Getting a Good Night’s Sleep and the Importance Thereof

This article will look at an issue I have struggled with my entire life—getting a good night’s sleep, along with the importance thereof. I was researching this issue for my own benefit, but I hope the information I found will be an aid to others as well.

New York Times. Sleep Better at Every Age.

The amount of sleep a person needs recalibrates over time, and circadian rhythms change with age. The 16-year-old who stayed up until midnight may become a 36-year-old who gets drowsy by 10 p.m. At 70, a man who never had any sleep issues might wake up at 4 a.m., unable to fall back asleep.

At 63, I can attest to this being true. I used to be more of a “night owl,” going to bed as late as midnight. But now, I am usually in bed around 9:30 pm. And waking up too early is an ever-present problem.

This article in the New York Times (NYT) then gives specific recommendations for each age group, from 0-5 years to 76+ years. Since I’m in the 61-75 years group, I will look at its recommendations. But the reader will need to subscribe to the NYT to read this entire article and check the recommendations for your age group. But you can get an “introductory offer” to the NYT for just $1.00/ week for the first six months.

Sleep experts say that it’s critical to block out time to wind down before bed, instead of scrolling on your phone before falling asleep. Whether you’re up working or engrossed in a TV show, too much stimulation before you go to sleep can sabotage your night.

TRY THIS: Schedule at least half an hour to relax (though it’s easier said than done), ideally without a screen. Find an activity that soothes you. Maybe that’s lounging on the couch with a good podcast, occupying your hands with something like knitting or drawing in a coloring book.

This would be a good recommendation for any age group. The same goes for the other recommendations in this section, which are: to limit alcohol, caffeine, and water intake close to bedtime and to deal with stress before bedtime rather than worrying about things after you crawl into bed.

The first three can all cause you to have to wake up to use the facilities, which can be very disruptive to sleep, especially if you need to “go” more than once during the night. Personally, I do not drink alcohol at all, while I have found I need to stop any caffeine intake at least seven hours before bedtime and fluid intake at least four hours before. Even then, I usually need to get up once at night. It is then I often have problems falling back to sleep. That is particularly damaging, as explained next.

New York Times. REM Sleep Is Magical. Here’s What the Experts Know.

Any sleep tracker will show you that slumber is far from a passive affair. And no stage of sleep demonstrates that better than rapid eye movement, or REM, commonly called dream sleep….

As you doze off, you enter the first stage of non-REM. This lasts less than 10 minutes and is considered a light sleep. Your breathing and heart rate decelerate and your muscles relax as you slip into the second stage of non-REM sleep, where your body temperature drops and your brain waves get slower. Then you enter the third stage, known as deep sleep, when your body repairs your bones and muscles, strengthens your immune system, releases hormones and restores your energy.

After that, REM sleep begins, and your heart rate, breathing and brain activity all increase. Brain regions involved in processing emotions and sensory input (from your dream world) light up. Meanwhile, your brain paralyzes the muscles in your arms and legs, preventing you from acting out your dreams, Dr. Dasgupta explained.

Ideally, you move through the four stages in 90- to 110-minute cycles that repeat four to six times in a typical night. Then, after your last REM cycle, you wake up rested and alert, ….

This cycle of sleep is why waking up during the night is so disruptive to getting a good night’s sleep. Even if you fall back to sleep quickly and get enough sleep overall, this cycle is disrupted, and you do not pass through each stage of sleep. You might get enough of one stage of sleep but not enough of another. That is why this article is titled “Getting a Good Night’s Sleep” not “Getting Enough Sleep.” The latter is not the same as the former.

The rest of this article in the NYT explains the various benefits of REM sleep—it helps you deal with emotions, it makes us better learners, we of course dream, which has various possible benefits, though this is still under study, and it is when the body releases testosterone. Men who have low testosterone levels might be more in need of better and more sleep than testosterone replacement therapy (TRT).

CDC. About Sleep.

Better sleep habits can help you get a good night’s sleep. Habits that can improve your sleep include:

·         Going to bed and getting up at the same time every day.

·         Turning off electronic devices at least 30 minutes before bedtime.

·         Avoiding large meals and alcohol before bedtime.

·         Avoiding caffeine in the afternoon or evening.

·         Exercising regularly and maintaining a healthy diet.

These are all basic recommendations that we all have probably heard at one time or another. But following them is another matter, with some having just been mentioned.

But the first is new, maintaining a constant sleep schedule. It is easy to fall into the habit of staying up later and sleeping in later on the weekends versus weekdays. But doing so can be very disruptive to one’s sleep pattern.

The last (exercise and diet) is of course important for other reasons. But both can have an effect on sleep as well. Thus, following a healthy exercise and eating plan can be beneficial in multiple ways.

On the second, that might sound contradictory to the recommendation in the first article to listen to a podcast before bedtime. But the key here is to listen, not to watch. Start the podcast on your phone or other device, but then put the screen to sleep and just listen. It’s looking at a screen (be it a phone, computer, or TV) that can disrupt sleep due to the type of light screens emit.

It is also important to listen to something you find soothing, like say a spiritual podcast, rather than something that might get you riled up, like say a political podcast.

Newsmax. New Study Reveals Another Health Benefit of Sleep.

