Do you wake up feeling well-rested every day? You should! However, 43% of men and 55% of women report trouble with falling asleep or staying asleep. We know how great it feels to fall asleep easily, get a deep and restful sleep, and wake up feeling refreshed. What you may not realize is how important sleep is for our overall well-being.
Think of sleeping like cleaning up your office after everyone else has left for the day. No new information or calls are coming in, and you finally have time to sort through the stack of paperwork on your desk, consolidate and file it properly, and empty the recycling bin. This active tidying-up sets you up for success when you arrive at work the next day. You can make-do with skipping the clean-up for a short period of time, but after a while, it catches up with you. Chronic non-restorative sleep is like having years of paperwork piled up on your desk: paperwork gets lost or takes extra time to find, the recycling bin is overflowing, and your productivity at work declines.
Sleep is part of our circadian rhythm, which is the light-dark dependent cycle that keeps our body functioning in a healthy way. Melatonin is our “sleep hormone”, and it is released in response to darkness. It should be highest at night, promoting a deep, restful sleep, and lowest during the day. In opposition to melatonin is our “stress hormone”, cortisol, which inhibits melatonin to promote alertness and wakefulness.
There are five distinct stages of a healthy sleep cycle. Stage 1 is when you are drifting off to sleep. Stage 2 is light sleep where heart rate and brain waves start to slow down. Stages 3 is characterized by very slow delta waves in the brain. Stage 4 is the deepest state of Non-REM (NREM) sleep, and it’s when the body undergoes most of its healing. Stage 5 is when we dream, called Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep.
We should repeat this cycle 4-6 times during a healthy night’s sleep, which requires both sleeping for enough time and repeatedly entering into the deep sleep of Stages 4 and 5. When we face challenges with falling asleep, staying asleep, or entering into a deep sleep state, our overall health is significantly impacted.
When we don’t get enough sleep, or get poor quality of sleep, our ability to think clearly, learn and retain memories is significantly impacted. Our immune system is weakened, causing frequent cold and flu or difficulty with getting over infections. Our appetite and blood sugar levels are negatively impacted, linking insomnia to increased risk of weight gain, heart disease, and diabetes. When we don’t produce enough melatonin, we have an increased amount of cortisol, our stress hormone, which can lead to anxiety, depression, irritability and difficulty coping with stress.
Sleeping well is one of the most important things we can do to support our overall health. When we don’t get a good night’s sleep, the body’s ability cope with stress, regulate hormones, repair muscle, strengthen the immune system, and support mental clarity and capacity are profoundly impacted. This can result in fatigue, anxiety, depression, weight gain, frequent cold and flu, brain fog, and increased risk of diabetes and heart disease.
We should aim for six to eight hours of deep, restful sleep per night. Sleeplessness can be improved by developing a consistent bedtime routine where we avoid screens, sleep in a dark room, avoid stimulants, and keep blood sugar balanced. From time to time, we benefit from additional support to re-set our sleep cycle and achieve a deeper sleep.
