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A new study shows those with a later work schedule get more sleep, which has prompted experts to suggest a later workday, according to Vox.
Updated by Susannah Locke on December 17, 2014, 9:10 a.m. ET
If you've ever wished you didn't have to get to work until later in the morning, you're not alone. A new study shows that those who start work later also get more sleep. And that's led some health experts to suggest that pushing back the workday could be a good idea.
Roughly 40 percent of Americans are sleeping less than they should. And a new study, published in the journal SLEEP, found that the main thing people were doing instead of sleeping was working. "It was evident across all sociodemographic strata no matter how we approached the question," study co-author Mathias Basner, a sleep psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania, said in an email.
It's tough to get people to work less and sleep more. But the researchers did find suggestive evidence of at least one potential remedy. For every hour later in the day that people started working, they got 20 more minutes of sleep. The researchers found a similar pattern for what time students started classes:
The study used data from the American Time Use Survey that the US Bureau of Labor Statistics does each year. Overall, they examined the habits of 124,517 people. We don't know yet if the timing of the workday actuallycauses more sleep
There are several key caveats for this study, many of which were pointed out by either the authors themselves or by Lauren Hale, a public-health expert at SUNY Stony Brook, in an accompanying editorial published in the same issue of the journal.
For one, this dataset can only show correlations. It cannot determine that any factor really causes more or less sleep, or vice versa. As Hale notes: "It could also be that those who are short sleepers intentionally select jobs with earlier schedules (or those who prioritize long sleep do not consider jobs with earlier, more rigid schedules)."
She also writes that it's unclear if having people cut back on, say, paid work or commuting time would actually translate to more sleep: "Perhaps an extra hour in one's day will lead to more time eating potato chips on the couch rather than sleeping more?"
The only way to figure that out, though, is to go ahead and do an experiment and get people — and/or their bosses — to try it out.
But Starting The Workday Later Could Still Decrease Social Jetlag
There's actually another benefit to starting the workday later. Helping people get more sleep is the obvious one. But the other is that it would keep sleep schedules more consistent throughout the week, decreasing what researchers call "social jetlag."
There's increasing evidence that when people are sleeping can be as important as how muchthey're sleeping. Even if you get your recommended eight hours a night, you can still feel terrible if you are going to sleep and waking up at different times over the course of the week. And that's what most people are doing — essentially putting their brains through jetlag. It's one reason why so many people end up feeling terrible on Monday mornings.
SOCIAL JETLAG HAS BEEN LINKED TO OBESITY
Over the past few years, some research has been indicating that even a modest variation in waking and sleeping times can create serious health issues. For example, in 2012, German research Till Roenneberg co-authored a study that found that even the normal social jetlag that occurs between weekdays and weekends was correlated with increased body-mass index for overweight people. A lag of just one hour increases the likelihood of obesity by about a third.
So what can be done about it? There are really only two ways to fix social jetlag: either get up early on the weekends (ick) or sleep in later on workdays (hooray, hooray). Not everyone can just show up late for work every day. Here's how to get more sleep, anyway:
The new SLEEP study noted several correlations that might be a little easier to get a handle on. It linked shorter sleep to watching more TV at night and spending more time grooming in the morning. So maybe there's something you can cut down on there. Like high maintenance hair.
There are also things you can do that didn't happen to be covered in the study. These include limiting caffeine in the afternoon, seeking out bright light in the morning and avoiding it before bed (including from glowing screens), and keeping regular wake and bedtimes through the week — even on weekends.
If you find it hard to sleep sometimes, you are not alone. The good news is, there are certain foods that can help you sleep easily. Know these foods to help you sleep the right time. (Photo : Getty Images )
There are slow nights that make sleeping like a test. Sometimes sleeping becomes really complicated that make you reach out for something, or grab anything that could make you sleep. If you are one of the many people who find sleeping a hard task, here are eight foods that will put you to sleep: Cheese and crackers are foods that can help you sleep. Earlier, we have known that warm milk can stimulate sleep. But the reason behind this is all dairy food sources can actually help. Dairy is rich in calcium that aids in the release of sleep-triggering melatonin by tryptophan.
