Snooze or Lose, Part 1

Welcome to the first installment of a DNA series on sleep. Shuteye, 40 winks, sawing logs, catching some z’s, visiting la la land, zonking out…once we get past about age 9, we LOVE to sleep, and few of us get enough precious hours of slumber. Unfortunately, we can sabotage our training and nutrition efforts by short-changing sleep. Understanding your need for sleep and why it matters can help a lot in improving quality and quantity of sleep, and the results can be amazing.

If you have ever lived with a baby or someone who needs care around the clock, you probably understand how miserable sleep deprivation can be. Your brain feels fogged, you get cranky and have no patience, you can’t think clearly, and decision-making is a real chore. Many people get depressed and even suicidal with long-term sleep deprivation. On the other end of the spectrum, people who get adequate sleep each night have more energy and are generally sharper, happier, and far more upbeat than the unsleeping zombies. Most of us live somewhere in the middle, with almost enough sleep most of the time, punctuated by the occasional really good night’s sleep or late night online / partying / reading / etc. binge.

Why don’t we sleep enough?

Several societal factors influence our tendencies toward insufficient sleep. In short, we humans have done it to ourselves, and Americans value sleep less than many other nations.

1. Electric light and other modern conveniences. Back in the days before we could easily light a room with the flick of a switch, people generally got up with the sun and went to bed with the sunset. Candles allowed some people to stay up after dark, but  people were probably so tired from performing manual labor all day that staying up after sunset was not preferred anyway. People spent a lot of time hunting, planting and/or harvesting or foraging for food, preparing food, building or maintaining a home, making or maintaining clothing, and performing many other basic tasks needed to live that we now take for granted. Two hundred years ago, people couldn’t go to the mall to buy new clothes and stop at the grocery store on the way home. Wealthy people after the industrial revolution had more shopping options than the caveman, but even then, someone had to get food, cook it, clean, and so forth. Automation of basics tasks and the increase of convenience has given us free time, which we have since jammed full of activities.
2. Modern activities and distractions. The development of modern conveniences was intended to make life easier. While cars, washing machines, refrigerators, and the modern food distribution system are examples of amenities that have drastically simplified many basic tasks, we have invented a plethora of activities to fill the time previously occupied with basic survival activities. Late-night television has been around for decades, and many of us have traded sleep for Letterman on many nights, especially when we can watch in bed. The twentieth century brought the intrusion of the internet, so that now we can waste countless hours in front of the screen chatting with faraway friends, playing Candy Crush Saga, or even writing blog posts.  While the web now fulfills some of our social needs positively (or dysfunctionally, depending how you view it), online activity precludes sleep for many people. Further, many of us pack our days so full and take on so much that we work into the night, especially if we have to get kids to bed first. Some people just choose to stay up late to read, do puzzles, party, or otherwise relax, enabled by electric light.
3. Culture and the badge of honor. Unfortunately, out workaholic culture does not value sleep. In some parts of the military, sleep is sometimes treated as a sign of weakness, and people who stay up for 3 days in a row are often viewed with admiration and awe. (Never mind that sleep deprivation has led to countless training accidents, many of them fatal.) Most offices value coming in early and staying late, to the detriment of productivity and usually sleep. Medical interns and residents often work  ridiculously long shifts, and older doctors view sleeplessness as a rite of passage; while the dangers inherent in depriving medical professionals of sleep are becoming recognized, this problem still exists, and will probably die hard. Anecdotally, the Baby Boomer generation seems to value sleep deprivation more than Gen Xers and younger workers, but companies will probably shift to recognize the value of sleep very slowly as different generations take charge.

Wow, that’s depressing. What can I do about it?

Start by recognizing the sleep drainers in your life. If you are staying up later than you like and / or waking up groggy with the alarm, and you know that you need more sleep, take a critical look at your schedule. What are you doing at 10pm and 6am? What can you eliminate from your daily or nightly activities that will allow you to get more sleep?

If you routinely go to bed later than you would like, set yourself an appointment. If necessary, set a sleep alarm – in reverse of the usual alarm clock – so that Mr. Smart Phone tells you to knock it off at the desired hour. Once you have developed the discipline to actually go to bed on time, bring the time forward 15 minutes. Repeat until you can get 7.5-8.5 hours of sleep each night. Implementation is not easy, but it’s critical to your long-term health.

Next time, we will examine why sleep matters, and in future posts I will cover the Golden Rules of Sleep and current research. Until then, sleep well!