Loneliness in America is a growing problem. One out of 3 people report feeling lonely at least once a week, according to a 2024 America Psychiatric Association Poll. But a recent study found that a good night’s sleep can help reduce feelings of loneliness, says HuffPost Life….

Emotional loneliness was defined by the researchers as missing intimacy with a partner, while social loneliness referred to missing a wider social network.

Experts don’t know why there is a stronger association between loneliness and young people who don’t sleep well but suspect it may be because they prefer not to interact with others when they aren’t well rested. In addition, lack of sleep can lead to increased anxiety and mood problems….

According to USA TODAY, one study found that adults who took 500 milligrams of magnesium before bed had better sleep quality than the participants who took a placebo. The magnesium group also had higher levels of melatonin, the hormone that governs sleep.

Loneliness, that is something most people do not associate with being sleep-deprived. But I think it is mainly a matter of everything seeming harder when you are tired. Work, working out, housework, play, whatever, if you are tired, it can all seem like drudgery. As such, it makes sense that socializing would be more difficult if you are tired, and feelings of loneliness harder to deal with as well.

As for magnesium, that could be an entire article in itself. I never found it to help very much. But it is worth a try, as it is cheap and unlikely to cause problems, as long as you don’t overdo it.

Newsmax. Train Yourself to Fall Asleep Fast.

Originally published in 1981 in the book “Relax and Win: Championship Performance,” written by Lloyd Bud Winter, the two-minute method of inducing sleep developed by the military went viral in 2018 in a TikTok from Justin Agustin, a sleep expert and fitness coach. Here’s what to do:

• Relax. Start by relaxing every muscle in the body, from head to toe. …

• Breathe. Take deep breaths, exhaling slowly…

ׇ• Clear your mind….

This Newsmax article provides further details on each of these points, and I am sure the book does even more so. The first two might be easy to do, but the last, not so much. It is the very problem of thoughts running through your mind at night that can make sleep difficult. If I had an answer to that, I would give it, but I do not. But I will say, an old comedy skit I heard recently, played in honor of the recently deceased Bob Newhart, gives the ultimate answer.

      Bob, playing a psychiatrist for obvious reasons, has a woman come to him for therapy. Her problem is, she has an obsessive fear of being buried alive in a box. After some ado, Bob’s answer is two words, “STOP IT!”

      That’s it. She is flabbergasted, as she explains the problems this fear is causing her, such as being claustrophobic. But he just keeps repeating, “STOP IT!” He then adds, “You don’t want to go through life being in fear of being buried alive in a box, do you? So, STOP IT!”

      Since she still has time left in her therapy session, she then tells him about other phobias she has. But he replies, “This time I have ten words for you, ‘STOP IT! Or I’ll bury you alive in a box!’”

The point is, sometimes, you just have to kick yourself and realize whatever you are obsessing over is simply not worth the problems it is causing you. So, STOP IT! That is especially important at night, when you are trying to sleep.

Bodybuilder “Trick” a Bad Idea

Lastly in this article I want to mention about a bodybuilder “trick” I have heard about. It is an idea some bodybuilders and other strength athletes advocate. It is the claim that it will help recovery from workouts and to build muscle if one gets up in the middle of the night and drinks a glass of reconstituted protein powder.

Some will even set an alarm for the middle of the night, just to drink this protein drink. Others say to drink a large glass of water before bedtime. That will force you to wake up due to having to pee, and you can drink your protein drink then.

Either way, I would say, this is a very bad idea. One reason is what was mentioned previously—it is at night, and especially during REM sleep, that the body releases testosterone. That testosterone will benefit recovery and muscle building far more than a few more grams of protein. But if that alarm or your need to urinate occurs in the middle of REM sleep, you will disrupt that release of testosterone.

It was also said previously that it is during the third stage of sleep, deep sleep, that “your body repairs your bones and muscles, strengthens your immune system, releases hormones and restores your energy.” All that will do far more for recovery from your last workout and prepare you for your next one than a few more grams of protein.

Then, if you have difficulties getting back to sleep after your middle of the night drink, that will further hinder recovery and muscle growth and your energy for your next workout. And if drinking a glass of liquid causes you to have to get again to use the bathroom, that will further hinder the quality and amount of sleep you get.

All around, this is a bad idea.

However, if you have to get up to pee anyway, then maybe it might be worthwhile to drink your protein drink then, since you are awake anyway. But have it pre-prepared, so that you can get back to bed and hopefully to sleep quickly. And don’t drink too much, necessitating a second trip to the toilet. Just a small not large glass.

Conclusion

If the reader has struggles with getting a good night’s sleep, hopefully the information in this article will be of aid to you. The suggestions and details are rather basic, and the reader might have heard many of them before. But I thought it good to bring them together into one place.

However, not addressed in this article is this writer’s biggest struggle in regard to getting a good night’s sleep, that of waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep. That issue is discussed in a follow-up article to this one. See Getting Back to Sleep After Awakening in the Middle of the Night.

Notes:

To view the full Bob Newhart skit, click here.

The links to Amazon are advertising links, for which I receive a commission if a product is purchased after following the link.

These three books on nutrition and the Bible look in-depth at what God give to human beings for food and what the Bible teaches about diet and nutrition. They also compare these Biblical teachings to scientific research on nutrition and degenerative disease like heart disease, cancer, and stroke.

The above article was posted on this website August 15, 2024.

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