How much is sleep Important?

Let's get into the science of sleep so we can use that time more efficiently and wake up refreshed. 

So, why is sleep important? 

You have all heard that you should get about eight hours of sleep a night. In reality, the amount of sleep that each individual requires varies and it changes with age. For most of you, seven to nine hours should be your target. People generally underestimate the amount they need. While there are some people who naturally require only six hours of sleep or even less, chances are that is not you.

 Doctors are taught in medical school how important sleep is for health, cognitive and physical function. Yet they are some of the worst offenders when it comes to depriving themselves of sleep. So, rather than being a hypocrite and telling you to get more sleep, I will instead go over how to make those hours in bed go further,but for the sake of completeness. 

Let's briefly remind ourselves why sleep is so crucial and why sleep deprivation is bad. 

First, your health suffers. 

Long-term sleep deprivation has been linked to some serious health consequences that you do not want. These include hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, heart attack and stroke. 

Your cognitive function declines as well. 

Sleep deprivation has been strongly linked with decreases in attention capacity and working memory. There are other cognitive functions that show to decline such as reaction time, auditory and visual spatial attention and serial addition and subtraction tasks. Sleep deprivation also increases rigid thinking and makes it more difficult to utilize new information in complex tasks requiring innovative decision-making. We also know that sleep is crucial for memory consolidation; meaning, making things actually stick. Therefore, it's not surprising that sleep deprivation also affects your long-term memory. 

Third: physical function.

 In a fascinating study conducted at Stanford, researchers subjected college basketball players to a five to seven week period of increased sleep. Participants obtained as much each night as possible attempting to spend 10 hours in bed. And the scientists then measured their physical performance. After this sleep extension period, subjects had faster sprints, improved shooting accuracy and scored better on assessments of physical and mental well-being. So now you know the health cognitive and physical ramifications of not getting enough sleep. But let's face it, you and I both know that you will not be getting those 7 to 9 hours every night. 

So, what can we do about it?

 One of the most important concepts to sleeping better is understanding that quality is more important than quantity. Meaning, getting six or seven hours of highquality sleep will do more good than getting eight or nine hours of low quality sleep. Studies have shown that average sleep quality is more important than sleep quantity in terms of health, balance, satisfaction with life, feelings of tension, depression, anger, fatigue and confusion. 

You are probably already getting disturbed during your sleep and you don't even realize it. Studies have shown that nocturnal noise, particularly traffic noise can fragment your sleep even if you do not wake up or acknowledge it. It changes the amount of time spent in different sleep stages, increasing the amount of time in shallow sleep and decreasing the amount of time in deeper slow-wave or REM sleep. This has significant effects on sleep quality and recuperation. 

Even though people are unconscious and do not notice these sounds while asleep, they can differentiate between nights with low and high degrees of noise exposure because they feel better after quiet nights. Now, in my own life, I have noticed periods where I felt amazing after 6 or 7 hours and times where I felt slow and groggy after 8 or more hours. The secret was again sleep quality. Maintaining a routine and regular sleep schedule by going to bed and waking up at the same time made a huge difference for me. 

Study Smart During Lockdown

"A simple solution to 
the sleep  disturbance 
would be earplugs and a
 face mask or blackout 
curtains. "

Sleep occurs in stages, from stages one, two, three, four and REM, standing for rapid eye movement which is when dreaming occurs. When you first fall asleep, you're in early stages of sleep and over time you go deeper, having cycled through them, spending more and more time in deeper sleep. Because of this, power naps should be a maximum of twenty or so minutes. This is long enough to get you into stage 2 sleep which helps boost your memory and creativity. Longer naps are subject to increase sleep inertia, meaning it sucks waking up. If you nap for 30 to 60 minutes, you will enter slow-wave sleep which is good for decision making but you will wake up groggy. REM sleep occurs at 60 to 90 minutes, but again, you will wake up groggy. Therefore, shorter power naps are your best bet. Taking naps that are too long won't only leave you feeling groggy but will also decrease the sleep that necessary for sleep onset. That means it will be more difficult for you to fall asleep at night. 

Another interesting concept is coffee naps.

 Here's how they work; drink a cup of coffee, then take a nap for 20 minutes. By the time you are waking up, the coffee has been absorbed by the small intestine, passed into your blood and is carrying out its effects on your brain. Some studies have even shown that coffee naps demonstrate improved cognitive performance compared to naps alone. 

Now, while coffee naps are a good idea, consuming caffeine before bedtime is not going to do you any favors. Caffeine shortens phases 3 & 4 of the sleep cycle which are deeper phases of sleep. Studies have shown that caffeine even six hours before bedtime has a significant effect on sleep disturbance. Now, alcohol; alcohol may help you fall asleep faster but the quality of sleep suffers. It does technically increase slow-wave Delta sleep patterns, which is a good thing. But it also increases alpha activity which generally occurs when you are resting quietly. Combined, alpha and delta wave activity in the brain translates to poorer sleep. It also blocks REM sleep which is considered to be the most restorative type of sleep. It also doesn't help that it's a diuretic and you'll be waking up to use the bathroom more frequently.

 What are your thoughts on power naps and specifically coffee naps? Have you tried them? I would love to hear your comments below. 

Study Smart, Not Hard