This week in one of my classes we had a discussion about sleep. From that discussion we had to write a paper about what our take aways were. Basically I could have summed up what I learned in one sentence, “Good quality sleep is astronomically important and everyone sucks at it.” Unfortunately the rubric for this assignment required 5-7 pages…. So I skillfully drug it out.

I’ve always been taught that it is important to make sure that you are getting 7-9 hours of sleep each night. What my teachers in the past failed to emphasize is that, yes it is important to get 7-9 hours of sleep, but it is better to get 7-9 hours of GOOD QUALITY sleep. Think about the last time you laid in bed, drifted slowly to sleep, and blissfully arose in the morning. When I think of sleep I alternate on the pendulum of carcass dead and wide awake at 2AM unable to fall back asleep. But hey I laid in the bed for 7-9 hours so it still counts right? WRONG!

When it comes to sleep Jerry our wonder pug takes the cake. So the gallery of Jerry sleeping through the ages will serve as the lively bit of this post.

Quality over quantity. Sleep effects everything! Literally! People that devote time to preparing and executing good sleep habits are at less risk for developing the leading chronic conditions. My professor literally spent a week having us read studies linking poor sleep habits to diabetes, obesity, depression, anxiety, poor immune function, inflammation, blah blah blah literally everything!

One of the studies that I referenced in my paper was performed at Stanford’s Sleep Disorder Clinic. Essentially they took a group of basketball players, had them increase the amount of time they were getting pure nocturnal sleep. Many of the players in the study would sleep for 10 hours a night but only get 5 hours of pure restful sleep. The goal of the study was to have all of the participants hit 7 hours of restful sleep a night even if they were actually in bed for 10 hours.

The researchers aimed to close the gap between laying in bed and sleeping focused on quantity versus laying in bed focused on quality. It took 5-7 weeks until the players in the study were able to get 8 hours of sleep and 7 pure hours of sleep. Then the players sprint times, shooting accuracies, quick decision making, and visual dexterity were compared to their results prior to the study. Every single participant had improved and more than half had double their results.

So translation, why does this matter? Sleep is responsible for the majority of recovery for our minds and bodies. I love talking about recovery because it is so undervalued! Our bodies have full times jobs. We are constantly push them to the brink, pumping them full of caffeine, slapping bandaids on and just chugging through life. I have had to learn the hard way that when you don’t invest time into taking care of your body, your body will stop showing up for you. AND IT SUCKS!

Taking time to prepare for sleep before bed is crucial. Here are some things that I like to do to prepare for bed:

Two minutes of noise free meditation (I use the app Headspace).
Turn my phone off 2 hours prior to going to bed (No the world will not end).
Prep for the next day by laying my clothes out and packing my lunch ahead of time.
Keep a notebook by my bed to write down any last minute thoughts I have leftover from the day (Maybe I’m crazy but sometimes my brain feels like an arcade of insanity, flooded with thoughts and things to do right before I am supposed to go to sleep. So having a place to write them all down allows me to clear my headspace).
No nighttime sugar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Get regular exercise (This is a must for me!)

Bottom line, give back to your body. Allow it time to recover by getting GOOD QUALITY sleep. Make a bed time routine that gets your body in the mood for sleep. If you don’t like what I do, whatever, find your own flow. I have seen the world of difference it makes when I prepare for sleep and make it a priority in my life. Poor Clay has been on the receiving end of my grumpies that always seem to accompany a crappy nights sleep. Remember that the athletes in the study did not master pure nocturnal sleep in two nights. It took time to adjust and it will take time for you to get into a routine too. BUT I PROMISE, IT IS SO WORTH IT!

Also shoutout to my favorite professor who actually read my blog and gave me helpful advice. References included thanks to him!

Mah, C., Mah, K., Kezirian, E. and Dement, W. (2019). The Effects of Sleep Extension on the Athletic Performance of Collegiate Basketball Players.

Mahowald, M. and Schenck, C. (2019). REM Sleep Parasomnias.

Sleeeeeeeeepppppp