Your Ultimate Guide to a Good Night’s Sleep

A girl sleeping in a bed (Source: Pixabay)

What do you think your body’s basic needs are? Think about that for a moment.

If you’re like most people, you’d say oxygen, food, and water. And while these are fundamental, biological needs essential to survival, other factors in your life can have a significant impact on your day-to-day health and ability to function. One of these is sleep.

Healthy sleep, which is composed of several different stages and cycles, is important to your physical and mental health, productivity, and quality of life. Sleep is a complicated process, one science is still learning about, and it plays a role in practically every single system in your body.

The National Sleep Foundation recommends that adults from ages 18 and 64 get between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night. Adults 65 and over may need between 7 and 8 hours. However, 35.2% of adults report sleeping less than 7 hours of sleep each night.

Not getting enough sleep each night can create problems for you the next day. These include feeling tired and irritable, struggling to make decisions, and experiencing slower reaction times. Long-term, lack of enough sleep can contribute to the development of cardiovascular problems, obesity, type II diabetes, mental health issues, and a weakened immune system.

Alarm clock (Source: Pixabay)

Breaking down the stages of sleep

The feeling of ‘sleepiness’ arises from your body’s internal clocks, called circadian rhythms. These circadian rhythms follow a 24-hour cycle and can respond to cues in your environment. This is why you feel alert during the daytime and sluggish at nighttime. Environmental cues can include caffeine, alcohol, stress, and hunger. However, light exposure has the greatest impact on circadian rhythms.

During each night, you go through between 4 and 6 cycles of sleep. Each cycle lasts between 70 and 120 minutes and consists of 4 stages. These stages fall into two categories. The first 3 stages are non-REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and the fourth stage is REM sleep.

1. In stage 1, your body transitions from feeling alert and awake to restful and sleepy. This is when you’ve just dozed off. This stage lasts between 1 and 5 minutes.
2. In stage 2, your body is in a light state of sleep. Your body temperature drops, and your breathing rate, heart rate, brain activity, and movements all continue to slow down. This stage lasts between 10 and 60 minutes.
3. In stage 3, your body falls into a deep state of sleep and it can be difficult to wake you up. This stage plays an important role in thinking, and processing and storing memories. If you don’t get enough deep sleep, you may feel drowsy the next day, even if you slept for enough time the night before. This stage lasts between 20 and 40 minutes.
4. In stage 4, the only stage of REM sleep, your pupils twitch and move from side to side beneath your closed eyelids. This stage is when dreams are most likely to happen. Nerve signals to your limbs temporarily paralyze them so you don’t act out your dream and your brain activity, breathing, and heart rate all increase. Most REM sleep occurs during the second half of the night, and is important in learning and storing memories. This stage lasts between 10 and 60 minutes.

Sleep hygiene and the importance of habits

Like many other adults, you may struggle to get a proper night of sleep. This could be because you need over 30 minutes to fall asleep, you wake up repeatedly in the middle of the night, or because you feel irritable, tired, and drained for hours after waking up.and find it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep

Sleep hygiene, or simply good sleep habits, are concerned withabout optimizing conditions to make sure you sleep well every night. Some general tips are:

• Be consistent with the time you wake up in the morning and the time you go to sleep at night, including on weekends
• If you take naps, try to keep them short and in the early afternoon so they don’t interfere with your sleep at night
• Get some physical activity during the day
• Avoid caffeine, large meals, and alcohol several hours before your bedtime
• Take some time before you sleeping to wind down, such as by listening to calming music, stretching, or reading
• Avoid electronics, such as your phone, laptop, and TV at least 30 minutes before you go to sleep
• Sleep in a dim room to avoid disrupting the production of the sleep hormone, melatonin
• Make sure your sleeping environment, such as your pillow, bedsheets, and room temperature, are all comfortable
• Minimize distracting sounds, or use ear plugs or a white noise machine to drown them out

While these tips, and others you find online, can help improve sleep, you don’t need to treat them as rigid requirements. Instead, start by looking at ideas that are easy to implement in your life, or those that you think will have the strongest impact.

Phone and tablet emitting blue light (Source: Pixabay)

An introduction to sleep disorders

While struggling with sleep from time to time is common, sometimes these issues can underlie or develop into more severe problems. Sleep disorders are conditions that prevent you from getting a proper sleep. Around 70 million people in the US suffer from sleep disorders, with more females than males affected. Some common signs of a sleep disorder can include:

• Regularly experiencing problems sleeping
• Often being tired in the day even if you slept for enough hours the night before
• Struggling to perform daily activities due to sleep issues

There are lots of possible causes for sleep disorders. These include factors beyond your control, such as genetics and aging, but can also include lifestyle choices, such as alcohol and working the night shift. Other causes include medical issues, psychiatric issues, and certain medications.

Although there are over 80 types of sleep disorders, four common ones are insomnia, sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, and narcolepsy.

• Insomnia: People with insomnia struggle to fall asleep or stay asleep. This can be occasional or chronic and affects up to one-third of adults.
• Sleep apnea: People with sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly while sleeping. This is often because of a physical blockage, such as large tonsils or the tongue falling back into the throat, resulting in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The other form of sleep apnea is central sleep apnea (CSA) and occurs when the brain fails to tell the body to breathe.
• Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS): People with RLS feel an intense and irresistible urge to move their legs. This feeling comes with painful sensations such as aches and itchiness. Since RLS often occurs in the evening and at night, falling asleep and staying asleep can become a challenge.
• Narcolepsy: People with narcolepsy experience issues with their sleep-wake cycle. They are often exhausted during the day even if they slept properly the night before. This can lead to ‘sleep attacks’ or episodes of falling asleep during the day.

Woman waking up in bed (Source: Pixabay)

There are many ways to treat sleep disorders. Some of these are easy changes to your lifestyle, such as keeping light and noise to a minimum. However, in some cases, a healthcare provider may recommend counseling or medications to help resolve issues.

Sleep is a complex process that has a significant impact on your life. Despite its significance, many people struggle with the quality or quantity of their sleep. This can be for a variety of reasons, and sometimes because of underlying conditions.

But now that you know more about how sleep works and sleep hygiene you can work towards improving the rest you get every night. Start by looking at your current routine, and then ask yourself: what small change can I make for myself today?

Disclaimer: This article is an information resource only and is not to be used for diagnostic or treatment purposes. You should always consult your health care provider before making any health care decisions.