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| flickr.com photo by epSos.de |
I am a pretty healthy guy, generally speaking. After gaining some weight in my 30s and early 40s, I got serious about exercise and calorie counting. I have maintained my goal weight for a couple of years now. I like to challenge myself with home exercise programs including P90X, workout DVDs from Jillian Michaels, and more. Just like everyone else, there are still some aspects of a healthy and happy life which I am still struggling to achieve. This is the first of a series of blog posts dedicated to exploring those problem areas. Hopefully they will help me (and you) to develop good habits and improve our health.
Causes of Inadequate Sleep
How Long: Sleep. Ever since my college years, I have tried to convince myself that I didn’t need as much of it as “some people” (including my wife) who tend to go to bed earlier and wake up later than I do. On average, I get 6 hours of sleep, maybe 7 or 8 on the weekends. In the evening, I have kept myself up late on the computer (doing all those important tasks on the Internet, of course), or watching TV. There are also certain household tasks which need to be done in the evening. In the morning, if I don’t get up bright and early to meet with Tony or Jillian for our exercise session, then it’s not going to happen. Sleep time gets squeezed in the middle. Based on the drowsiness I experience during the day, and the strong urge to get to bed at night, I’ve been fooling myself about how much sleep I really need.
Conflicting Schedules: My social and family life often includes events which end at 9 or 10 PM. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for sleep, if I want to be up sometime between 5 and 6 AM to get in my exercise, along with other morning activities.
Mattress: Sometimes I wonder if it’s time to buy a new mattress, because it seems that even on those nights I allow myself a full eight hours, I wake up sore and not very well rested. Of course, it would be easier to know the cause if I allowed myself to sleep that long on a regular basis, right? Buying a new mattress is an expensive proposition, so for now I think it would be cheaper to lengthen my sleep time.
Physical Issues: Over the years, I have had trouble with snoring (when I had a pot belly), which seems to have improved, according to my wife. I still wake up feeling congested from time to time. As I get older, my bladder and related organs seem to be conspiring to create a vague urge to pee during the night, which is not enough to wake me, but I do have the sensation that I am not quite asleep, either. A third issue is not related to my body, but rather the light and noise which is produced by a home with a young child, who has “accessories” to help him sleep at night. I try to minimize that with my own muffling device: A pillow over my head.
Insomnia: There have been nights where my overactive brain wouldn’t let me sleep, or I have awakened during the night and had trouble getting back to sleep.
Dangers of Inadequate Sleep
- Drowsiness (duh!) at my desk, at home, in the car… This can be unproductive, or very dangerous.
- Increased stress
- Increased cortisol hormone levels, leading to belly fat, which is great when I am working so hard on that six pack
- Disruption of the hunger-related hormones leptin (triggers a feeling of “being full”) and ghrelin (triggers a feeling of “being hungry”). Being tired means I feel hungry more often, and don’t feel full as quickly as I should.
- Symptoms of overtraining syndrome. I would not consider (approximately) an hour of exercise, several times per week to be excessive. I even take Sundays off! Lack of sleep sabotages proper exercise recovery, which makes me feel overtrained.
Game Plan for Better Sleep
- Prepare my workout equipment the night before, so it’s ready to go in the morning. If I plan a later start time, I won’t have to set up so much in the morning. Ditto for putting out the trash, preparing my lunch, and anything else I can do (without getting to bed too late).
- Focus on the important tasks in the morning, and stay away from the computer! Again, if I can reduce the amount of time required in the morning between when I wake up and when I leave for work, I can allocate extra time for sleep.
- Schedule a nap during the day. Michael Hyatt wrote an excellent blog post (also a podcast episode) about naps as a productivity tool. Of course, in an office environment I would have to do this inconspicuously and without wasting “company time.”
- As many evenings as possible, plan to spend eight hours in bed. Whether I am sleeping or not, at least I’m a lot closer to getting a good night’s rest.
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