Lettuce contains lactucarium, an effective sedative. Lettuce can be added to salads and best eaten during dinner or you can also make brewed lettuce with mint just before heading to bed. This is a proven food that can help you sleep in no time.
Rice is a food that is proven to stimulate sleep. Because it is high in glycemic index, it can easily make you fall asleep after consuming a cup of rice on dinner. If you want to fall asleep faster, a type of rice that can do the task is jasmine rice.
Pretzels and other foods high in glycemic index can increase blood sugar and insulin levels that also aid tryptophan's release that will make sleep easier.
Tuna, salmon and halibut are fish sources that are rich in vitamin B6. These foods with vitamin B6 help in producing serotonin and melatonin, the hormone in the brain that triggers sleep.
Walnuts are rich source of tryptophan. It is a powerful amino acid that enhances sleep by making melatonin and serotonin in the brain. These are "body clock" hormone that sets your sleeping pattern. Melatonin is a known induce-sleeping hormone that would keep sleepless nights at bay.
Tart cherry juice is proven to induce sleep based on a study done at the Louisiana State University. Older adults drinking at least 8 ounces of tart cherry juice twice a day sleeps longer than those on placebos. Tart Cherry juice is house to melatonin and antioxidants that make sleep easier to attain.
Whole grain toast with Almond butter is a sure combination that can make you fall asleep. One tablespoon of Almond butter is rich source of magnesium that induces sleeping. Magnesium is present in many foods including almonds, pumpkin seeds, wheat germ, and green leafy vegetables. People lacking in magnesium finds it hard to sleep based on studies. Whole grain is also a rich source of magnesium.
Aside from the foods that can help you sleep better, certain habits and lifestyle changes must also be done for you to have a healthy sleeping habit.
Avoid watching TV or using your computer and other gadgets during your sleeping time, you can also avoid foods that contain tyramine such as pork, chocolates, tomatoes, potatoes and wine that easily converts to noradrenaline, a brin stimulant.
Avoid stimulants like cigarette because nicotine makes smokers stay awake longer at night.
Breathing problems or a chronic lack of sleep early in life may double the risk that a child will be obese by age 15, according to research published Thursday in The Journal of Pediatrics.
December 11, 201410:54 AM ET
ALISON BRUZEK
Sleep tight — and quietly, please.
ImageZoo/Corbis
A solid night's sleep does more than recharge a growing brain — it may also help keep a growing body lean.
Breathing problems or a chronic lack of sleep early in life may double the risk that a child will be obese by age 15, according to research published Thursday in The Journal of Pediatrics.
Childhood obesity has been linked before with the number of hours a kid sleeps each night. But other early problems with nighttime breathing — like snoring, or the more serious sleep apnea — also seem to be predictive of significant weight gain among children, according to the research.
It's the first study to look at both sleep duration and breathing problems as separate risk factors for obesity, says Karen Bonuck, professor of family and social medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and lead author.
"Sleep problems need to be thought of as a composite," she tells Shots. "It's not just sleep duration, sleep hygiene, sleep-disordered breathing. We need to think about healthy sleep overall, and we need to think about it early."
To examine sleep habits and how they might predict a child's body mass index, Bonuck and her colleagues used the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, which tracked 1,900 children in England for 15 years.
The mothers surveyed were asked how long their children typically slept at ages 18 months, 2.5 years, about 5 years, 6 years and 7 years. They also reported any sleeping problems like snoring, apnea or mouth breathing between the ages of 6 months and about 7 years old. Finally, the survey collected the height and weight of the children at ages 7 years, 10 years and 15 years.
