ago. However, I felt smoking had a calming affect on me, and it never interfered with my sleeping. But that’s just me.
(4) Booze – I usually have a glass of Scotch around 9:30 PM. I sip it gradually, savoring the flavor and overall feeling. Usually it takes an hour for me to finish the glass. This has never interfered with my sleeping.
(11) if Joan cannot fall asleep, she listens to her meditation tapes, which usually work.
I’m able to sleep darn near anywhere. On the plane ride back from Vegas, I snoozed for about an hour. I can sleep in moving vehicles – something I learned as a kid. I’ve slept on strange couches and strange floors, and once even in the cargo bed of my pickup. But my best occurred in NYC, where I could fall asleep standing up while strap hanging. Caught a lot of nap time on the #4 train.
If you want me to, I can go back over the past 2 days and write something. I promise to keep it clean.
Hi Dave, Sounds like you guys had a sweet little get-away! Very nice. Never been to the Wynn, will have to check it out next time I’m in Vegas. Stayed at the Vdara last time which is beside Aria and was pleasantly surprised. Glad you guys could enjoy the previous posts, would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for the obscene comments, haha! Agreed on the alarm clock 100%, I wake up naturally too, but they are a necessary evil for most people, unfortunately. I’m the same, can sleep anywhere, moving cars are easy for me to sleep in too! Thanks for commenting and glad you enjoyed your trip! Best, Rick