Fun exercise to do that might help you develop more healthy sleep patterns…………
Rate the quality of your sleep on scale of 1-5. [with 5 being excellent]
Complete the Why We Sleep questionnaire [click here] and give yourself a total.
How did this score compare?
What did you learn about yourself?
What is one thing you would consider changing to improve your sleep?
Why We Sleep Conclusions Within the space of a mere hundred years, human beings have abandoned their biologically mandated need for adequate sleep – one that evolution spent 3.4M years perfecting in the service of life-support functions. As a result, the decimation of sleep throughout the industrialized nations is having a catastrophic impact on our health, our life expectancy, our safety, our productivity, and the education of our children. This silent sleep loss epidemic is the greatest public health challenge we face in the twenty-first century in developed nations. If we wish to avoid the suffocating noose of sleep neglect, the premature death it inflicts, and the sickening health it invites, a radical shift in our personal, cultural, professional, and societal appreciation of sleep must occur. I believe it is time for us to reclaim our right to a full night of sleep, without embarrassment or the damaging stigma of laziness. In doing so, we can be reunited with that most powerful elixir of wellness and vitality, dispensed through every conceivable biological pathway. Then we may remember what it feels like to be truly awake during the day, infused with the very deepest plentitude of being. Matthew Walker, PhD Notes
Notes on 12 Tips for Healthy Sleep
1. Q1: As creatures of habit, people have a hard time adjusting to changes in sleep patterns. Sleeping later on weekends won’t fully make up for a lack of sleep during the week. Set an alarm for bedtime.
2. Q3: Caffeine takes almost 8 hours to wear off fully.
3. Q4: Alcohol also tends to wake you up in the middle of the night when the effects of the alcohol wear off.
4. Q5: Drinking too many fluids at night can cause frequent wakening to urinate.
5. Q6: If you have trouble sleeping talk with your physician about alternate meds or alternate times of the day which may improve sleep.
6. Q8: The drop in body temperature after getting out of the bath may help you feel sleepy, and the bath can help you relax and slow down so you’re more ready to sleep.
7. Q10: You sleep better if the temperature in the room is on the cool side. Turn the clock’s face out of view so you don’t worry about the time wheel trying to fall asleep.
8. Q11: Sleep experts recommend that if you have trouble falling asleep you should get an hour of exposure to morning sunlight and turn down the lights before bedtime.
9. Q12: The anxiety of not being able to sleep can make it harder to fall asleep.
A final trick . . . if you have trouble sleeping then minimize your sleep until you can fall asleep within 20 minutes. Only when you can fall asleep consistently in 20 minutes can you start adding time to your sleep. There are no drugs available that simulate healthy sleep patterns . . . only those that put you to sleep.