They found that children who had multiple sleeping problems were twice as likely to be obese by age 7, 10 or 15 years, compared with those who had no problems. At age 15, 9.7 percent of teens with no sleep problems were obese, compared with 18.3 percent of those with multiple sleep problems.
In addition, children who slept less than 10 hours per night at ages 5 and 6 years were more likely to be obese at age 15.
While the study could only confirm an association, not causality, it makes sense that children who don't get enough solid sleep are tired, and may eat more, sleep scientists say. "Some of this actually might be related to certain hormones that regulate appetite," says Dr. Rakesh Bhattacharjee, a pediatric sleep medicine specialist at the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital.
Another theory holds that poor sleep quality or short duration may cause stress on the body that leads to inflammation.
Though many questions about sleep's effects and mechanisms remain, all agree it's important, especially in growing children, Bonuck says. Newborns should get around 16 to 18 hours per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and preschoolers 11 to 12 hours.
Parents should look for early signals, Bonuck says. Noisy or halted breathing at night could mean something serious is amiss. "Watch your child," she says. "Does she or he snore more than three times a week?"
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all children who snore regularly be screened for sleep apnea — partly because it's easier to prevent childhood obesity than to treat it. "As Benjamin Franklin once said, 'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,' " Bonuck says. "Pun intended."
Evidence Mounts for Poor Sleep/Pediatric Obesity Connection
Sleep-related breathing problems and chronic lack of sleep may each double the risk of a child becoming obese by age 15, according to new research from Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. The good news is that both sleep problems can be corrected. The study, which followed nearly 2,000 children for 15 years, published online in The Journal of Pediatrics.
“In recent years, lack of sleep has become a well-recognized risk for childhood obesity,” said Karen Bonuck, Ph.D., professor of family and social medicine and of obstetrics & gynecology and women’s health at Einstein and lead author on the paper. “Sleep-disordered breathing, or SDB, which includes snoring and sleep apnea, is also a risk factor for obesity but receives less attention. These two risk factors had not been tracked together in children over time to determine their potential for independently influencing weight gain. Our study aimed to fill in that gap.”
Dr. Bonuck and her colleagues used data collected on 1,899 children by the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) based in Avon, England. ALSPAC collected parent questionnaire data on both child sleep duration and SDB symptoms from birth through 6.75 years and child BMI data from research ALSPAC clinics.
Sleep-disordered breathing
The researchers found that children with the most severe SDB had the greatest risk for obesity. Those children who fell into the “worst case” SDB category were twice as likely to become obese by 7, 10 and 15 years of age, compared to the asymptomatic group. Children considered “worst case” scored highest for SDB symptoms of snoring, sleep apnea or mouth-breathing.
Children whose SDB peaked later, around 5 to 6 years old, fared better but still had a 60 to 80 percent increased risk of becoming obese. Overall, one-fourth of children in this population-based cohort had an increased statistical risk of obesity that arose from SDB symptoms experienced earlier in life. Obesity was defined as BMI greater than the 95th percentile for age and gender, according to the International Obesity Task Force.
Sleep duration
With respect to sleep duration, children with the shortest sleep time at approximately 5 and 6 years of age had a 60 to 100 percent increased risk of being obese at 15 years. Children with short sleep duration at other ages saw no significant increase in risk. (In this study, children with short sleep duration were those who, in any given age group, slept less than 90 percent of their peers. For those aged 5 and 6 years old, this was 10.5 hours a night or less.)
Interestingly, SDB and lack of sleep were equally strong risk factors for obesity, but their effects were independent of each other. The researchers looked for associations between short-sleep-duration children and SDB children across all age groups included in the study but did not find clustering, i.e., there was little evidence that children with one risk factor were more likely to also be affected by the other. The study did not analyze whether children affected by both of the sleep-related risk factors were at greater risk for obesity than were children who had just one risk factor.
It's bad enough being one of the millions of people suffering from sleep-disturbing conditions like emphysema and sleep apnea, waking up tired or having your spouse complain about your loud snoring. Now a new study reveals even scarier effects of not getting enough quality sleep.
