Sleep Hygiene - Why You Need It...

Before we dive into good sleep hygiene, It's important to understand why sleep is so important...

Sleep is essential regardless of how much of a ‘hustler,’ ‘grinder’ or badass entrepreneur you are. A lot of bad health advice disguised as motivational language will tell you that you need to give up sleep to be successful or work hard. This is false, and likely putting you into an early grave.

Sleep plays a vital role in a multitude of functions and systems for the body. Its basically like the system reboot and cleaning out overnight while your computer is resting. The update you need every day. Whether you are a 10,000 bc period caveman, Greg from accounting, or the heavyweight boxing champion of the world; sleep has been essential for your survival, development, and performance since the day you were brought into this world.

Hormone Secretion

Important hormone secretion, chemical reactions, and processes all take place or largely take place during our different sleep cycles. This is due to our own internal body clocks. Long before the invention of watches and alarms, our body organized itself to optimize sleep patterns for health, safety, and productivity. This is known as our 'Circadian Rhythm'.

As daytime functioning species, our circadian rhythm has evolved to match the highs and lows of the day. So much so that our stress hormone Cortisol is usually highest in the morning upon sunrise and lowest at night before setting in for sleep. [1]

We also see our sleep hormone melatonin naturally released most before bed, causing the drowsing effect before we nod off. [2] A complex systematic release of Insulin-like growth factor-1 occurs due to the effects of light/dark inputs in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) located in the hypothalamus. [3] This hormone plays a vital role in the body's recovery process and uptake of nutrients like protein (protein synthesis). This is an important thing to consider if you are a functional person, but especially important for any and all athletes putting the body under large amounts of physiological stress.

Rejuvenative and adaptive theorists also suggest sleep provides a means of security, and longevity, especially during our pre-technological periods. As we are functional during the day, we are less adaptive to nighttime environments. Sleep there reduces our energy expenditure, physical activity, and thus, the likelihood of drawing predatorial attention.[4]

Memory Consolidation

Sleep has also been an integral survival system for memory consolidation and preventative neurological health. Sleeping is where we convert and consolidate important things learned during the day into long-term memory. It helps us fight off neurodegeneration and build-up of things like Amyloid B[5] This plaque protein forms in parts between nerve cells in memory areas of the brain. Leading to degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

As clearly seen here, sleep is one hell of a function we heavily take for granted. Yes, that was a brain dump of information around sleep. However, now we understand the importance of adequate sleep it makes a lot more sense to understand how we optimize and set ourselves up for it.

Sleep Hygiene

Sleep Hygiene, first published in the 1970s by Dr. Peter Hauri was a method by which clinicians could assess and assist people with mild to moderate insomnia. Clinicians could assess patients' environmental and behavioral factors before sleeping, using a 13-point self-reporting questionnaire known as the Sleep Hygiene Index (SHI) 13. [6]

This questionnaire asks some simple questions regarding the frequency of activity around sleep. These questions range from things like Pre-bedtime physical activity, Pre bed stimulant use, pre-bedtime neurological activity such as TV, video games, etc, comfortability of sleep environment (bright room, loud housing, stuffy or hot room, etc) even so far as to measure bedtime emotions and thought behavior.[7]

The reason for the index is to highlight the behaviors and patterns we engage with that offset, disrupt or reduce good quality sleep and sleep duration. If our sleeping environment is not set up for optimal sleep, then the likely hood of optimal sleep is reduced (crazy we know).

Tips to Implement

In light of all of this, here are some pretty easy tips to follow for what good sleep hygiene should look like:

1. Set regular bedtimes- aligning with your body's own circadian rhythm by following it to bed, at the same time is a great way to keep your body regulating sleep behavior. Like any habit, the body will form the idea that this is the time we sleep, so I will prepare myself for this.

2. Set consistent wake times- Similar to the points above, the body has a morning process it wants to go through. Keeping your wake times in line with this and consistently will help you to wake up fresh, well-rested, and wired to know this is what time we are getting up.

3. Reduce stimulants before bed- Things that cause a stimulation of the HPA axis resulting in secretion of adrenaline (epinephrine) are a big no before sleep. Caffeinated beverages and nicotine for some are a huge problem here. No closer than 4-6 hrs before set sleep time should these be consumed for best sleep practice.

4. Minimal screen use- avoiding the neurological stimulation of screens like phones TVs or laptops before bed will allow your mind to rest matching the natural light occurrences of the outside world.

5. Darkness- This is a huge problem for shift workers, but making sure your room is as dark as possible helps to create a sense of comfort to sleep in.

6. Keep it cool- A lower consistent temperature to help you relax and fall deeper into that pillow is a great way to stay comfortable and asleep

7. Turn the noise down- City living can be a disaster, but doing your best to make sure noise is completely blocked out of your sleep environment is ideal to avoid unnecessary waking.

8. Sex and Sleep- try keeping the bed for only these two things. An ideal way of enforcing your sleep habits is that when in bed it's for only these activities.

9. Leave work at work- Do your best to keep work out of the bedroom. That means no stressful tasks before or while laying in bed. Stress and anxiety link directly to the HPA axis and will result in alertness during a time of required rest. You can find an in-depth breakdown on stress in our Ancient Systems in a Modern World E-Book

Hopefully, you comprehend a little more the importance of sleep and the practice of good sleep hygiene. This will go a long way in health management, training performance, or your general life function.

If you want to test yourself in the SHI 13 try this one here by following the link. https://zestysleep.com/sleep-hygiene-index/

References:

Mohd Azmi, N., Juliana, N., Azmani, S., Mohd Effendy, N., Abu, I. F., Mohd Fahmi Teng, N. I., & Das, S. (2021). Cortisol on Circadian Rhythm and Its Effect on Cardiovascular System. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(2), 676. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020676

Masters, A., Pandi-Perumal, S. R., Seixas, A., Girardin, J. L., & McFarlane, S. I. (2014). Melatonin, the Hormone of Darkness: From Sleep Promotion to Ebola Treatment. Brain disorders & therapy, 4(1), 1000151. https://doi.org/10.4172/2168-975X.1000151

Ma MA, Morrison EH. Neuroanatomy, Nucleus Suprachiasmatic. [Updated 2021 Jul 31]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2021 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK546664/

Freiberg A. S. (2020). Why We Sleep: A Hypothesis for an Ultimate or Evolutionary Origin for Sleep and Other Physiological Rhythms. Journal of circadian rhythms, 18, 2. https://doi.org/10.5334/jcr.189

Sleep drives metabolite clearance from the adult brain. Science. 2013 Oct 18;342(6156):373-7. doi: 10.1126/science.1241224. PMID: 24136970.

Cho, S., Kim, G. S., & Lee, J. H. (2013). Psychometric evaluation of the sleep hygiene index: a sample of patients with chronic pain. Health and quality of life outcomes, 11, 213. https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-7525-11-213

https://zestysleep.com/sleep-hygiene-index/