Things to know about sleep
We spend around a third of the day doing it, but how much thought do you really put into your sleep?
For most of us, the answer is very little, unless of course your sleep is disrupted, in which case youll probably spend hours in bed stewing over your lost slumber and wondering how youll keep your eyes open the next day.
So what can we do to improve our sleep?
Sleep is a habit
Just like any bad habit, we can get into the routine of sleeping poorly, explains sleep expert Dr Guy Meadows. For example, if you start to wake up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet, your body will soon get used to it, and be programmed to wake up every night for a toilet break.
Often, you think you need the toilet more than you actually do. If you notice a slight urge but dont act on it in mindfulness terms, notice and let go then you can help move your body out of these bad habits, he adds.
Waking up momentarily is normal
Many people think that if theyve woken up at all in the night then theyve had a bad sleep, but this is not the case, says Dr Meadows.
Sleep happens in cycles which are around two hours long, and there will be micro-breaks in between each one, he explains. During these breaks, a person would be able to hear you if you whispered in their ear this is also when some people wake up for a moment in the night. The reason we sleep in cycles, Dr Meadows explains, is an evolutionary hangover from prehistoric times when humans were sleeping in much more dangerous environments.
Humans developed these huge brains, much bigger than other animals, but the disadvantage was they needed to power down a lot, he explains. As a compromise for the large amount of sleep needed, it was broken into cycles, allowing humans to regain some awareness every few hours, which was important for safety.
Having the correct mattress
Your body will naturally move into the position it finds most comfortable when you sleep, so if youre waking up feeling stiff or sore in the morning, you need to check whether your mattress is too hard or too soft says Dr Meadows.
Struggling against sleep doesnt work
When you cant get to sleep, most of us tend to get angry, annoyed and frustrated. This, says Dr Meadows, is our biggest error.
Humans are great problem solvers, but as sleep is a natural biological process, we cant control it with our minds, says Dr Meadows.
Getting cross about not sleeping wont help you at all; instead I encourage mindfulness, which is where you notice and accept all the thoughts running through your head, but dont get wound up by them!
You still get rest just by lying there
Weve all been there: lying awake, worrying about not getting enough rest because you cant sleep.
What you need to remember, says Dr Meadows, is that just by lying there you are still getting valuable down-time and rejuvenation for your body.
You dont necessarily need eight hours
The average amount of sleep required by people is between seven and eight hours, but Dr Meadows says for some people this can be as little as four hours and as much as 12 hours.
It really depends on the individual, he says. And having good quality sleep is more important than the quantity.
Technology is the enemy to quality sleep
Have you ever had your full eight hours sleep, only to wake up still feeling knackered and completely unrefreshed?
The problem, says Dr Meadows, is poor quality sleep, and it seems our addiction to high-tech gadgets is partly responsible for this.
The best thing you can do before bed is spend 30 to 40 minutes winding down; no TV, social media or box sets, explains Dr Meadows. Unfortunately in our modern world, there are so many opportunities for stimulation, and this makes it much harder for our brains to switch off when we go to bed.
The blue light emitted by gadgets such as smartphones is another big problem for sleep. During the day, light rays from the sun keep our internal body clock in check, says Dr Meadows. Your body processes that information to work out when you need to be awake, and when you need to sleep.
While orange light such as that emitted from your bedside lamp is fine, the blue light used in gadgets is really disruptive to sleep, so the next time you wake up at 4am and decide to grab your phone off your bedside table, try to resist the urge!
Source: www.prima.co.uk