Findings unveiled today in the journal Neurology, links the effects of sleep disturbances to brain changes that could lead to dementia later in life. Researchers looked at a cohort of 167 Japanese-American men with an average age of 84, following the mens' sleep patterns from the start of the study until their death, an average of six years later.
They found that lower blood oxygen levels at night, due to sleep disturbances, made men more likely to have harmful brain changes. The men with the lowest levels of blood oxygen were four times as likely to have brain abnormalities than men with higher levels. Those who had less deep sleep, or "slow wave sleep," were also more likely to have lost brain cells.
"These findings suggest that low blood oxygen levels and reduced slow wave sleep may contribute to the processes that lead to cognitive decline and dementia," study author Rebecca P. Gelber of the VA Pacific Islands Health Care System said in a release. "More research is needed to determine how slow wave sleep may play a restorative role in brain function and whether preventing low blood oxygen levels may reduce the risk of dementia."
Various studies have cautioned of the negative effects of lack of quality sleep on the brain. A Temple University study found that mice who were sleep deprived showed more plaques and tangles in the brain, a hallmark of Alzheimer's, as well as memory problems, in just eight weeks. Another study found that in older men, sleep disturbances increased the risk of Alzheimer's by up to 50 percent.
The researchers say that more studies could show whether or not getting more quality sleep or increasing blood oxygen levels could actually have the reverse effect on brain changes. Until then, let's all try to get a better night's rest.
IMPROVING YOUR SLEEP
Get Moving
Exercise 30 minutes a day. Nothing exotic is required; a good half-hour stroll will do the trick, but avoid exercising within three to four hours of bedtime.
Limit Caffeine
Limit the use of all caffeinated beverages (coffee, tea, soft drinks) throughout the day and do not consume any after lunch.
Talk To Your Doctor
Check all of your medicines with your doctor to see if they could be affecting your sleep.
Make The Bedroom A Bedroom
Use the bedroom just for sleep. It may be time to invest in earplugs, an eye mask or even heavier curtains to block out extra light and sound. Don't be afraid to give fidgeting pets the boot and avoid eating, watching television or finishing work in the bedroom.
Adjust Room Temperature
Make sure your bedroom is cool, dark and quiet. Try adjusting the temperature of the bedroom for a more optimal sleeping environment. (For easier temperature regulation throughout the night, ditch the singular heavy comforter and opt for piling on light layers that can be easily kicked off as needed.)
Sign Off Every night budget a "pre-sleep" period of time (say, a half-hour) to read a book or watch the TV news, and then go to the bedroom with lights out after the period is up. Don't ruminate. Practice "thought-stopping"where you only allow yourself to worry about a problem during daytime hours. Refrain from checking texts and e-mails (physically banish your cell to a different room if necessary!) before and during your bedtime routine.
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — We’ve all heard of getting beauty sleep, but what if getting that rest actually contributed to wrinkles? Some doctors say it all depends on how you use your pillow.
If you think a little shut-eye rejuvenates you for the day ahead, Dr. Michael Kane says think again.
“People don’t realize this, but for a third of your life, you’re laying on a pillow that is ripping and shearing the ligaments under your skin,” he told CBS2’s Alex Denis.
That means you may get sleep wrinkles.
“These diagonal wrinkles along the jaw line, the diagonal wrinkles on the forehead and even vertical wrinkles on your cheek,” Kane said.
Many women weren’t thrilled by the news.
“We’re always trying to stay young, usingbeauty products, and now you can’t even sleep peacefully,” said Debbie Siricl.
But it also affects men.“Men and woman both get sleep wrinkles depending on how they sleep on their pillows,” said Kane.
Many people choose to have filler injected to soften the look of sleep wrinkles, but there are a number of products available that say they’ll lessen the formation of wrinkles from sleep.
One option is called the JuveRest pillow.
