HOW TO SLEEP YOUR WAY TO BETTER HEALTH
If you slept more, would you be more likely to remember your mom’s birthday? To inhale fewer bagels? To turn down a deal for the Brooklyn Bridge? Very possibly. Research shows that when you don’t get enough sleep, you forget things you otherwise wouldn’t, develop cravings for simple carbohydrates, and make dumb decisions.
Your brain uses sleep time to catch up on important chores, says Dr. Alon Avidan, professor of neurology and director of the UCLA Sleep Disorders Center. These include organizing memories, making repairs, and clearing out the mess that has accumulated during the day, including harmful neurotoxins.
“Without enough sleep, your brain can’t go through this cleaning process,” Avidan says.
Some 50 to 70 million adults in the United States have problems sleeping, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And that can spell all kinds of trouble. Science has linked chronic sleep loss to any number of health issues, including heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression and anxiety. Though statistics are hard to come by, experts believe that driving when you’re too tired is as dangerous as driving when you’ve had too much to drink.
Avidan says most adults need seven or eight hours of sleep every night. “Very few can do well with less,” he explains, “and some need even more.”
He also warns that it’s not easy to make up for lost time. If you consistently get too little sleep during the week, your debt adds up. You can’t hope to settle accounts just by doing better on the weekend.
Alas, there’s a lack of foolproof techniques for falling asleep when you want to, but many find the following tips useful. They’re from Avidan, the National Sleep Foundation and Dr. Suzanne Stevens, a sleep neurologist at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City:
Stick to a schedule. Always go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time. Be sure your bedroom is quiet, dark and has a comfortable temperature. Don’t nap too much, and never late in the day or for too long. Avoid exercise within three hours of bedtime. Avoid caffeine after 1 or 2 pm. Avoid alcohol within one or two hours of bedtime. Don’t watch TV or work on the computer close to bedtime. Don’t bring your phone or laptop to bed. Don’t eat too much too late, though snacking on such sleep-promoters as turkey, milk, granola, banana or tart cherry juice may be useful. Take a warm bath before bedtime.
It’s counterproductive to try to fall asleep when you’re feeling wide awake or obsessed with stressful thoughts. Get up, move to a different room, and try to bore yourself with a dull book. Only when you start feeling drowsy should you go back to bed.
As Avidan tells his patients, “Bed should only be used for sleep, sickness and sex.”