transformation nation action plan: sleep...

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TRANSFORMATION NATION Action Plan: Sleep Better

We live in an era of overindulgence. Too much food. Too much coffee. Too much stress. Too many gizmos. Too many choices. But there’s one area of our lives where the opposite is true: Sleep. Sleep is the last thing we indulge in, and it always gets pushed down on our priority

list (perhaps because of too much coffee, stress and gizmos?). Oh sure, we all know the

person or two who could sleep through surround-sound freight trains, or the teenager who

believes that 2 p.m. is too early for Saturday breakfast. But the truth is that as a society,

our bedrooms have turned from a place of solace into a source of stress. Simple fact: Sleep

problems will decrease the quality of your life.

Now, these issues can be complex. Lack of sleep can cause health problems, and health

problems can cause a lack of sleep. So the chicken-egg scenario can mean that diagnosing a

sleep problem can feel trickier than a David Blaine special—especially if you’re so frustrated

by a lack of energy throughout the day that you don’t know where to start.

In this installment of Transformation Nation, we’re going to give you a quick primer

on how sleep works and what you can do to take control of your sleeping life. While it’s

fine to think of three-letter Xs when it comes to your bedroom, for now, we want you to

concentrate on the ZZZs.

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It’s not like we don’t want more sleep. It’s not like we don’t know that sleep is good for us.

It’s just that, well, in the grand scheme of priorities, sleep always gets pushed behind just about everything else in our lives. How about we take that grand scheme and flip it upside its head. Why? Not getting enough quality sleep plays a significant role in our aging, in weight gain, in increased stress, and in making ourselves more likely to develop various diseases and conditions throughout our lives. Even worse, many of us don’t care that we don’t get enough sleep, despite the fact it’s one of the things that makes us feel old and sluggish. We go on our way, trudging through our daily lives and responsibilities, just accepting the fact that we’re going to have to be jacked up by 96 ounces of java just to get us through half the day. So the first step is telling yourself that you don’t have to accept your energy problems just because you’re busy, just

The Big Picture

Why We Need SleepFundamentally, sleep exercises the parts of our brains that we don’t use.

If you think about cavemen (you do, don’t you?), they spent each day focusing on the tasks that would keep them alive: hunting, cooking, caring for the tribe. During the day, the other parts of the brain—say, the creative part that would allow them to come up with solutions and ideas for stronger weapons or shelter—didn’t get used because men and women were so caught up living in the moment. But

sleep became the time when the brain could develop those underutilized parts. As we developed, we needed the restorative process of sleep even more. Why? During sleep, your brain processes all of the information you take in during the day—it’s what helps us keep our minds and memory sharp. Sleep isn’t just about restoring energy; it’s about brain development and health upkeep. Think of your brain having some sort of night shift where all of the workers are busy keeping the factory running while everyone else is off. That’s what sleep does—the night shift repairs, the night shift creates, the night shift busts its hump to keep the entire anatomical and neurological factoring humming along. Without that night shift, the factory—in the form of your body—slowly starts to lose efficiency and will eventually shut down.

because you’re trying to hold a job and run a family, just because you really like staying up to watch The Daily Show.

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Biology 101What you need to know about melatonin and how it works.

Through a series of chemical interactions, we’re jostled up and ready to take on our job, our kids, our day, our monthly fight with the phone company. Now, lots of chemicals do come into play to both help you fall asleep and trigger you to wake up, but the one you’ll

Stages of SleepYour body runs through several sleep cycles a night.

In order to gain all of the benefits of sleep, you need more than just Egyptian cotton sheets. Your body needs to cycle through these stages several times a night. Where we see sleep problems occur is when sleep cycles are interrupted and you can’t get fully rested, and your brain can’t cycle through all of the restorative processes that it needs to. The stages:

most want to remember is one called melatonin. Melatonin (produced by a part of the brain called the pineal gland, which senses light) modulates all kinds of activities in the body, including menstruation, and helps lower blood pressure and increase immune function. Plus, it helps regulate sleep. When your melatonin production decreases, you lose your normal sleep pattern (remember that it is called the “Vampire” hormone).