“It does help to cradle your head so you sleep on your back, not rolling side to side,” said Kane. “If you’re a side sleeper, there’s a side pocket for your head and you’re shoulder.”
By Agata Blaszczak-Boxe, Contributing Writer | December 02, 2014 02:09pm ET
The amount of time people spend sleeping is linked with two regions of their DNA, a new studysuggests.
In the study, researchers examined data from more than 47,000 people of European ancestry who were participating in ongoing studies in Europe, the United States and Australia, and nearly 5,000 African-Americans. The researchers compared people's genetic information with how long they reported sleeping on an average night.
The first of the two regions was associated with longer-than-average sleeping times, the new study showed. In previous research, this region has also been linked with better glucose metabolism and a lower likelihood of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The other region was associated with shorter-than-average sleeping times, and previous studies had linked it with an increased risk of depression and schizophrenia.
"Sleep patterns are influenced by genetic differences," said study author Dr. Daniel Gottlieb, the director of the Sleep Disorders Center at VA Boston Healthcare System. "This study is one of the first to begin identifying these genetic differences, and will hopefully help us better understand the causes of sleep disorders and their relation to other important conditions, such as diabetes and psychiatric disorders." [5 Things You Must Know About Sleep]
Previous research has linked both sleeping too much and sleeping too little with health problems such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, psychiatric illness and even premature mortality, according to the study. For example, in a 2013 study published in the journal PLOS ONE, researchers found that the risk of type 2 diabetes was 30 percent higher in people who slept less than six hours per night, compared with the risk in people who slept seven hours.
In an October 2013 study, researchers at the Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention found that sleeping either less than six hours or more than 10 hours per night was linked with a great risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, and diabetes and obesity, compared with getting seven to nine hours of sleep a night. And, in a study published in February 2013 in the journal Sleep, researchers found that people who got less than six hours of sleep per night had an increased risk of dying prematurely.
The researchers do not know what underlying mechanisms may explain the observed association between sleep duration and the two genetic regions identified in the new study, Gottlieb said. "This will require more detailed study of these regions of DNA," he said.
However, the researchers speculated that the first gene region identified in the study (the one associated with longer sleep duration) may influence sleep patterns by regulating thyroid hormone levels. The DNA region is located close to a gene called PAX8, which is involved in thyroid development and function. Moreover, people with hypothyroidism — a condition in which the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormones — are prone to excessive sleepiness, whereas those with hyperthyroidism (in which the thyroid makes too much of the hormone) may have insomnia, the researchers wrote in the study.
However, because the timing and duration of sleep are strongly influenced by environmental factors such as work schedule and other social demands, "large numbers of individuals must be studied in order to separate out genetic influences," Gottlieb said.
The new study was published today (Dec. 2) in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
Friday, December 5, 2014
Notes from Dr. Norman Blumenstock
Sleep Deprivation can occur from either poor quality of sleep like obstructive sleep apnea or form just not getting enough hours of bed time.
The next time you tell yourself that you’ll sleep when you’re dead, realize that you’re making a decision that can make that day come much sooner. Pushing late into the night is a health and productivity killer.
According to the Division of Sleep Medicine at the Harvard Medical School, the short-term productivity gains from skipping sleep to work are quickly washed away by the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation on your mood, ability to focus, and access to higher-level brain functions for days to come. The negative effects of sleep deprivation are so great that people who are drunk outperform those lacking sleep.
Why You Need Adequate Sleep to Perform
We’ve always known that sleep is good for your brain, but new research from the University of Rochester provides the first direct evidence for why your brain cells need you to sleep (and sleep the right way—more on that later). The study found that when you sleep your brain removes toxic proteins from its neurons that are by-products of neural activity when you’re awake. Unfortunately, your brain can remove them adequately only while you’re asleep. So when you don’t get enough sleep, the toxic proteins remain in your brain cells, wreaking havoc by impairing your ability to think—something no amount of caffeine can fix.
