How well are you sleeping?

If you want to know how the people in your team, circle of friends or family are really doing, start asking them how well they are sleeping. Most of us are putting on a brave face as the challenges of 2020 drag into the new year, doing the best we can to maintain our sanity during this prolonged period of change. We often say “I’m doing fine” when asked, to keep morale up and not reveal any apparent weaknesses, but when your sleep quality goes down the drain there is no hiding the fact (just ask anyone with a baby at home).

Sleep is often overlooked when it comes to tips on building resilience, dealing with stress, and protecting yourself from the health threats caused by the pandemic. Since sleep is something we all need to do, this is a good place to start when putting together a strategy to maintain or improve your wellbeing and ability to cope with the challenges you are sure to be facing.

Before we get into the practicalities of how you can start improving your sleep quality tonight, here are some interesting facts around sleep you might not be aware of:

· You have heard this a thousand times, but adults do need at least 7.5 to 9 hours of sleep each night. A study done at the University of Pennsylvania found that sleeping 6 hours a night for a period of two weeks had the same negative impact on mental and physical performance as not sleeping for a period of two days straight. Six hours is not enough for most people, you need to get more.

· Sleep deprivation leads to cumulative decreases in mental and physical accuracy and performance over time, as mentioned in the previous point. The problem is that those struggling for sleep seem to massively underestimate the impact on their performance and ability to deliver at a high level. Your ability to deliver goes down before you start to notice, things take longer to complete and generally it takes more energy than usual. You are not you when you are lacking for sleep.

· There are two types of sleep: 1) Deep sleep (or slow wave sleep) happens earlier during the night and is associated with the restoration of your body and immune system, which is particularly important now. For most, this typically takes place between 22:00 and 01:00. 2) REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is to the mind what deep sleep is to the body. It happens later at night and during this phase (although it takes place 4 to 5 times per night) your mind takes care of and organizes the memories and experiences from the previous day. This is when the restoration of your mind takes place.

Think of your health and energy as a bucket filled with water. As you go about your normal day there are activities that will naturally drain some of this water – exercise, work, school, stress etc. These are outputs. Sleep is one of the main inputs to fill your bucket and restore your energy and health, along with good nutrition, meditation, stretching, laughter, and other forms of active recovery.

What can you start doing differently tonight?

1. Make sleep a priority. We often think of sleep as something that will happen by itself, an occurrence that does not require much effort or thought from our side. But if you are going to get a night of high-quality sleep you need to start planning for it, like you would for all the other things that fill your day. If you are looking for a shortcut to improve your health and wellbeing, start making sleep a priority.

2. Start a healthy, repeatable night-time routine. Many books have been written on having a good morning routine, but a healthy night-time routine is equally important. Remember, any great day starts the night before. This might include taking a bath or shower before bed, reading a book, or listening to calming music you enjoy as you start to power down your day.

3. Aim to be in bed at the same time each night. This is part of routine and is an important cue telling your brain that it’s time to end the day.

4. Avoid screens and bright light after dark as these mess with the secretion of melatonin and can fool your brain into thinking that the sun is rising and it’s time to wake up. Limit screen time for an hour or two before bed. This includes TV, your phone or laptop. Many devices now have a night-light setting to limit the amount of light emitted, but the best remedy remains in switching them off earlier.

5. Working late, replying to emails, or reading the news at night can also increase your stress levels, which makes it difficult to ease into a restful night. Rather attend to these activities when you are well rested and have more mental capacity to expend.

6. Caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine all curb sleep, so do your best to cut them out or limit your usage to earlier in the day. A good rule of thumb is to have no coffee later than noon, as the caffeine takes approximately 8 hours to pass through your system. You might also find that if you exercise too close to bedtime you struggle to fall asleep, as intense exercise will activate your nervous system for action.

7. Keep your room cool, quiet, and dark. Block out curtains, white noise apps or fans are very helpful in maintaining these optimal sleeping conditions.

The Takeaway

There is a lot going on in the world that we feel we have very little control over. Stress levels are at a high level as people are trying to protect their livelihoods and health. If you haven’t been paying attention to the quality of your sleep, this is the perfect time to start if you are going to give yourself the best chance of dealing with your challenges in a healthy and productive way. It will cost you nothing and you can start tonight.

As we wrap up…

Taking these tough times into consideration and with the knowledge that people are under severe pressure, PurposeWorks has developed a series of workshops aimed at building resilience, enhancing emotional intelligence, managing and dealing with burnout and focusing on the importance of selfcare. Our aim is to provide practical, actionable advice, informed by the science of Positive Psychology in an accessible and affordable format.

These workshops are aimed at individuals, teams and organisations of all sizes. Please contact us at hello@purposeworks.co.za for more information on scheduling and pricing options.

At PurposeWorks we are all about Making You and Your Work Rock. Our focus is on Organisational Health and Design, Employee Centered Culture, Leadership Development and Performance Coaching. For more information on how we can help you create a work environment that rocks, develop a great team, become an inspiring leader or unlock your personal excellence talk to us at info@purposeworks.co.za.