New Research on Why You Need More Sleep + 6 Sleepy Time Tips

Asleep at 9 p.m.: this one fact alone qualifies me for my AARP membership I’m pretty sure. And yet this is what happened last night – and hence why today’s post is so late. After putting Jelly Bean to bed, I innocently went in my room to take a quick breather from the non-stop-ed-ness of life with four little kids and read more from my book about mindfulness. And the next thing I know, I’m waking up this morning with my cheek imprinted with text and drool as a bookmark. This experience taught me two important things. First, I am really tried. Like chronically all-the-time, heaven-would-be-a-big-bed-with-clean-sheets tired. Second, that my mindless jelly bean consumption may be more closely tied to my burning the candle at both ends than to my PMS, workouts, depression or attraction to anything small, bright and shiny (have you seen my tiny purse collection?). Indeed, all of those things may be results of my lack of sleep. Oh and I learned a third thing. I don’t not like sleeping in my bra. I think it surgically implanted itself into me last night.

Today I got to interview Darryl Bushard, a weight-loss specialist for Lifetime Fitness, for an article for Shape about stress and while he said a ton of really interesting things (more on that to come!) the one that really struck home today was “that lack of sleep is one of the main reasons we get overstressed.” And that stress – or rather our body’s response to it – “is the beginning of everything”, influencing every major organ and system in our body. It’s that important. Yet in our crazy lifestyles it’s often the first thing to go when we need more time.

In addition, a new study presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Prevention/Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism 2012 Scientific Sessions give us scientific proof that on days people sleep less they eat more calories and those calories are not balanced out by an increase in activity. According to the researchers, participants who slept 80 minutes less per night consumed an extra 549 calories the following day. That’s a lot of jelly beans. The study concludes that while more research needs to be done on a larger group, this is one of the factors of weight loss that is almost entirely under our control. And not only does it affect our weight but it also influences so many other aspects of lives – mood, energy, cognitive abilities, manual dexterity. willpower and life span – that it’s worth the effort.

If experts and research aren’t convincing enough, I recently did a slideshow for Shape about health tips from old Hollywood glamour girls and Audrey Hepburn swore by afternoon naps. How’s that for a celebrity endorsement? Sleep: As seen on Breakfast at Tiffany’s!

So now the tricky part. How do we get more sleep? We all know we need more sleep. This is about as controversial as saying Ryan Gosling is superman. (Did you see he saved another person’s life? This time from a rogue taxi?? Swoon.) And yet so many of us don’t get enough of it. It doesn’t help either that I think most of us know a few “superwomen” in our lives who seem to thrive on four hours of sleep a night. Like Liv Tyler says in Empire Records, “Daddy says there are 24 usable hours in every day! So I baked cupcakes!” (Man I used to love that movie. To this day whenever I get really excited I squeal “It’s REX MANNING DAY!”)

It feels a little weird for me – the girl who just admitted she is chronically sleep deprived – to be giving tips on how to get more sleep but I’m hoping this will start a good discussion and then you will all share your amazing tips with me and it’ll be a rainbows-and-unicorns sleepover up in here. So, as a jumping off point, here are my tips for getting more sleep. (Recognizing that I’m telling these to myself as much as anyone.)

1. Set a bedtime. It sounds so simple but how many times have you said “I’ll go to bed after this show?” and then get sucked into the one right after it? Experts say that every hour you can sleep before midnight is worth two hours of sleep after midnight so earlier is better. I picked 10 p.m. since that gives me a solid 8 hours before I have to get up.

2. Know how much sleep you need. Again, a no-brainer, right? But we’re not all the same. We’re not even the same as ourselves. (I know, that made no sense.) I’ve discovered in the past that when I workout really hard I need more sleep – closer to 9 or even 10 hours a night – and so it’s no surprise that with P90X2 I’ve been more exhausted because I haven’t made room in my schedule for the extra sleep my body requires to do the program.

3. Reduce distractions. You know how I’m focusing on eating without distractions this month? (Which is not going all that well. I’m not proud to admit it but it’s way harder than I anticipated. I have a really really hard time suspending judgement of what I’m eating. But I’m not giving up!) Well it’s equally as important to sleep without distractions. (Multi-tasking is looking like a worse idea with every study I come across…) No TVs, computers or iPads in bed. And for all of  you sleeping with your phone under your pillow, stop it. Unfortch, I have not been able to figure out how to reduce kid-related distractions – nothing messes up your REM cycle like “Mommy, I feel…” followed by puke all over you.

4. Have a routine. Kids love bedtime routines and what are adults but just grown-up kids? Take a bath, do a crossword puzzle, pray, meditate, do gentle yoga – 15 minutes of winding down goes a long way in sleep quality.