Skipping sleep impairs your brain function across the board. It slows your ability to process information and problem solve, kills your creativity, and catapults your stress levels and emotional reactivity.
What Sleep Deprivation Does to Your Health
Sleep deprivation is linked to a variety of serious health problems, including heart attack, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. It stresses you out because your body overproduces the stress hormone cortisol when it’s sleep deprived. While excess cortisol has a host of negative health effects that come from the havoc it wreaks on your immune system, it also makes you look older, because cortisol breaks down skin collagen, the protein that keeps skin smooth and elastic. In men specifically, not sleeping enough reduces testosterone levels and lowers sperm count.
Too many studies to list have shown that people who get enough sleep live longer, healthier lives, but I understand that sometimes this isn’t motivation enough. So consider this—not sleeping enough makes you fat. Sleep deprivation compromises your body’s ability to metabolize carbohydrates and control food intake. When you sleep less you eat more and have more difficulty burning the calories you consume. Sleep deprivation makes you hungrier by increasing the appetite-stimulating hormone ghrelin and makes it harder for you to get full by reducing levels of the satiety-inducing hormone leptin. People who sleep less than 6 hours a night are 30% more likely to become obese than those who sleep 7 to 9 hours a night.
How Much Sleep Is Enough?
Most people need 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night to feel sufficiently rested. Few people are at their best with less than 7 hours, and few require more than 9 without an underlying health condition. And that’s a major problem, since more than half of Americans get less than the necessary 7 hours of sleep each night, according to the National Sleep Foundation.
For go-getters, it’s even worse.
A recent survey of Inc. 500 CEOs found that half of them are sleeping less than 6 hours a night. And the problem doesn’t stop at the top. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a third of U.S. workers get less than 6 hours of sleep each night, and sleep deprivation costs U.S. businesses more than $63 billion annually in lost productivity.
Doing Something about It
Beyond the obvious sleep benefits of thinking clearly and staying healthy, the ability to manage your emotions and remain calm under pressure has a direct link to your performance. TalentSmart has conducted research with more than a million people, and we’ve found that 90% of top performers are high in emotional intelligence (EQ). These individuals are skilled at understanding and using emotions to their benefit, and good sleep hygiene is one of the greatest tools at their disposal.
High-EQ individuals know it’s not just how much you sleep that matters, but also how you sleep. When life gets in the way of getting the amount of sleep you need, it’s absolutely essential that you increase the quality of your sleep through good sleep hygiene. There are many hidden killers of quality sleep. The strategies that follow will help you identify these killers and clean up your sleep hygiene. Follow them, and you’ll reap the performance and health benefits that come with getting the right quantity and quality of sleep.
Stay Away from Sleeping Pills
When I say sleeping pills, I mean anything you take that sedates you so that you can sleep. Whether it’s alcohol, Nyquil, Benadryl, Valium, Ambien, or what have you, these substances greatly disrupt your brain’s natural sleep process. Have you ever noticed that sedatives can give you some really strange dreams? As you sleep and your brain removes harmful toxins, it cycles through an elaborate series of stages, at times shuffling through the day’s memories and storing or discarding them (which causes dreams). Sedation interferes with these cycles, altering the brain’s natural process.
Anything that interferes with the brain’s natural sleep process has dire consequences for the quality of your sleep. Many of the strategies that follow eliminate factors that disrupt this recovery process. If getting off sleeping pills proves difficult, make certain you try some of the other strategies (such as cutting down on caffeine) that will make it easier for you to fall asleep naturally and reduce your dependence upon sedatives.
