EYE-OPENING SLEEP TIPS
How to get better rest
Sleep is the one part of life we might hope could remain trend-free. So when Gwyneth Paltrow wrote that she practises “clean sleeping,” you may have been tempted to pull the pillows over your head. But it’s nothing new.
“What she’ s referring to is what the medical community would call sleep hygiene,” says Dr. Laura Lefkowitz, who contributed to Paltrow’s new book, Goop Clean Beauty.
This means adopting good habits and avoiding bad ones, like using your phone before bed or eating too late. But now that research has connected lack of sleep to everything from heart disease to burnout, we need to stop taking it for granted.
“Our brains effectively wash away their waste toxins during sleep,” says sports sleep coach Nick Littlehales, author of a new book, Sleep. “Failure to get enough sleep and clear out these toxins is linked to a host of neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s.”
A person who gets less than six hours a night has a 13 per cent higher mortality risk than someone who sleeps seven to nine hours, says a study by the research organization RAND Europe.
WHY ARE WE SLEEPING SO BADLY?
RAND Europe interviewed 62,000 people and found that those without children under 18 sleep 4.2 minutes more per day than those with children. If your commute is 30 to 60 minutes (one way), you’ll likely sleep 9.2 minutes less per day than someone commuting for up to 15 minutes.
A study by Loughborough University found that 42 per cent of people said their partner snoring was the main thing keeping them from sleeping. But if so, a new bed might change your life. The Sleep Number 360 Smart Bed, due to go on sale this year, can detect snores and will raise the sleeper’s head a few degrees, clearing the airways.
Besides snoring, 55 per cent said going to the bathroom kept them awake. An old, uncomfortable bed was the next most common problem and 23 per cent said a partner using an electronic device in the bedroom stopped them drifting off.
HOW DO I GET BETTER SLEEP?
First, work out what type of sleeper you are. This is your “chronotype” and it governs what time your body naturally wants to do things such as waking up, having breakfast, and going to bed. We’re all naturally “AM-ers” or “PM-ers.”
Take an online test to determine your type, such as the University of Munich Chronotype Questionnaire, but you probably already have an idea: PM-ers rarely prioritize breakfast, for instance.
If you’re a PM-er, go to bed later and wake up later if that’s what makes you feel best, and vice versa if you’re in the AM camp.
HOW MANY HOURS DO I NEED?
Perceived wisdom says eight a night; Lefkowitz prefers nine and Paltrow aims for 10. But research suggests we should forget counting hours and start counting cycles.
“The brain has a pattern of sleep. It’s not like you just fall asleep and hour one is the same as hours two and three and five and nine,” says Lefkowitz.
“It goes through cycles. Within each there is non-REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, and then REM sleep.”
Non-REM sleep has three parts: dozing off, light sleep and deep sleep. The latter is the most important phase when the brain produces delta waves and the body cleans and resets itself.
REM sleep follows, during which time the brain is making new connections and processing what happened during the day.
It takes 90 minutes to go through one sleep cycle, says Littlehales.
In the first part of the night the non-REM periods in each cycle are long. They get shorter toward dawn and just before you wake up, you get almost no deep sleep.
So if you can sleep longer, you complete more cycles and every part of the brain and the body has its time to recuperate. Lefkowitz’s nine hours is the equivalent of a healthy six 90-minute cycles.