Sleep Rules
It’s seemingly a passive activity, but a lot of work goes on behind the shut-eye! Sleep is like a silent sovereign, dictating the body’s overall health through a series of biological processes.
Without a sufficient and consistent amount of sleep, there’s an elevated risk for a host of serious health and safety consequences:
- Depressed immune system and ability to fight off infections like cold and flu
- Accelerated onset of chronic disease, including heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and depression
- Cognitive decline and memory loss
- Mental fatigue, slowed response time and impaired judgment
Intuitively, you know how important sleep is. Just ask yourself how you feel when you don’t get enough of it. You can’t think, you can’t function. Sound familiar?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has even labeled insufficient sleep a public health epidemic, citing links to motor vehicle crashes, industrial disasters and medical and other occupational errors.
- Drowsy driving is estimated to be the cause of 1,550 fatalities and 40,000 nonfatal injuries annually in the U.S.
- According to one National Sleep Foundation poll, 23% of pilots said sleepiness affects their job performance regularly, and 20% admit they’ve made a serious error due to fatigue.
How much sleep do we need?
Generally the daily-recommended ranges are as follows:
- Pre-school children: 11+ hours
- School-aged children: 10-11 hours
- Teens: 8.5-9.5 hours
- Adults: 7-9 hours
How much sleep are we getting?
One survey found 35.3% of U.S. adults reported consistently getting less than 7 hours of sleep.* Additionally:
- 37.9% reported unintentionally falling asleep during the day in the preceding month
- 4.7% reported nodding off or falling asleep while driving in the preceding month
*Collaborative 2009 study by the CDC and the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research involving 74,571 adults in 12 U.S. states.
We can do better. Here are four practices to try now that may help improve your sleep habits:
- Make it routine: Go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day – even on weekends and days off – to stabilize your circadian rhythm, a 24-hour cycle during which patterns of brain activity, hormone production, cell regeneration and other biological processes take place.
- Surround–sound your sleep: Skip TV and other gadgets in the bedroom so it becomes a quiet, dark place where you can relax without interruption.
- Exercise earlier: A good workout can help you sleep more soundly at night, but don’t do it right before bed. Exercise stimulates your heart, brain and muscles, and it raises your body temperature, none of which are conducive to sleep.
- Take a hot bath: Need a little help winding down? Take a bath. The hot water will first raise your body temperature; the cool air when you get out will cause your body temperature to drop, signaling to your brain it’s time to sleep.
If you find yourself experiencing excessive daytime sleepiness and/or have the inability to fall or stay asleep, check in with your healthcare provider for a consultation.