Is sleep the secret to a happy life?
Do you struggle falling asleep? Keep waking up at night or wake up feeling exhausted? You are not alone. More than 30% of Swedes experience sleeping problems (Statista 2020). Quality sleep is crucial to ensure good health and quality of life.
Is your body in “Survive”?
Do you feel tired but wired at the same time? You are wanting to sleep but your mind is racing. That’s an indication that your body / nervous system “survive” (fight-flight mode). This is a high alert mode, overstimulating the body making it impossible to drift off to sleep. This can then be a vicious cycle: you can’t sleep because you’re in fight-flight, the lack of sleep makes you more tired, irritable and stressed, which makes you perform less at work and struggle to enjoy the time with your loved ones or kids.
We spend up to one-third of our lives sleeping. Sleep is a basic human need, much like eating and drinking, and is crucial to our overall health and well-being. Lack of sleep or poor quality sleep is known to have a significant negative impact on our health in the long and short term. Next day effects of a bad nights sleep include a poor attention span, worse memory recall and learning as well as irritation and fatigue. Longer term effects are being studied, but poor quality sleep or sleep deprivation has been associated with significant health problems, such as obesity, diabetes, weakened immune systems and even some cancers. Lack of sleep is related to many psychological conditions such as depression, anxiety and psychosis.
So, what if we were to acknowledge that our body is in survival mode and needs some extra support and attention to bring it to more of a managing or even thriving mode? What would potentially happen to your sleep? Could we prevent any of these serious long-term effects?
Tips
Here are some simple habits you can implement to calm down your nervous system and boost your sleep quality:
Daily sunlight exposure e.g. watch the sunrise
Free your mind e.g. meditate / breathing exercises
Exercise during daylight hours
Power down e.g. wear blue light blocking glasses in the evening, download an applike f.lux, limit screen time before bed
References
Sariarslan, H. A., Gulhan, Y. B., Unalan, D., Basturk, M., & Delibas, S. (2015). The relationship of sleep problems to life quality and depression. Neurosciences (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia), 20(3), 236–242. https://doi.org/10.17712/nsj.2015.3.20150157
Gosling, John A., Philip J. Batterham, Nick Glozier, and Helen Christensen. “The Influence of Job Stress, Social Support and Health Status on Intermittent and Chronic Sleep Disturbance: An 8-year Longitudinal Analysis.” Sleep Medicine 15 (2014): 979-85. Web. 8 Oct. 2014. <http://www.wasmonline.org/>
Tempesta, D., Socci, V., De Gennaro, L., & Ferrara, M. (2018). Sleep and emotional processing. Sleep medicine reviews, 40, 183–195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2017.12.005
Phillips, A., Clerx, W. M., O’Brien, C. S., Sano, A., Barger, L. K., Picard, R. W., Lockley, S. W., Klerman, E. B., & Czeisler, C. A. (2017). Irregular sleep/wake patterns are associated with poorer academic performance and delayed circadian and sleep/wake timing. Scientific reports, 7(1), 3216. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-03171-4
Grandner M. A. (2017). Sleep, Health, and Society. Sleep medicine clinics, 12(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsmc.2016.10.012