Good Quality of Sleep: Basics and Powerful Habits

If you look at all major achievers, they are all early risers. They start their day when the rest of us are busy sleeping. But ask any night owl, they would agree that waking up early is their worst nightmare, simply because it demands too much effort. But the key to waking up early is a good quality of sleep.

Adults need an average of 8 hours of sleep for healthy functioning.

The science of good quality of sleep

Did you know you spend one-third of your life sleeping?

All patterns of sleep are not the same and sleep is not one continuous activity as many believe it to be. There are two types of sleep patterns

• REM cycle
• non-REM cycle

As soon you hit the bed and start to sleep, the non-REM cycle starts. The breathing becomes even, temperature drops and the body is relaxed. This is actually the light sleep.

Then comes the REM (Rapid eye movement) cycle. This is the deep sleep where our eyes move rapidly behind closed lids and we are temporarily paralysed while dreaming.

The cycle repeats throughout the night. In a good night’s sleep you will be spending more time in the REM sleep pattern.

You must be familiar with the term ‘body clock’? Science calls it the ‘circadian rhythm.’ It is highly important to regulate your overall health.

Circadian Rhythm

Circadian rhythm, also called the body clock is the sleep/wake cycle that naturally regulates your sleep and wakefulness patterns in a 24 hour period.

This is a complex timekeeper that depends on the area of brain that connects light to wakefulness. That is why sun rise stimulates you to open your eyes if you have a good circadian cycle. Same goes for darkness. If your room is dark, it is a signal for your brain to sleep.

The hormone called ‘melatonin’ is responsible for this to happen.

The period of wakefulness is not constant through out the day. It dips and recovers. Two major time frames are found to have major dips,

• 2 AM to 4 AM (Deep sleep hour)
• 2 PM in the afternoon (The post lunch hour)

Basically this circadian rhythm decides whether you are an early bird or a night owl. If you keep going to sleep at later hours, you will definitely struggle to wake up early.

Basically the body clock is decided by your habits. It is not a set pattern. You can change the pattern if you really try. The body clock also changes with age. When you are younger, you need more sleep. As you age, your sleep requirement starts decreasing.

How do you actually ensure your body clock is ticking right?

How to set the body clock right?

Go to bed early

Your workload is high, your favorite program is on TV, you want to take some alone time for yourself – there are so many reasons for not going to bed early. But if you go to bed late all the time, you are efficiently disrupting the body clock and thereby your overall health.

Sleep consistently

Going to sleep at the same time is the best practice for setting up a good rhythm. With so many distractions in our daily life, it is easier said than done. Make sure your efforts are consistent. Get to bed by 10PM, if possible even earlier.

Morning Walk

When the dawn breaks, your body responds to the light and starts waking up. To simplify the process, take a morning walk. By getting some sun, not only are you stacking up some serious stash of vitamin D, but also signalling your brain to wake up fully.

Ease into bedtime

When you set a bed time, stick to it. Utilize the time leading up to it to set the tone for a good quality of sleep. Turn off harsh bright lights and stay away from technology. These are signals for your brain to understand that you are going to sleep and your brain should start slowing down.

Sleep Drive

Along with the body clock, the sleep drive is yet another important factor that strongly influences sleep. Your body cannot make you eat while you are hungry but it can put you to sleep even if you resist hard. That is the difference between hunger and sleep.

Did you know your body can engage in microsleep (in seconds) even when your eyes are open?

If you nap for more than thirty minutes in a day, your sleep drive decreases significantly.

Then how do we tackle this daytime sleepiness?

Power Naps

Learn to use power naps effectively.

Power naps are short duration naps which get rid of exhaustion and gives you more energy. In addition it increases your productivity and gets rid of stress.

Here are the guidelines in case you want to try:

• Choose a good spot for napping
• The best time is around 3PM but not later than 4PM.
• The ideal duration is around 20 minutes.
• Get rid of distractions so that you can start napping immediately.

Power nap does not necessarily work for everybody. You have to have absolute control over your duration and location for it to work in the first place. If the duration exceeds an hour, then you will end up confusing your body clock even more. This will become detrimental to your health.

Stay away from this, if you are unable to master the power nap even after trying repeatedly.

