If you are in the mood to catch some z’s, you should go ahead as today is World Sleep Day. Today, we are sharing 4 easy tips and 3 important benefits of getting a good night’s sleep to celebrate the day. We have compiled this list keeping in mind the aim of the World Sleep Day which is to raise awareness around the importance of sleep, awareness around sleep-related disorders and prevention of sleep related issues.
World Sleep Day History
The celebration of the most important routine of human life was first observed in 2008 by healthcare professionals who actively worked in the field of sleep related medicine and research. The main aim of the day was to bring these healthcare providers together so that they could share key information related to sleep, and create awareness.
World Sleep Day 2021 Slogan
March 19 is the 14th annual World Sleep Day and its slogan for this year is ‘Regular Sleep, Healthy Future’.
4 easy Tips for a good night’s sleep
We have all been in that situation. Our alarm buzzes off after a sleepless night and we groggily drag ourselves like a zombie with a grumpy mood. The bad night’s sleep or a sleepless night can leave us feeling exhausted, irritable and dazed. Naturally we go for a quick fix in the form of a caffeine and hope that we can get a quick shut-eye in our offices or place of work.
On the other hand, there are nights when we blissfully sleep for 7-8 hours and spring out of our beds with serenity in our minds and a purpose in our heart. Just like regular exercise and healthy diet, even getting a good night’s sleep is as important, but it’s easier said than done.
Let’s look at 4 tips given by renowned sleep scientist Matthew Walker:
1. Have a sleep schedule and stick to it
One of the most important tips Dr Walker gives in his book called in his book called ‘Why we sleep’ is sticking to a sleep schedule. One needs to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day to ensure that their body falls into a habit of sleeping.
As we all know, we are all creatures of habit and if we put ourselves in a situation where our bodies need to adjust to new random sleeping patterns, sleep would continue to elude us. We are all bound by our own 24-hour body clock called circadian rhythm driven by a hormone called melatonin that figures out when we are ready for bed.
When we create a schedule of sleeping at a particular time, our brains would secrete that hormone somewhere around the same time and we would fall asleep quicker and easier.
2. Try avoiding caffeine
Human bodies constantly build up a chemical hormone called adenosine that increases the human brain’s concentration when it’s awake. But in contrast, the consequence of the hormone being built is the human body’s increasing desire to crash and sleep, a phenomenon known as sleep pressure.
When the sleep pressure peaks, an irresistible urge to crash and sleep takes hold of us. This is something which happens to most of us after we are awake for 12-14 hours.
However, when we use the widespread stimulant known popularly as caffeine, we can artificially mute the adenosine. Caffeine takes hold on to the adenosine receptors in our brain and deactivates them. This is equivalent of sticking our finger in our ear to shut out an outside sound.
By taking caffeine, the brain is tricked into feeling alert and awake. Caffeine levels go to extremes 25-30 minutes after consumption. However, one should know that caffeine has a life of 5-7 hours, meaning half of the caffeine consumed circulates in our body. That’s why it is important to avoiding heavy doses of caffeine just a few hours before sleeping.
3. A no-no to nightcap
In the burnout culture we all are part of, consuming alcohol before sleeping is becoming increasingly common. Some people are of the belief that having alcohol relaxes their minds and bodies and makes them sleep easy.
However, it’s proven that alcohol suppresses the human REM (rapid-eye-movement) sleep. When our body starts metabolizing alcohol, a by-product called aldehyde is released. Aldehyde blocks the brain’s ability to manufacture the important REM sleep.
This keeps a person in the lighter stages of the sleep itself, robs them off their dreams and makes them wake up in the wee-hours of the night with the alcohol’s effects wearing off.
4. A hot bath before crashing into bed
In Matthew Walker’s book Why We Sleep, he goes in length about researches which have concluded that the human body’s temperature needs to drop to a certain point to trigger good sleep. Although a hot bath may seem counter-productive, it does help in initiating a good sleep.
During a hot bath, the human body brings a large amount of blood flow to hands and feet. This in consequence drops the core temperature of the human body and can help us fall asleep quicker.
Now that we have talked about how we can get a good night’s sleep, let’s look at 3 benefits of a good night’s sleep.
1. Sleep more, stress less
According to a research from UC Berkeley, a full night of sleep can stabalize stress while a sleepless night can be the cause of a 30% rise in anxiety. When feeling stressed, the human body releases what researchers call ‘stress hormones’, including cortisol which can consequently keep one awake.
“We have identified a new function of deep sleep, one that decreases anxiety overnight by reorganizing connections in the brain. Deep sleep seems to be a natural anxiolytic (anxiety inhibitor), as long as we get it each and every night,” said Dr Matthew Walker, the abovementioned sleep scientist.
2. Sharpen your memory with sleep
We have all been there before. After a few bad nights of having sleeps filled with cracks, it gets harder to concentrate and remember. This is our brain’s way of telling us we are not getting enough sleep. Although one may feel that when they sleep, their brain is inactive.
But on the contrary, when the body sleeps, the brain reorganizes the memories and sorts the important from the trivial. So, a good night’s sleep will help you process things in a more efficient manner and remember the important stuff in an easier way.
3. Empower your immune system with sleep
When sleeping, our bodies produce protein molecules that empowers our immune system to fight off infections. Sleep also gives the body and time it needs to repair and regroup, which is one of the main reasons why we feel tired and just want to sleep when we’re unwell.
Sleep empowers our immune system to detect and end foreign infections that we may have come close to like common cold virus, etc. Sleep also helps the protein cells to remember these invaders, so that they may not affect our bodies the next time as severely.
