Dan's Plan

Sleep is awesome - and so is this infographic created by Julien Smith (with Zeo and FFunction).

Most of us do not enough sleep. How much is enough? Well, that’s a bit of a tricky question because the amount of sleep that any one person needs can vary a bit, but it is generally recommended that you spend 7-9 hours in bed each night. If you are not doing this on most nights, then you are very likely not getting as much sleep as you need to perform at your very best.

So, besides going to bed earlier, what else can you do to improve your sleep?

Sleep specialists use the term “sleep hygiene” to refer to a collection of behaviors that you can do, avoid doing, and ways that you can change your environment to improve your sleep. Some of these recommendations include:

Your environment:

1) Keeping a cool bedroom temperature with enough blankets to stay warm is recommended for good sleep. Try to make your bed as inviting and comfortable as possible - having nice sheets, comforters, and pillows will pay dividends in wanting to go to bed and in getting good quality sleep.

2) Make the bed and bedroom a place for sleep and sex only. Working or watching TV in bed creates an undesirable association between being in bed and NOT sleeping.

3) An ideal sleep environment is absolutely pitch black. Try to eliminate any light that remains when you turn the lights out at night. Cover windows with heavy shades or drapes, cover lights from electronics or alarm clocks and turn them away from you, and use an eye mask if you are comfortable doing so. Light is an enemy of good sleep.

4) Protect yourself from noise pollution by running a box fan, air purifier, or white noise maker (sounds like radio or television static). White noise drowns out background noises that might wake you up during the night.

Things to do:

1) Establish a regular bedtime routine to begin at about the same time each night - this helps prepare yourself physically and mentally for a relaxing night of sleep.

2) Make sure that you get sunlight and exercise during the day - just not right before bedtime. Dim the lights around you as you approach bedtime.

3) Eat a light snack or take a warm bath.

4) When going to bed, close your eyes and focus on staying awake. This is called paradoxical intent, is terribly boring, and helps people fall asleep.

Things to avoid:

1) Try not to do any strenuous exercise several hours before bedtime.

2) Avoid eating any large meals or foods that are spicy or contain caffiene (e.g., chocolate) several hours before bedtime.

3) Do not consume alcohol, nicotine, or caffiene within several hours of bedtime. These will either make it difficult to fall asleep or will result in poorer quality sleep when you are sleeping.

4) Try to avoid taking naps during the day. Naps will make it more difficult to fall asleep at night.

Sweet dreams…

Children aged four and under who get less than 10 hours of sleep a night are nearly twice as likely to be overweight or obese five years later, according to a U.S. study.

Researchers from the University of California and University of Washington in Seattle looked at the relationship between sleep and weight in 1,930 children aged 0 to 13 years old who took part in a survey in 1997 and again five years later in 2002.

For children who were four years old or younger at the time of the first survey, sleeping for less than 10 hours a night was associated with nearly a twofold increased risk of being overweight or obese at the second survey.

For older children, short sleep time was associated with increased odds of a shift from normal weight to overweight status or from overweight or obese status at follow up.

According to the National Sleep Foundation:

• Toddlers aged one to three years old should sleep for 12 to 14 hours a night
• Preschoolers, aged 3 to 5 years old, should sleep 11 to 13 hours
• Children 5- to 10-year-olds should get 10 to 11 hours.
• Teens should get 8.5 to 9.25 hours of sleep nightly.

These findings suggest there is a critical time period prior to age five when adequate nightly sleep may be important in terms of a healthy weight later on.

CITATIONS

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20819966

Adapted from article Anne Harding of Reuters Health

As you already know, at Dan’s Plan we emphasize sleep as an vital component to health and healthy weight.

In this short (4 min) TED video, Jessa Gamble discusses our natural sleep cycle and the corresponding alertness one experiences with this pattern of rest and activity; it’s worth watching and …considering.