The English dramatist Thomas Dekker wrote, “Sleep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.” Sleep is an essential biological process that is required for us to grow, adapt, and thrive. It is necessary for both physical and mental function, and it is widely considered the most potent recovery strategy for the body.
Sleep serves three primary functions.
1. Detoxification
2. Tissue Restoration
3. Memory Consolidation and Learning
Brain Detox
When we sleep, our brain detoxifies itself using the glymphatic system. This amazing system flushes out metabolic waste products that build up in our brains. Some of these waste products are associated with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
Tissue Restoration
During deep sleep, the tissues of our bodies are repairing themselves. This process is contingent upon a special hormone called growth hormone (GH).
Growth hormone is released from the pituitary gland. Growth hormone is an anabolic (building) hormone that aids in muscle growth and bone building. Research indicates that sleep deprivation reduces GH release, which can dramatically affect your ability to recover from exercise and the stress of daily living.
Memory Consolidation and Learning
Research is now demonstrating that consistent and fulfilling sleep is a critical component of learning and memory consolidation. When we sleep, our brain engages in a complex process that assembles what you learned during the day into a learned process or fact and then cements that learning into long-term memory. You can learn new skills, adopt difficult habits, and change your behavior at any age. The caveat is, your brain REQUIRES sleep to make this happen.
Sleep Duration
The #1 question that I get asked is, “How much sleep do I need.” The answer is, “It varies.”
It depends on how much stress you are under, what your diet looks like, and how much you exercise.
I studied sleep for my doctoral program, and I researched how sleep affects our brains’ ability to adapt to stress. I hooked up electrodes to elite football players’ heads to measure their brainwaves. I measured their sleep for multiple months during a competitive season, and I found that 7.5 – 9 hours of sleep was the optimal duration for thriving under pressure.
Most of us aren’t elite athletes, and I think we can all agree that elite athletes are wired just a bit differently than us. Therefore, if they need 7.5 – 9 hours, we should be shooting for at least this much sleep.
Research shows that most of us overestimate how long we sleep by 30 minutes. Therefore, if you want to sleep for 8 hours, you need to be in bed for 8.5 hours.
If you want to figure out exactly how much you need, I recommend that you run a little experiment. Find 3-4 consecutive days that you can sleep as long as you want without interruption.
Go to bed at a regular hour, then sleep until your body naturally wakes itself up. Average the amount of sleep you got during that 3 to 4-day period, and this should serve as a good starting point.
Pre-Sleep Routine
Unless you just ran a marathon and are totally worn out, you need to engage in a consistent pre-sleep routine to shift from a state of busyness to a state of relaxation. Here are a few things that you can do to quiet your mind and prepare for bed.
1. 60 min countdown – Start your pre-sleep routine about an hour before bedtime. This gives you plenty of time to prepare your mind and body to sleep.
2. Deep breathing exercises – Spend out 5-10 minutes performing deep bellying breathing. Deep breathing exercises activate your parasympathetic nervous system, helping you move into a deep state of relaxation. A simple cadence you can use is 4-second inhalation – 1-second hold – 8-second exhalation- 1-second hold.
3. Warm shower or bath – A warm shower or bath is not only relaxing, but it lowers your core body temperature, which can help you fall asleep faster.
Sleep Environment
Make your room like a cave! Cold, dark, and quiet is the recipe for a great sleep environment. This means you’ll have to turn over your cell phone and shut off the TV.
I recommend that you use blackout curtains or an eye mask to altogether avoid light while you sleep. Even small changes in ambient light can disturb your sleep patterns.
Cold is critical when it comes to sleep. Turn your A/C down about an hour before bedtime and set your thermostat between 60 -67 degrees. Your body temperature naturally drops when you sleep, and a hormone called melatonin is released, which makes you sleepy. Keeping your room “comfortably cold” will help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.
Finally, you want your bedroom to be quiet. If you live in a city, wear earplugs or use a white noise machine to keep the volume of noise consistent.
The Perfect Nap
It’s time to end the nap shaming. A brief 15-20 minute nap can be the difference between just making it and crushing the rest of your day. You don’t even have to fall asleep. Research has demonstrated that naps improve your mood, reduce fatigue, and enhance your mental performance.
The keys to the perfect nap are to keep it short, take it early in the afternoon (preferably before 3 pm), and nap in a quiet space.
If you want to supercharge your nap, drink 6-8 ounces of cold coffee right before you nap. Caffeine affects a chemical called adenosine. Adenosine promotes sleep and makes you drowsy.
When you consume caffeine right before you nap, it competes with adenosine receptors in your brain, and you will wake up feeling revitalized and ready to go!
Summary
Remember, sleep is required for you to grow, adapt, and thrive. Create a sleep routine that helps you transition from a mindset of busyness to one of rest and relaxation. Make your bedroom cold, dark, and quiet so that you can fall asleep fast and wake up rested and ready to go!
Written by: Dr. Erik Korem
Dr. Korem is a High Performance leader that is teaching people to be their best without burning out. Erik has spent the past 15 years working as Sports Scientist and High Performance Director in the NFL, with collegiate and Olympic athletes. He holds a doctoral degree in Exercise Science with a research emphasis in the power of sleep. Instagram: @erikkorem
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