So apparently I suffer from sleep deprivation....
I was having dinner with one of my friends who just got into med school. He was learning about sleep in his class and we were talking about it. I told him that I try to get a full 8 hours of sleep a day but that I never seem to get it. He laughed and said that’s probably because I don’t adhere to my “natural” sleep cycle. He started getting into a series of lectures about the different stages of sleep and the correlation between body temperature and sleep patterns…it became really complicated and of course I don’t want to regurgitate an entire bio lesson. So I’ll make this short.
Sleep is one of the body’s most mysterious and important processes. It helps you to restore and rejuvenate your entire body; in memory, mood and social behaviors, and in various system functions such as the nervous and immune.
I was having dinner with one of my friends who just got into med school. He was learning about sleep in his class and we were talking about it. I told him that I try to get a full 8 hours of sleep a day but that I never seem to get it. He laughed and said that’s probably because I don’t adhere to my “natural” sleep cycle. He started getting into a series of lectures about the different stages of sleep and the correlation between body temperature and sleep patterns…it became really complicated and of course I don’t want to regurgitate an entire bio lesson. So I’ll make this short.
Sleep is one of the body’s most mysterious and important processes. It helps you to restore and rejuvenate your entire body; in memory, mood and social behaviors, and in various system functions such as the nervous and immune.
Since it is essential to the maintaining of the body, the body naturally provokes us to sleep via electrical messages from our circadian clocks-the time-keeping, temperature fluctuating, enzyme controlling inner clocks. These inner clocks work with a particular neurotransmitter that “turns off” our body, called adenosine. Adenosine is created in tandem with energy that our cells create to power us through the day. As the level adenosine builds up in our brains, we feel… “sleepy”. Combining this with our circadian devices, we understand that its time to sleep. Once preparing for sleep we enter our sleep cycle.
Sleep cycles vs. sleep hours:
I’m sure you’ve heard that everyone needs about 8 hours of sleep a night, and depending on age it can increase. For example babies need to spend at least 12 – 18 hrs a day asleep, and adolescents need 9. But as you become a “biological” adult, you require less total numbers of sleep hours, and more sleep cycles. Sleep cycles are the number of times that your brain shifts through the five stages of sleep.
Stage 1: (Drowsiness) - When you first fall asleep, you are in Stage 1 sleep. It lasts just about five or ten minutes. Eyes move slowly under the eyelids, and muscle activity slows down. You are easily awakened in this stage, and some can argue that when you zone out in class (or something of the equivalent) you are actually entering in to this Stage.
Stage 2: (Light Sleep) –Here your eye movements stop, heart rate slows, and body temperature decreases. You spend most of your sleep time in stage 2, as your body is continuously shutting down at this point. With all the systems that your body possesses, it’s not a real surprise.
Stages 3 & 4: (Deep Sleep) - During these stages, you are difficult to awaken. People who are awakened during Deep Sleep do not adjust immediately and often feel groggy and disoriented for several minutes after they wake up. Your body is immobile and the brain waves patterns at this point are slow and wide spread. This is the most important part of sleep as it is the end of the “cycle” and tells your body if you have thoroughly processed through the entire sleep procedure.
I’m sure you’ve heard that everyone needs about 8 hours of sleep a night, and depending on age it can increase. For example babies need to spend at least 12 – 18 hrs a day asleep, and adolescents need 9. But as you become a “biological” adult, you require less total numbers of sleep hours, and more sleep cycles. Sleep cycles are the number of times that your brain shifts through the five stages of sleep.
Stage 1: (Drowsiness) - When you first fall asleep, you are in Stage 1 sleep. It lasts just about five or ten minutes. Eyes move slowly under the eyelids, and muscle activity slows down. You are easily awakened in this stage, and some can argue that when you zone out in class (or something of the equivalent) you are actually entering in to this Stage.
Stage 2: (Light Sleep) –Here your eye movements stop, heart rate slows, and body temperature decreases. You spend most of your sleep time in stage 2, as your body is continuously shutting down at this point. With all the systems that your body possesses, it’s not a real surprise.
Stages 3 & 4: (Deep Sleep) - During these stages, you are difficult to awaken. People who are awakened during Deep Sleep do not adjust immediately and often feel groggy and disoriented for several minutes after they wake up. Your body is immobile and the brain waves patterns at this point are slow and wide spread. This is the most important part of sleep as it is the end of the “cycle” and tells your body if you have thoroughly processed through the entire sleep procedure.
REM: Rapid Eye Movement- Many people argue if this is a stage or not. For now it will be a transition stage, since this occurs at the end of stage 4 and leads back to stage 1 in the sleep cycle. You usually have three to five REM episodes per night. Your eyes jerk rapidly in various directions under your eyelids (hence the name Rapid Eye Movement), and your body continues to be paralyzed. This is the stage where you dream and where you “remember” your dreams.