5. Kick the simple carbs right before bed. Nothing wrong with a bedtime snack if you’re hungry but that bowl of ice cream or cereal may be making it harder for you to sleep. Bushard says, “Sugary carbs increase cortisol [the stress hormone] and cortisol gives your body a burst of energy” which is exactly what you don’t want right before bed.

6. Journal. Ever stayed up late because you were so stressed about not being able to fall asleep that you couldn’t, well, sleep? Or have you laid down and found you just couldn’t turn your brain off? I’ve found that keeping a little notebook by my bed in which I can jot down everything from my irrational worries that one of my kids will lock themselves in the dryer to my brilliant ideas for posts (hush, don’t disillusion me) goes a long way in helping me turn down the mental noise.

So help me out – what’s your bedtime? How much sleep do you get? What are your best tips for making sure you get enough shut-eye?

29 Comments

  1. My bedtime is 10pm, but I struggle with bouts of insomnia now and then. I’m going through one now. I am exhausted by 10, so I go to bed and fall asleep for 2-3 hours, then I’m wide awake. I was hoping that this would stop now that I’m marathon training, but so far no dice!

    • oh sleep I miss you. I have a 10 week old so sleep is sporadic and insufficient. I have definitely noticed increased need for sugar too though I like chocolate covered almonds or trail mix with chocolate….

  2. I have the horrible bad luck of both needing a ton of sleep and being a serious night-owl. Getting to bed before 1am is always a struggle. I’m most awake after midnight, always have been. I’ll be exhausted until 5pm-ish and then I gradually start to wake up. My circadian rhythms class taught me I’m not broken, just weird, but it still sucks trying to function in the real world. I’m sleep deprived all week and then spend most of my weekends sleeping to make up for it. My ideal schedule was when I was in grad school and would sleep until 1pm every day, go to my lab until midnight, then go home and do homework for a few hours, followed by sleeping for 9 hours. I miss those days! (Well, as far as sleeping is concerned at least…) The calories thing though. Damn. That’s enough to make me try to push my bio clock again.

    Also, yeah, sleeping in your bra is probably the worst thing ever, only beaten by sleeping in your contacts.

  3. ” heaven-would-be-a-big-bed-with-clean-sheets tired”
    Yes. Yes it would. I too am in that state right now…

    Interestingabout the carbs before bed. – I’ve found that to be true. I find if I’m up late workign on my thesis is I snag something carby to eat I can be more alert.

  4. I love the pic and had to LOL several times as some of this sounds so familiar…Lately I have issues getting to bed on time which should before 1030 but I have a hard time winding down because I’d rather be a nightowl. I’ve got an iphone and many times will plop in bed an hour ahead of time and relax/browse my fav sites, check mail and just out of curiosity of what I will find.

  5. I lost most confidence in Dr oz, but he says to wear glories at night. It’ll make you think you’re warm so that your actual temperature will go down…which will help you sleep. I can’t do that…I always kick off my booties. Every. Single. Time.

    Along those lines, cool bedroom. When family turns on the heater…I don’t sleep. Grrrrrrrrrr.

    No caffeine past noon. I act like I’m on crack when I drink it..really. but a sip of soda will keep me up past 2 if I drink it. I wish I could do high tea…I like cucumber sandwiches and a bit of fruit as a late afternoon pick me up and feeling all girly …herbal tea just doesn’t go with it.

    No exercise past 6. So be done with the cool down by then. The adrenalin will keep me up.

    Lower the lights. I wish there were a f.lux for my entire house…just like in my computer.

    No sleeping in. Wake up everyday at the same time, sleep at the same time…yea…I don’t do this…I wish I did. If sat morning cartoons were still good I probably would do it. I miss gargoyles and ninjas turtles.

  6. Usually I am in bed by 9:30 and after some reading am asleep by 10 or 10:30. I am up at 7:00 no matter what day it is. I love white noise. I use an air purifier but used to use a small fan. Electric heated pad makes the bed toasty but I keep the room cool. Let’s see . . . . I definitely am not above Tylenol PM when I need it 🙂
    My kids are knocked out easily by melatonin but I have never tried it for myself.

  7. I need new hormones! 😉 I also need a new hose with triple pain windows so it does not sound like the windows are open when they are not & I hear all the noisy neighbors & cars 24/7. I live in a high density area! 😉

    I was ready to move to Hawaii if I had won that big lotto we just had! 🙂

  8. These days it’s usually 8:30 PM. I’ve always needed a lot of sleep, and I take it when I can get it. I find that staying off the computer at night really helps. If I get sucked in, I don’t sleep nearly as well as I do if I just read a book. Therefore, it’s time for me to go offline. Night. 🙂

  9. My best tip is honestly completely contradicting one of yours – tv in bed. I tried going to bed for years in a dark room, and I would keep myself awake worrying for a long time. It was like I couldn’t shut my brain off. Instead, I would fall asleep watching tv on the couch – and then wake up again around 1 am and have to shut off the tv and lights and go to bed, and fall back asleep after another 15-30 minutes. Many nights, I’d wake up again about 3 am and not fall back asleep for awhile.