Stop Drinking Caffeine (at Least after Lunch)
You can sleep more and vastly improve the quality of the sleep you get by reducing your caffeine intake. Caffeine is a powerful stimulant that interferes with sleep by increasing adrenaline production and blocking sleep-inducing chemicals in the brain. Caffeine has a 6-hour half-life, which means it takes a full 24 hours to work its way out of your system. Have a cup of joe at 8 a.m., and you’ll still have 25% of the caffeine in your body at 8 p.m. Anything you drink after noon will still be near 50% strength at bedtime. Any caffeine in your bloodstream—the negative effects increasing with the dose—makes it harder to fall and stay asleep.
When you do finally fall asleep, the worst is yet to come. Caffeine disrupts the quality of your sleep by reducing rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, the deep sleep when your body recuperates most. When caffeine disrupts your sleep, you wake up the next day with a cognitive and emotional handicap. You’ll be naturally inclined to grab a cup of coffee or an energy drink to try to make yourself feel more alert, which very quickly creates a vicious cycle.
Avoid Blue Light at Night
This is a big one—most people don’t even realize it impacts their sleep. Short-wavelength blue light plays an important role in your mood, energy level, and sleep quality. In the morning, sunlight contains high concentrations of this “blue” light. When your eyes are exposed to it directly (not through a window or while wearing sunglasses), the blue light halts production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin and makes you feel more alert. This is great, and exposure to a.m. sunlight can improve your mood and energy levels. If the sun isn’t an option for you, try a blue light device.
In the afternoon, the sun’s rays lose their blue light, which allows your body to produce melatonin and start making you sleepy. By the evening, your brain does not expect any blue light exposure and is very sensitive to it. The problem this creates for sleep is that most of our favorite evening devices—laptops, tablets, televisions, and mobile phones—emit short-wavelength blue light. And in the case of your laptop, tablet, and phone, they do so brightly and right in your face. This exposure impairs melatonin production and interferes with your ability to fall asleep as well as with the quality of your sleep once you do nod off. Remember, the sleep cycle is a daylong process for your brain. When you confuse your brain by exposing it in the evening to what it thinks is a.m. sunlight, this derails the entire process with effects that linger long after you power down. The best thing you can do is avoid these devices after dinner (television is okay for most people as long as they sit far enough away from the set). If you must use one of these devices in the evening, you can limit your exposure with a filter or protective eye wear.
Wake Up at the Same Time Every Day
Consistency is key to a good night’s sleep, especially when it comes to waking up. Waking up at the same time every day improves your mood and sleep quality by regulating your circadian rhythm. When you have a consistent wake-up time, your brain acclimates to this and moves through the sleep cycle in preparation for you to feel rested and alert at your wake-up time. Roughly an hour before you wake, hormone levels increase gradually (along with your body temperature and blood pressure), causing you to become more alert. This is why you’ll often find yourself waking up right before your alarm goes off.
When you don’t wake up at the same time every day, your brain doesn’t know when to complete the sleep process and when it should prepare you to be awake. Long ago, sunlight ensured a consistent wake-up time. These days, an alarm is the only way most people can pull this off, and doing this successfully requires resisting the temptation to sleep in when you’re feeling tired because you know you’ll actually feel better by keeping your wake-up time in tact.
No Binge Sleeping (In) on the Weekend
Sleeping in on the weekend is a counterproductive way to catch up on your sleep. It messes with your circadian rhythm by giving you an inconsistent wake-up time. When you wake up at the same time during the work week but sleep past this time on the weekend, you end up feeling groggy and tired because your brain hasn’t prepared your body to be awake. This isn’t a big deal on your day off, but it makes you less productive on Monday because it throws your cycle off and makes it hard to get going again on your regular schedule.
Learn How Much Sleep You Really Need
The amount of sleep you need is something that you can’t control, and scientists are beginning to discover the genes that dictate it. The problem is, most people sleep much less than they really need and are under-performing because they think they’re getting enough. Some discover this the hard way. Ariana Huffington was one of those frantic types who underslept and overworked, until she collapsed unexpectedly from exhaustion one afternoon. She credits her success and well-being since then to the changes she’s made to her sleep habits. “I began getting 30 minutes more sleep a night, until gradually I got to 7 to 8 hours. The result has been transformational,” Huffington says, adding that, “all the science now demonstrates unequivocally that when we get enough sleep, everything is better: our health; our mental capacity and clarity; our joy at life; and our ability to live life without reacting to every bad thing that happens.”
