Time Management
The Importance of Sleepby Jeff Davidson
A majority of Americans shortchange their sleep needs every night. This article explains why it is important to get enough sleep and how to begin getting enough sleep.
You're not getting enough sleep. If my powers were perfected, I'd induce you to sleep eight full hours before reading this article. For now, I'll let you continue.
Study after study shows that most adults deprive themselves of the proper amount of sleep. At Stanford University, the director of the University's Sleep Center says, "Most Americans no longer know what it feels like to be fully alert." A Prevention magazine survey showed that 40% of U.S. adults, more than 71 million people, "suffer from stress everyday of their lives and find that they can sleep no more than six hours a night."
Occasionally, short-changing your sleep won't harm you. Most experts agree that three to four hours of sleep on a given night, once a week, will not result in long-term problems. You might feel crummy the next day, but you can compensate by taking a nap or going to bed early the next evening.
If you want to win back your time, health, and effectiveness, however, getting enough sleep is crucial.
To Sleep, Perchance to Dream
In his book The 24-Hour Society, Dr. Martin Moore-Ede found that repeatedly sleeping less than your body needs can lead to disaster. Moore-Ede contends that George Bush's collapse in Japan, Captain Joseph Hazelwood's ineffectiveness in piloting the Exxon Valdez, a rash of plane and train crashes, and other transportation mishaps, can all be traced to insufficient sleep.
How much do you need to sleep each night? For some people seven hours a night is great, for others eight, and still for others, nine. Most adults need about eight hours. College students need an average of nine (this has little to do with their staying up 'til three in the morning. They'd need more sleep than a 35-year-old even if they went to bed at a decent hour). As people age, some need more than eight hours a night, some less.
Dr. Jack Eddinger of Duke University's Sleep Center claims, "The older one gets, the less smooth is one's sleep pattern. It is normal for someone between 40 and 70 to be awake part of the night." As you age, you may need more than eight hours of sleep since your sleep is punctuated by periods in which you are awake.
You know that you need to get enough sleep to function effectively. Yet, try as you will, you probably haven't been getting sufficient rest. The following is a discussion of the behaviors that might attribute to your lack of sufficient sleep.
Adhering to Ritual
If you've gone to bed at eleven for the past several months, you'll go to bed around eleven this evening. If you watch Letterman, or turn in around the time Letterman is over, you've developed a habit of retiring late.
If you have magazines, newspapers, compact discs, and all manner of things to read and hear surrounding you, it's tempting to stay up yet another twenty or thirty minutes. The problem is that twenty to thirty minutes can easily become forty to sixty minutes.
If you're among the lucky that doze off as soon as you begin reading, thank your stars--many people stay up longer when surrounded by information stimulants.
Energy Depleters
If you use drugs or alcohol, your sleep patterns will be disrupted, and you're likely to get little sleep. Alcohol, in particular, can knock you out faster, but it will get you up faster as well. You might have been able to get away with it in your twenties, but your chances of continuing in this manner diminish everyday.
Relying on Compensatory Mechanisms
Moore-Ede found that many people engage in micro-sleep throughout the day: your body's attempt to compensate for under-sleeping. Micro-sleep is 5-10 second episodes where your brain is effectively asleep while you are otherwise working. Your eyes are open, but don't let that fool you. Micro-sleep can occur when:
* Bus drivers have full-passenger loads.
* Truck drivers race down hills hauling nuclear weapons.
* Mothers transport their babies.
Drowsiness comes in waves. You can be alert one moment and drowsy the next without even knowing a transition had occurred. Having too little sleep the night before, and certainly on an extended basis, increases the probability that you'll micro-sleep.
You've probably heard that R.E.M.'s (rapid eye movements) are a crucial part of your sleep cycle. If you sleep too little, or are awakened at inopportune moments, your R.E.M. pattern is disrupted, and hence even eight hours may not yield the benefits of a solid eight hours of sleep. You need to ensure that your sleep time is protected.
To ensure that your sleep time benefits are maximized, I would like to suggest the following:
* Don't sleep with your head by a telephone. Remove the phone from your bedroom, or install an answering machine and switch the ringer off. Too many people sleep with their heads by phones because they are worried about the one possible call in fifteen years where they might have to arise at 3:00 a.m. Stop this! There's little you can do at that hour. You will be better off getting a sound sleep.
* Once a week get to bed by 9:00 p.m. Your body will thank you. Let yourself go for nine or ten hours. Remember, you're going to live longer than you think--more sleep will enable you to grow old with grace and ease.
* One Friday night each month, crash after work and don't get up until the next morning. If you want to experience a fabulous weekend, this is the way to start.
* Avoid caffeine beginning six hours before bedtime. If you're thinking about going to bed around ten, four in the afternoon is the last time you imbibe caffeine.
* Avoid alcohol in the evening. It'll put you to sleep quickly, but it dehydrates your body and wakes you up before you are due. You then have trouble getting back to sleep. Your sleep time is reduced, and the quality of sleep is poor.
* If you read in bed, do so only to induce drowsiness. But don't overdo this. Dr. Eddinger says it's important to make your bed and bedroom for sleeping (and, of course, sex) only. Don't set up your bedroom as a command station with your CD player and TV to reinforce the notion that it is a place for anything but sleep.
* Go to bed when you're tired, not when you think you ought to. Let your body talk to you, and tell you when it's tired. In the past, you've probably ignored this message.
* Don't fret if you don't fall asleep right away. You may need a couple minutes or more to relax. After 30 consecutive minutes of restlessness, get up and do something until you're tired again.
* If you're kept awake by your spouse's snoring, or you're the one snoring, get help. Snore control devices are available from The Sharper Image. Whenever your snoring is above a certain decibel, you receive a gentle vibration which breaks the pattern and helps you return to quiet sleep.
* Moderate exercise a couple hours before sleep aids sound sleep.
* Moderate intake of proteins, such as a glass of milk, can help you obtain restful sleep.
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Jeff Davidson, MBA, CMC, is a popular conference speaker and author of 28 books, including Breathing Space (Feb 2000). For books, videos, cassettes, or presentations, visit http://www.BreathingSpace.com, FAX (919) 932-9982, or call (919) 932-1996.