    I finally caved and put a tv in my bedroom. I’ve been sleeping more and better and feeling better. Every night I go to bed around 10 or 10:30 and put the tv on a timer, volume low. I usually fall asleep between 11 and 11:30. After a long day, it’s sometimes earlier. The tv shuts itself off a short time later and… I sleep through the night. I don’t wake up till it’s morning. It works for me.

  10. F.Lux, blackout curtains except for the three nights around the full moon, Facebooking in the morning, reading books at night, cool room (we crack a window. I don’t mind the night noises, but then I don’t live in the middle of a metropolis), a little high fat snack before bed.
    If you’re having that tired in the morning, wired at night problem, or waking at 3am bright as a penny, have your cortisol levels checked. The darkness and cool sleeping stuff will start to help that (MDA has a couple of articles on this) as will the other things you’re already tackling. If you’re waking at night with a racing heart, combine the high-fat snack with the cortisol testing (Cheeseslave has a few posts on this).
    If all else fails, and this IS important, can you escape to a screen- and child-free zone for three nights to start yourself on a reasonable timetable? (Alison Golden did that this past winter)

  11. If I have just one short night’s sleep my sugar cravings go throught he roof. I’m dreading what will happen to my waistline if I ever have babeis.
    I find if I wake up in the middle of the night, the best thing to get me back to sleep is to step outdoors for aminute or two and take deep breaths of the night air. It knocks me right out again. I’ve no idea why.

  12. I work with a woman who only sleeps 3 or 4 hours a night. She says she feels horrible and head-achey if she sleeps longer. She’s also more than a hundred pounds over-weight; no idea if there’s any connection.

    I’m in bed by 8pm, up by 4am. (Sometimes I’ll wake up earlier naturally.) It’s folks like me who have your gym all warmed up and shiny and waiting for you when you get there at the crack of dawn.

  13. I second the “evil TV in the bedroom” thing. I go to bed at 10. Turn the TV on quietly to almost anything (although What Not to Wear usually works…) and I’m out before the first round of commercials. But without the TV? I’m awake, mind doing the hamster wheel thing until the weeeee hours of the morning. Grrrrrrrrr. Whatever you do, do NOT READ! Almost guaranteed to still be up at 3… LOL

  14. Another who used to use the TV on sleep timer or DVD player next to bed playing favorite movies. Keeps my mind from thinking about something else and/or drown out sound of neighbor’s barking dog.

  15. Ah, sleep! I’m one of those folks who needs AT LEAST 8 hours to function, but rarely get it. My Hubby takes after his mom; they can get 4 hours of sleep, work a whole day, get in a workout, and keep going and going.
    Maybe HE should be a stay-at-home-dad and I should go back to work, lol!

  16. Sleep, rest, R&R, chill- axing, all soooo important.

    I believe the single most important aspect of a healthy lifestyle is ones energy level. When your energy is good everything becomes so much easier. When it’s trashed even the simplest tasks feel like climbing a mountain.

    If your sleep habits suffer so does your potential. Thank you so much for the reminder Charlotte! Loved this post can I use it as an excuse to sleep on the job?

  17. I’ve been feeling so tired lately and had no idea why. Then with the lack of energy I’ve started craving (and eating) way more sugar than I had been–totally blowing my intuitive eating out of the water.
    After reading that you needed more sleep while doing P90X2, I’m wondering if working out with the crazy cross fit trainer means that I’ll need a bit more sleep than what I have been getting. Do you think the amount of exercise matters based on a person’s fitness? For example my workouts aren’t elite athlete caliber, but they are very intense for me, therefore I will need some more sleep to recover. Does that make sense?

  18. I’m one of those “sleep super amazing for a few nights in a row… barely sleep for a few nights in a row” kind of girls… I think for me it’s a matter of not being able to turn off my mind (so to say)… but I will wholeheartedly agree with the value of sleep… i think it enables you to make better choices even.

  19. Really like this post. Sleep is now being deemed the 3rd key component of fitness next to diet and exercise. I wrote a similar post last month and here were some of my tips. Here are a few i didn’t see on your list that work for me. Great post..

