Sweet dreams: Getting the sleep you need
It helps us function every day and is important to long-term health and wellbeing, but about a quarter of Kiwis are struggling to get enough sleep.
How do you know if you’re among them?
According to Dr Karyn O’Keeffe, of Massey University’s Sleep Wake Research Centre, needing a weekend sleep-in (or two) is a good indication — and she says up to 27 per cent of us do.
“The average adult needs seven to nine hours’ sleep per night to function at their best and stay well. Some people need as little as six hours. Some people may need as many as 10, so it is individual. But outside of that range is not recommended.
“We think about 25 per cent of New Zealanders get less than seven hours’ sleep per night, so a good chunk of the population aren’t getting enough sleep.”
The immediate effects of lack of sleep included poor decision-making, poor communication, being grumpy and irritable, slower reaction times and being less productive at work, O’Keeffe said.
“In the long term, we know that missing out on sleep leads to type 2 diabetes, obesity, increased risk of stroke and heart disease.
“There’s some quite serious health effects if we miss out on sleep on a regular basis for a long period of time.” However, it isn’t just about quantity, the quality of sleep matters too.
While waking once or twice during the night was normal — although at times annoying — but awakening more than three times wasn’t ideal, O’Keeffe said.
As people age their sleep changes, but their need for it doesn’t.
“Basically we go from having relatively unbroken sleep to sleep that’s punctuated by little mini-awakenings, some of which we’re not aware of, but some can actually awaken us fully and they can frustrate us potentially if we’re awake for long periods,” said O’Keeffe. “It’s quite usual for our sleep to become more broken — so therefore it’s less refreshing — as we get older.” Elderly people often found it harder to sleep and so napped during the day.
The weather was also a factor — our bodies have to cool down before we can fall asleep, so during hot and humid nights people were often restless.
The best way to combat this was to “trick” your body that it was cooling down, she said.
“You can try and have a shower or a bath before bed that’s not too hot that basically heats yourself up a little bit so that you cool down as you’re going through the evening and you can maybe get off to sleep a bit easier.”
Opening a window to let hot air escape and making sure you don’t have too much bedding could also help.
“The other thing you can remember is that napping isn’t a bad idea. If you’re really not getting enough sleep at night-time maybe having a quick nap during the day or in the late afternoon could be a strategy.”