Huffington isn’t the only one. Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, and Sheryl Sandberg have all touted the virtues of getting enough sleep. Even Bill Gates, an infamous night owl, has affirmed the benefits of figuring out how much sleep you really need: “I like to get 7 hours of sleep a night because that’s what I need to stay sharp and creative and upbeat.” It’s time to bite the bullet and start going to bed earlier until you find the magic number that enables you to perform at your best.
Stop Working
When you work in the evening, it puts you into a stimulated, alert state when you should be winding down and relaxing in preparation for sleep. Recent surveys show that roughly 60% of people monitor their smartphones for work emails until they go to sleep. Staying off blue light-emitting devices (discussed above) after a certain time each evening is also a great way to avoid working so you can relax and prepare for sleep, but any type of work before bed should be avoided if you want quality sleep.
Eliminate Interruptions
Unfortunately for those with small children, the quality of your sleep does suffer when it is interrupted. The key here is to eliminate all the interruptions that are under your control. If you have loud neighbors, wear earplugs to bed. If your mother likes to call at all hours of the night, make certain you silence your ringer before you go to bed. If you had to wake up extra early in the morning, make sure your alarm clock is back on its regular time when you go to bed. Don’t drink too much water in the evening to avoid a bathroom trip in the middle of the night. If your partner snores . . . well, you get the idea. If you think hard enough, there are lots of little things you can do to eliminate unnecessary interruptions to your sleep.
Learn to Meditate
Many people who learn to meditate report that it improves the quality of their sleep and that they can get the rest they need even if they aren’t able to significantly increase the number of hours they sleep. At the Stanford Medical Center, insomniacs participated in a 6-week mindfulness meditation and cognitive-behavioral therapy course. At the end of the study, participants’ average time to fall asleep was cut in half (from 40 to 20 minutes), and 60% of subjects no longer qualified as insomniacs. The subjects retained these gains upon follow-up a full year later. A similar study at the University of Massachusetts Medical School found that 91% of participants either reduced the amount of medication they needed to sleep or stopped taking medication entirely after a mindfulness and sleep therapy course. Give mindfulness a try. At minimum, you’ll fall asleep faster, as it will teach you how to relax and quiet your mind once you hit the pillow.
When All Else Fails: Take Naps
One of the biggest peaks in melatonin production happens during the 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. time frame, which explains why most people feel sleepy in the afternoon. Companies like Google and Zappos are capitalizing on this need by giving employees the opportunity to take short afternoon naps. If you aren’t getting enough sleep at night, you’re likely going to feel an overwhelming desire to sleep in the afternoon. When this happens, you’re better off taking a short nap (even as short as 15 minutes) than resorting to caffeine to keep you awake. A short nap will give you the rest you need to get through the rest of the afternoon, and you’ll sleep much better in the evening than if you drink caffeine or take a long afternoon nap.
Bringing It All Together
I know many of you reading this piece are thinking something along the lines of “but I know a guy (or gal) who is always up at all hours of the night working or socializing, and he’s the number one performer at our branch.” My answer for you is simple: this guy is underperforming. We all have innate abilities that we must maximize to reach our full potential. My job is to help people do that—to help the good become great by removing unseen performance barriers. Being number one in your branch is an accomplishment, but I guarantee that this guy has his sights set on bigger things that he isn’t achieving because sleep deprivation has him performing at a fraction of his full potential. You should send him this article. It just might shake something loose.
After all, the only thing worth catching up on at night is your sleep.
I am author of the bestselling book Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and cofounder of TalentSmart, the world’s #1 provider of emotional intelligence tests and training, serving 75% of Fortune 500 Companies.