    • Wake up at the same time every day. If you’re getting enough sleep, you should wake up naturally without an alarm. At this point, I almost always awake 5 min before my alarm rings:) If you need an alarm clock to wake up on time, you may need to set an earlier bedtime. As with your bedtime, try to maintain your regular wake–time even on weekends. Yes, even if that means getting up at 6am. Take advantage of your extra time on the weekend and you’ve just extended your weekend without taking PTO:)

    • Nap to make up for lost sleep, but be smart about it. If you need to make up for a few lost hours, opt for a short daytime nap rather than sleeping late. This strategy allows you to pay off your sleep debt without disturbing your natural sleep–wake rhythm, which often backfires in insomnia and throws you off for days. This happens all the time who aren’t consistent between how they sleep during the week and on weekends. Note: If insomnia is a problem for you, consider eliminating napping. If you must nap, do it in the early afternoon, and limit it to thirty minutes.

    • Fight after–dinner drowsiness. If you find yourself getting sleepy way before your bedtime, get off the couch and do something mildly stimulating to avoid falling asleep, such as washing the dishes, calling a friend, or getting clothes ready for the next day. If you give in to the drowsiness, you may wake up later in the night and have trouble getting back to sleep.

    • Exercise Yes it may sound counter intuitive but regular exercise creates a normal cycle your body craves. Obviously by burning up energy and calories through workouts, you tire your body some. But, exercise does even greater things for your internal clock cycle and brain. The release of endorphins typcially associated by exercise get things rolling after a workout, and allow the production of calm\stress releasing chemicals later in the day. All of these combined make a good workout and ideal way to increase your sleep cycle.

    • Get the temp right Science has proven that your body likes to be cool to trigger a good nights sleep and keep us sleeping. Typcically 66-70 degrees fahrenheit is a great range depending on the sleeper. So be sure to get the thermostat set an hour before bedtime to ensure you create a great sleeping climate.

    • Calm the Brain Don’t do too many brain stimulating activities at least 30 minues before you hit the sack. If you do, it is very likely that your brain will keep going even when your body is ready to stop. I run into this one all the time if work to close to bedtime. Keep in mind, the type of work matters as not all work really requires the same brain functions. For instance, reading, web browsing or mild research typically don’t effect my sleep. However, logical thinking or alot or mind numbing learning topics will leave me up for one or two hours after i’d like. So, try to keep your best brain work for earlier in the day. Your body will thank you:)

    Get Fit, Stay Fit, Enjoy!

  20. I’m another one who sleeps with the TV on, but I have to leave it on all night. I used to do the thing with the timer, but then I wake up fairly soon after it turns off and just have to turn it back on again. I can’t sleep if it’s dark or too quiet. When I shared a room in college, I used to sleep with my iPod propped up on the pillow next to me and my earbuds in.

    Now that I have my own room again, I get to bed about 10:30 most nights with Futurama on the Netflix queue and if I wake up I push the button to start the next episode.

  21. I am extremely inspired along with your post.. I need some more sleep to recover.

  22. As a top top skin and anti aging doctor from Mumbai, I always advise a good night’s beauty sleep for great skin to my clients. A good session of hot yoga in the evenings always helps. Besides improving your blood circulation, doing yoga in a warm environment also flushes out the toxins from the body and brings on a real spell of drowsiness and can contribute to a night of sound sleep. I have found that playing some Soft soothing acoustic guitar music or Cafe Del Mar lounge music on the ipod can also help. Ensure that you pause the music on the ipod just as you are about to doze off or else your sleep will not be so sound with the music playing in your ears all night!

  23. As a lifelong insomniac, all the research on sleeping makes me crazy. I literally can’t understand how going to bed earlier would help anything. And I’m using literally correctly; I just can’t comprehend how someone can just get in bed and fall asleep. I’ve never been able to do that. My mom used to tell stories of how she’d walk in my room at night when I was a baby and see me sitting quietly in my bed just staring at the darkness. Not much has changed since then.

    I know and keep good “sleep hygiene” and keep regular hours but nothing helps. I often wonder how different my life would have been if I wasn’t chronically exhausted.

    • Amy, I’ve wondered the same thing about my daughter. Hannah is nearly 18 and has never been a consistently good sleeper. She tries, believe me, but will have one REALLY good night’s sleep and then a week of very little. She lays in bed trying to sleep but can’t. We haven’t figured it out yet…

  24. Thanks Charlotte for sharing this article on sleep. Sleep is very important as you mentioned. When I was a student years ago I used to sleep a few hours studying thinking I was doing the right thing. I read an article which suggested sleeping enough hours and that changed my life completely.
    Studies have shown that lack of sleep is associated with;
    -depression
    -anxiety
    -high blood pressure
    -weight gain and other conditions

    Thanks for sharing

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