Bill Riddell

Dead Tired – How to Sleep & Stop Killing Yourself

I-ve heard the phrase before, but it never ceases to shock me – “Sleep when I’m dead.”

To me that is completely the wrong attitude – if you are not sleeping correctly death will creep up on you sooner. Sleep deprivation has enormous affects on your health.

In the short term it can result in muscle pain (the body heals stressed muscles when you sleep), irritability, depression, poor memory and more.

In the long term it can contribute to Type 2 Diabetes, heart disease, mental illness, obesity and more. Sleep deprivation is even an effective form of torture.

Researchers have shown that people who have been awake for more than 16 hours are more of a risk driving than those with a blood alcohol content of .05 – it affects your motor skills and judgement. It is also shown to have a significant impact on school grades.

The sweet spot for sleep is between 7 – 9 hours, each night. Sleeping too much is almost as bad as getting not enough.

My Sleep Pattern

It has taken me a long time, though I can now say quite certainly that I have perfected my sleep cycle.

For me 7 hours and 15 minutes sleep is about perfect. I can wake up easily, jump out of bed feeling refreshed and full of energy. I try to go to bed between midnight and 2am waking between 7am and 9am. Sometimes it-s later if I have a reason to be up late and on other occasions I go to bed earlier if I have something I need to wake earlier for, my day job means I work very varied hours.

Regardless I usually set the alarm on my phone so it will wake me in 7 and a half hours time, allowing me 15 minutes to fall asleep. In the event I fall asleep quickly I often will wake 5 or 10 minutes before my alarm; when that happens I try to get up rather than wait for the alarm.

When the Pattern Breaks Down

Sometimes I cannot get my 7 and a quarter hours sleep for a variety of reasons. I may not be feeling well, I was late getting to bed but have to be up early or on occasion I just don’t sleep (when the weather changes my body often has difficulty adjusting and this often affects my sleep).

If you cannot get that much in a particular night have a power nap. When unable to get my full sleep I often take a nap or two of about 20 minutes, again setting an alarm to wake me. I find each nap erases the effect of missing about an hour from my sleep – but there is??obviously??diminishing returns after missing more than 3 hours sleep. When a??significant??amount??of sleep is missing (over several days or a week) I will generally make it up??progressively by sleeping in an extra hour or so over the next few days to erase the sleep debt .

When feeling sick or run-down I listen to my body and get more sleep, going to bed earlier or sleeping in if possible. Typically an extra hour or two will do, again if I don’t have the time available at night I may substitute it for a daytime nap – who doesn’t love a siesta.

If you need more sleep take it. However sometimes it is just because you-re not getting enough sunlight, which used to be the case with me.

Let the Sun Shine

My dad always talked about the importance of -getting some sunshine- when I was a kid, it was only until recently I realized he was onto something. I now try to get at least half an hour outside each day and avoid wearing sunglasses. I used to put them on whenever I went outside, now it-s generally only when looking into the direction of the sun (when driving , playing sport or sitting in a bad position).

Our body-s evolved with exposure to large amounts of sunshine, both on to our skin and filtered through our eyes – for many of us that exposure is almost non-existent and without going into the science behind this, basically it does affect our sleep. Now I-m not going to suggest we run around in nothing but loin cloths all day, but some exposure to the sun is important. An hour a day is more than enough – cancer is a very serious concern, so wear sunscreen and a hat, use sunglasses as I described and avoid being outside around 12-2pm when sun is at its brightest.

You-re Bed

One thing I would really recommend is a great bed. Mine cost more than my car. But it-s not great because its expensive, it could be useless for you, but for me it is perfect. I can lie down for just 10 minutes and feel so much better.

Spend a lot of time finding a great bed. I tried almost 70 beds over about a week in order to find the right one, some of them I laid on for more than 10 minutes. Sales people will think your weird, but if they want to sell you a bed they better get with the program.

Sleep

So there you have it, nothing to complex, sleep, be happy, be healthy and enjoy life.

Whats your sleep schedule like and how do you get to sleep?