Sleep latency: Time between “lights out” to sleep

Stages 1 and 2: Light sleep

Stages 3 and 4: Deep sleep

REM (rapid eye movement): Dream formation

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Sleep Interrupters

While there are many different kinds of sleep problems (you may have heard of such ones as restless leg syndrome or even sleep sex), these are the two biggest:

Insomnia: You know it as the toss-and turn disease. No matter what you do, you lie there stewing. Technically, insomnia is defined as either not being able to get to sleep in the first place, not being able to fall back asleep if you wake up or waking up too early.

Sleep apnea: While we may associate it with snoring, sleep apnea is actually signaled by silence, when you’re not breathing for up to ten seconds at a time. And that can happen up to 200 times a night. Sleep apnea can lead to problems like high blood pressure, heart trouble, lack of energy, stroke and death.

The Best BedThere are two things that your bed should be used for. One of them is sleep.

The other? We’re not talking about checking your email, watching TV, or playing Angry Birds. Treat your bed like a sacred place for sleep and sex and you’ll help train your brain to wind down when it’s time for bed. So for that reason, you’re really going to want to take some time and make sure

you have the best mattress for you. While there’s no one standard mattress that works for everyone, you have to make a good selection—whether it’s a standard mattress or a specialty foam like latex, memory foam or poly foam. But you can’t judge choices in 30 seconds in a store. Take at least 15 minutes and test it for comfort, support, even heat. Memory foam mattresses, for example, can retain heat. To test a bed, take off your shoes and rest on the mattress in your usual sleep position. Spend at least 5 minutes relaxing.

Research shows sound sleep can help you beat stress and lower your risk for heart attack, stroke and other diseases. Now that you’re committed to Transformation Nation, getting a good night’s rest can even improve your chances of winning $1 million by helping you get in top shape for the challenge. Ten strategies for getting there:

SET THE STAGE. Make your bedroom a sanctuary. Choose soothing colors (hot pink = not soothing), invest in a quality mattress and keep the room comfortably cool. Consider installing a dimmer switch: Softening the lights before bedtime can encourage the flow of melatonin, the sleep hormone.

ESTABLISH A ROUTINE. Set a schedule of when to go to bed and when to rise, and stick to it. Treat it like any other appointment you don’t want to miss—even on the weekends. Simple rituals—reading a relaxing novel, writing in a journal or setting out your clothes for the next day—can let your body know it’s bedtime.

TIME A HOT BATH. Take a good soak 90 minutes before bedtime. Your body temperature naturally cools at night, so kicking your temperature up a notch beforehand will increase the contrast as you cool off, making you sleepy and relaxed.

EXERCISE EARLY. A morning run can help you sleep like a pooped-out pup at night, but working out less than three hours before bedtime may leave you too revved up to sleep. So 9 p.m. is not the time to pop in your P90X DVDs or rocket through the neighborhood. Wind down with a few gentle yoga stretches instead.

TAKE A TECH BREAK. Light from a flashing screen keeps your brain stimulated, so resist the urge to do work, watch TV or comment on your friend of a friend of a friend’s boss’s cousin’s Facebook status at least thirty minutes before bed time. Recharge your cell phone in another room to keep work and errands mentally at bay.

SHOO THE PETS. They may be the love of your life, but sharing a bed with Nelly or Butch can wreak havoc with your sleep.

CUT THE CAFFEINE. Skip coffee, tea and colas after 2 p.m. to avoid a caffeine buzz at night. Watch out for sneaky foods, like sweets or lattes, which contain hidden caffeine.

STAY IN TOUCH. A new study shows feeling lonely or isolated can up your risk for sleep problems. A few minutes on Facebook or email each day (just not before bed) or lunch with the girls can help you feel connected and more likely to rest.

EAT SLEEP-FRIENDLY FOODS. Pop a small handful of sunflower seeds or dried tart cherries, both rich in melatonin. Or try a light bedtime snack of cheese and crackers, peanut butter on toast or yogurt and granola. The protein contains tryptophan, an amino acid that makes you sleepy, and the carbs help deliver it to the brain.

GET OUT OF BED. Tired of tossing and turning? When all else fails, get up and go to another room. Working on a Sudoku, organizing recipes or folding a little laundry may be all you need to switch gears and fall asleep.

transformation nation action plan: sleep...

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