Restoring your energy
The prevailing consensus is sleep is critical in enabling our bodies and especially our brains to recharge. Prior to sleeping our body starts to lose heat, with our body temperature dropping circa 1°C, which may actually help us to sleep. Hence the use of a blanket! Thus we use less energy to maintain our body temperature, prompting some scientists to put forward the view that conserving energy may be one of the primary functions of sleep.
Our breathing patterns also vary between being awake and being asleep. While awake there is no set pattern to our breathing, it is a function of what we are doing – speaking, running etc. – and how we are feeling. Whilst asleep however our breathing can slow down quite markedly, especially in the early part of the night. However later on, especially when we dream, there’s an increase in breathing rate, almost as if we are awake.
In particular in the brain, sleep can ‘restore the energy’ used up during the day. Sleep also enables the brain to ‘re-order and store’ important information acquired during the day. Hence our brains effectively have a new operating system every morning! Sufficient sleep is also needed for the development of new brain cells that are important in long term memory.
Three sleep tips
Here are three tips that I have personally found very helpful plus a great start to addressing most people’s sleep challenges:
#1 A regular routine – going to bed at a similar time plus getting up at approximately the same time seven days a week, plus allocating 8 hours to nothing apart from rest – will give you the best chance of sleep.
#2 Carefully manage (or even quit!) the caffeine – coffee, black tea, green tea plus multiple other foods contain caffeine. This drug – because that’s effectively what caffeine is – cancels out the chemical produced in your body that builds sleep pressure. Even worse, caffeine has a half life of six hours, meaning that half the caffeine you consume in a cup of coffee at 6pm is still in your system at midnight! Practicing a gradual reduction in caffeine intake, especially from 12noon onwards, is almost bound to help your sleep at night.
#3 Take a Nap! – the most controversial of the three, as some sleep scientists advocate the opposite. However, if you take a nap of circa 30 minutes and wake up before 3pm your chances of being mentally sharper and much more pleasant to be around increase hugely, so why wouldn’t you, especially when many of us now have the flexibility to work from home. If you are really shattered and can manage time for a full sleep cycle (90 minutes) the results can be even greater.
Finally
If there is one idea to try tonight it’s to ‘bookend your night’, allowing an hour or more to wind down before bed and the same in the morning. Making these times smart phone, tablet & computer free is critical, to decouple yourself from the stresses of the world and your work will give you the best chance of a great night’s sleep.
And remember: this is life changing stuff! We’ve all experienced how much better we feel for a good night’s sleep. So go on, treat yourself! You – and everyone around you – will feel the benefit overnight!
This is a guest blog by Giles Watkins
Giles has a real breadth of business experience both here and overseas, primarily in South East Asia. Having visited over 70 countries on business and lived in 7, he has led a start-up to profitability, made a successful acquisition and led a US$200m turnover company through divestment. Since leaving his last corporate role in 2015, Giles has consulted to and run a peer group advisory board for CEOs of small & medium sized businesses.
For over a decade Giles suffered increasingly from insomnia. He decided to use the opportunity to write a thesis about his sleep problems as part of studying for his Masters degree in Coaching and Consulting for Change from INSEAD Singapore.
Giles’ subsequent book ‘Positive Sleep: a holistic approach to resolve sleep issues and transform your life’ was published in September 2019 (LID). Giles combines his business coaching & consultancy with promoting sleep whenever positive, especially for leaders and their teams.
You can find him at:Giles.Watkins@INSEAD.edu.
Linked In: https://linkedin.com/in/
We interviewed Giles for our podcast – listen in here