For you to take ‘sleep’ seriously , you must first understand what happens to your body when you sleep.

How does sleep affect your body?

Brain

Even when you sleep, you brain continues functioning. What does the brain do when you sleep?

It processes the information you accessed throughout the day.

What is needed? What is not needed? Memories are created – segregated into short tern and long term memories. Toxic waste from the central nervous system are flushed out.

All these happen while you sleep. So a good quality of sleep is an important way of rejuvenating the brain. The term ‘clean slate’ is real, people!

Lungs

When you are awake, your breathing patterns vary a great deal during the day. When you are climbing the stairs or working out, your breathing quickens. When you are asleep, your breathing becomes even and regular.

Heart

Did you know heart rate and blood pressure go down only when you are sleeping soundly? It is like the heart taking some pressure off itself while constantly it has to tick during the day.

Muscles

When you get a good quality of sleep, the body releases growth hormones, which helping in strengthening the muscles in the body.

Liver

Good quality of sleep is needed for the liver metabolism to effectively take place. Studies have shown that even a single day of sleeplessness could affect the liver in a such a manner, that it struggles to produce glucose and process insulin.

Stomach

Ever experienced an upset stomach when your sleeping patterns are disturbed?

Good sleep is necessary for a healthy digestive system.

When you delay sleeping, appetite stimulants are secreted in the body. These stimulants make you eat more at night and habits like late-night snacking are formed. Taking large meals at night leads to diabetes and obesity in the longer run.

Central nervous system

The central nervous system is the information highway of the body. This system is responsible for the ‘fight or flight response’ throughout the day. While sleeping soundly you are giving your nervous system a much needed break.

Insomnia can disrupt the nature of information processing by the body.

Immune system

When you get a good quality of sleep, the immune system builds up the necessary antibodies to effectively fight foreign organisms. Without enough sleep, your immune system will struggle to protect you in case of an illness.

Sleep Deprivation

It is alright to forgo good quality of sleep occasionally because of an important deadline or a celebration. But if you constantly feel fatigued or drained, sleep deprivation may be the reason.

Sleep deprivation leads to

• Impaired judgments
• Lesser thinking and reasoning skills
• Higher risk for obesity
• Higher risk for various health ailments
• Loss of memory and retention.
• Difficulty in handling your emotions.

Sleep and mental health are intertwined. It is important to form good sleep habits to take care of mental health. To correct all these, good quality of sleep patterns are necessary. Just like any other activity you just have to train yourself to sleep better.

How to get a good quality of sleep?

The National Sleep Foundation recommends the following effective tips.

Stick to a sleep/wake up time

First decide at which time you should sleep. You can’t keep changing this everyday. Consistency is the key. This will help your body clock to function in an effective manner.

Turn off digital devices

About 30 minutes before your bed time, start slowing down. Turn off all digital devices. Light emitting screens make sleeping hard.

Consider a digital detox seriously. It is a solid long term strategy for getting a good quality of sleep.

If you immediately try to sleep after looking at your phone for sometime, it will not work. If you cannot stay away for 30 minutes in the beginning, start with 15 minutes and then bring it up to 30.

Avoid salty, sugary, fatty snacks late at night

These type of foods act as stimulants for staying awake and do not let you fall asleep easily. So if you have the habit of late night snacking or late night coffee, chuck it. Don’t have heavy meals late at night.

Create a bedtime ritual

Before sleeping, create a ritual for yourself. You can apply a skin care cream, light some scented candles, brush your teeth, play soothing music or read a book . These are highly effective for setting you up for a good quality of sleep.

Exercise

Surprised to find this on the list?

Its true. Being engaged in physical fitness is a sure fire way to tire your body which in turn will lead to a healthy sleeping pattern. But make sure that you do not exercise right before bed time. In that case, it will work in the reverse. Your body will be too tired and it will most definitely keep you from sleeping.

Avoid day time naps

If you already have difficulty sleeping well, it is best to avoid taking naps in the day time. Day time naps interfere with your sleep drive and disrupt your sleep schedules. If you want to nap, try the power naps mentioned above.

So these are the basics of sleep. Now that you know how important sleep is to your well-being, practice all these steps to really see the difference.

Do you have additional steps to ensure a good quality of sleep? Share it in the comments below.