How well are most Arkansans sleeping these days?
According to a recent report from McKinsey & Company, around 50% of U.S. consumers now report wellness as a top priority in their day-to-day lives. This represents an 8% increase since 2020, even though the fitness industry hasn’t fully rebounded from the pandemic. This week, I’ll share some thoughts about trends to watch out for, and how to maximize the opportunities around you.
When I read the report (see arkansasonline.com/1030trends), I was a little confused. How could wellness be a top priority for half of the population while the fitness industry continues to struggle? Then, I looked at the data a little closer. People define “wellness” much more broadly than fitness. Areas like sleep, mindfulness and nutrition are all cited as components of wellness above and beyond physical fitness.
Among Gen Z consumers, around 37% indicated a desire for additional products and services in the mindfulness and sleep category. Born from 1997-2012, the Gen Z population includes ages 1126. This struck me as odd, because those were the years that I had the best sleep of my lifetime.
But then I realized something very different: Social media didn’t exist when I was in high school and college. Heck, we barely had cellphones.
I’m pontificating here, but I’m guessing that there is a relationship between social media use and sleep quality, as well as mindfulness.
On my 2023 goal sheet, I added mindfulness as one of my key priorities for the year. Why? Because every 5 minutes, I receive some kind of notification on my phone. It’s either an email, tweet, Instagram update, Facebook update, text or an actual phone call (rare). I’ve found success in suppressing those notifications: I can see them when I choose to go into one of the apps.
But I’m wondering about the general readership of this column, as well. On the McKinsey & Company report, better sleep was the second highest priority across all age categories. Nearly half reported an interest in improving their quality and quantity of sleep. Is this also the case among Arkansans?
Please feel free to email me, I’d love to hear if this is the case for you, too.
In the meantime, my best advice is to remain physically active. There’s plenty of research showing that cognitive functioning and sleep quality are both improved with movement, and I’ve got a great exercise to share this week. The Kneeling Cable Row is simple, but it works the core muscles while targeting the arms and back.
1. Position one pulley of a cable machine about 2 feet off the ground.
2. Attach a straight bar to the pulley, and adjust the weight to medium/heavy.
3. Kneel on your right knee about 2 feet in front of the pulley.
4. Grasp the straight bar with an underhand grip.
5. With very upright posture, pull the straight bar toward your chest.
6. Squeeze between the shoulder blades as you pull.
7. Once the bar reaches your chest, slowly return to the starting position. Do two sets of 12.
This exercise is appropriate for all fitness levels, but the key is maintaining good upright posture throughout the set. That’s not easy to do, as the front-loaded resistance will tend to pull your torso forward. Tighten the abdominals and lower back muscles to counterbalance the resistance, and move slowly throughout the range of motion. Let’s do this!