The first sleep cycles each night contain relatively short REM periods and long periods of deep sleep. But, as the night progresses, REM sleep periods increase in length while deep sleep decreases. By morning, you will spending nearly all the “sleep” time in stages 1, 2, and REM.
Ideally you want to wake up at the end of an REM stage. This is why; when you have no pressure to wake up, you generally wake up after a dream. The end of a REM stage is the end of a cycle, just before you go back into stage 1. The entire thing lasts generally about 90 min. So it’s best to calculate your time in that 90 min time frame.
So you’d be following a sleeping pattern in multiples of 90 min:
1.5 hours
3 hours
4.5 hours
6 hours
7.5 hours
So you’d be following a sleeping pattern in multiples of 90 min:
1.5 hours
3 hours
4.5 hours
6 hours
7.5 hours
Those are the sleep quantities that you should aim to get, and those are what your body will naturally take, removing the alarm clock. Though this time frame varies between people, the best way to find your timing for a sleep cycle is to pick a weekend, and not set an alarm clock. Go to bed the moment you feel tired and then wake up naturally. Do this for the entire weekend (including Friday night!) and then average out your time. That’s your natural sleep cycle. Ideally you would do this over a week or so, but since the working world cannot wait you must make do with what you can right?
So what are some easy ways to fall asleep?
Nap every single day: nap regularly, keep it short, and make it in the early afternoon. 1) By napping at the same time every day, your body will start to regulate itself to want to nap at that time and it will become easier to fall asleep quickly and take an efficient nap; 2) Keep it short - only nap for about 20 minutes. This length of time, a power nap, is just enough to make you feel refreshed and mentally more alert but doesn’t allow you to go into a deep sleep (which would interfere with falling asleep at night), and; 3) Make sure to nap in the early afternoon - preferably about 20 to 30 minutes after lunch, which is when your body is naturally inclined to feel sleepy, and early enough in the day to not interfere with falling asleep at night.
So what are some easy ways to fall asleep?
Nap every single day: nap regularly, keep it short, and make it in the early afternoon. 1) By napping at the same time every day, your body will start to regulate itself to want to nap at that time and it will become easier to fall asleep quickly and take an efficient nap; 2) Keep it short - only nap for about 20 minutes. This length of time, a power nap, is just enough to make you feel refreshed and mentally more alert but doesn’t allow you to go into a deep sleep (which would interfere with falling asleep at night), and; 3) Make sure to nap in the early afternoon - preferably about 20 to 30 minutes after lunch, which is when your body is naturally inclined to feel sleepy, and early enough in the day to not interfere with falling asleep at night.
Make your room cold Your body needs to cool down in order to fall asleep and stay asleep, so do what you can to make your room cool. For me, a cool bedroom has the added benefit of nestling into a heavy comforter, and I find the heavy warmth on top of me very soothing.
Exercise intensely. Don’t just “exercise”, but do so intensely, to the point of feeling physical exhaustion. At the end of the day, this is probably the single best thing for helping induce deep, restorative sleep. When I say “intensely”, I mean intense relative to your capability. For some this may mean running 5 miles, for others it may mean a brisk 20 minute walk that elevates the heart rate. Physical tiredness is absolutely essential to getting a good night’s sleep
Expose yourself to bright light/sunlight soon after waking up. Bright sunlight (or any bright light) tells your body’s natural biological clock that its time to wake up, and that same clock will then be set to tell your body its time to go to sleep about 14 to 16 hours later
Find a bedtime ritual that works for you. I say find the routine that works for you - whatever it is - and do it every night. Find what helps you feel less anxious at the end of the day and incorporate into a nightly ritual.
Do what it takes to manage stress in your life. At some points in our lives we are burdened by a great deal of stress. It may be chronic pain or other health condition, a family or work situation, financial stress, or all combined. And the stressful situation may well be unavoidable. But do what you can to take some control over the stress. There are so many ways to do this - I encourage you to try some and just keep trying until you find what works for you. It can be guided imagery, either with the help of a professional or with CD’s, regular massage, yoga or tai chi, calming music, or a therapeutic run or bike ride after work. We all have different preferences - try one that sounds appealing, but if you find it difficult to stick with it, then try a different one
Anyway, like I said I won’t make this a bio lecture (though it’s truly fascinating). My friend gave me the link to some article and research findings so I suggest you go check it out and read for yourself. Believe me I have a lot more respect for sleep and naps now…and I’m trying to think of ways to incorporate them into my life. I am going to attempt to take a nap at around my lunch and then another one after work (only 15-20 minutes though) and then sleep everyday for 7.5 hours (my sleep cycle number). I’ll up date you guys on the progress.
- http://www.sleepfoundation.org/Alert/030730.cfm
- Center for Applied Cognitive Studies (http://centacs.com/)
