Random musings: Sleep Better

Today's blog post was originally published last year:

They got the problem fixed today, so here's part 2 of how to sleep better. If you haven't read part 1 yet, click here.

Again, there are 2 videos today...about 10 minutes each.

Video number 1 talks about alcohol and caffeine...two of the biggest sleep disruptors.

Alcohol is the most common "sleep aid" but it usually does more harm than good! Approximately 90% of Americans drink alcohol in one form or another and approximately 20% use it as a sleep aid every night!

You don't need to give up alcohol, but there are a couple of steps you need to take to make your alcohol consumption more sleep friendly.

Drink one glass of water for each alcoholic drink
For each drink that you have, you need to quit drinking one hour before bedtime

The water will keep you from getting dehydrated and will reduce some of the bad effects of the alcohol. Alcohol also disrupts your sleep cycles. Although you may fall asleep sooner with alcohol, your cycles will be off. You'll tend to have less REM sleep in the first half of the night and too much in the second half. So, if you have 2 drinks before bed, you need to stop 2 hours before your bedtime.

What about caffeine? I've written about caffeine before. Caffeine is the most widely abused drug in the world. There are a few things you can do to make your caffeine consumption a little more sleep friendly. First, try to reduce your overall caffeine consumption. Second, drink caffeine only between 90 minutes after you wake up and 2:00 PM, since the half life of caffeine is approximately 8 hours. Check out the blog post linked at the beginning of this paragraph to learn more.

In the second video, Dr. Breus talks about napping, sunlight and exercise.

As far as napping, it's ok for the most part...although it's not recommended for insomniacs. Or Dolphins. Our bodies are wired for a siesta in the early afternoon...around 1 - 3 PM. If you can take a nap during that time, perfect! Although, the duration of your nap is important. Either less than 25 minutes. Or 90 minutes. If your nap is less than 25 minutes long, then you won't enter deep sleep. You'll be able to wake up refreshed. If you want to sleep longer, then you'll need to sleep for an hour and a half, so that you can have a complete sleep cycle and again wake up refreshed. If you sleep more than 25 minutes, but less than 90, you'll wake up feeling worse than if you hadn't taken a nap.

Sunlight is the biggest regulator of our hormones. You should aim to get at least 15 minutes of sunlight within 30 minutes of waking up. Also, lunchtime sunlight will help wake you up if you're unable to nap in the afternoon.

Exercise is also highly important to improving your sleep. Exercise plays a few roles in improving your sleep. First, it reduces stress and anxiety, and reduces depression. It also increases your sleep drive...making you sleepier so you can fall asleep more quickly. It also increases the amount of deep sleep.

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