Optimizing Sleep for Self Improvement: Part 1

A lot of the concepts and processes in this post are based on material in the book “Quiet your mind and get to Sleep” by Colleen E. Carney and Rachel Manber. If you want more information on solving any sleep issues you have, I would recommend getting that book.

Why is Sleep Important for Self Improvement:

Benefits of Proper Sleep:

Sleep is an essential process for humans just like eating or breathing. As such, sleep plays an important role in nearly every aspect of people’s lives. This includes emotional control, memory, cognitive performance, strengthening immunity,  and reducing daytime fatigue. Lack of proper sleep can also exasperate other physical or mental problems. Given the heavy physical and mental toll bad sleep can have, anyone looking to improve their life should look towards improving their sleep. Even if you don’t have any specific sleep disorders like insomnia, there are still likely ways you can improve your sleep for mental and physical benefit.

Prevalence of Sleep Related Problems:

The modern environment has lead to an increase in sleeping problems for many people. As much as 40% of the population of the United States has some kind of sleep disorder. Despite affecting so many people there aren’t as many resources to help people with sleep as there are for other habit based health issues like obesity. Not only are there not as many resources but much of the advice people are given regarding sleep is not only wrong but can be detrimental to forming good sleep habits.

Dispelling Myths about Sleep:

Myth 1: Time Spent in Bed is what Matters

Since the time I was young I was told things like “humans are supposed to spend a third of their life sleeping” or “You should get at least 8 hours of sleep”. These statements seemed to make sense. When I had more sleep I felt and performed better, when I had less sleep I felt and performed worse. This concept made me very anxious about my sleep which in turn probably made my insomnia worse despite my attempts to improve my sleep. The reality is that in addition to quantity there is also a quality to a person’s sleep. Someone who believes they need to get a specific amount of sleep will likely try either going to bed earlier than usual or sleeping in more if they think they aren’t getting enough sleep. Unfortunately both these approaches are more likely to lead to more sleep issues. If someone tries going to bed earlier they will likely go to bed when they don’t feel sleepy and thus spend more time awake in bed until sleeping which can lead to taking longer to fall asleep after going to bed in the future. Alternatively someone who tries to sleep in longer in the morning will shift their circadian rhythm forward meaning it will take longer for them to fall asleep next night. Ultimately there isn’t a specific number of hours a person “needs” to sleep every night. How well someone sleeps is a function of more than just the time from when you fall asleep to when you wake.

Myth 2: If you have Sleep Debt you have to Sleep Longer to make it up

Relating to the idea of needing a specific amount of time spent sleeping is concept of sleep debt. Sleep debt is the concept that bad sleep across multiple nights accumulates into more intense problems while awake and that more good sleep proportional to the amount of bad sleep must be had to offset the effects of bad sleep. This leads people to believe that if they don’t sleep more after a night of bed sleep they will forever have symptoms of sleep deprivation. However as discussed in the previous section trying to get more sleep one night by either going to bed earlier or sleeping in later can cause more sleep problems down the road. So the best way to get rid of sleep debt is to increase the quality of sleep. Fortunately the body can do this automatically in response to sleep deprivation. This is evidenced by a study where subjects who were deprived of REM sleep one night would increase the amount of sleep time spent in REM the next night despite sleeping the same amount of time. This effectively means that losing sleep one night makes you sleep more deeply the next night. Although the study showed a 26 minutes increase in REM sleep after being deprived of 30 minutes of REM sleep implying that sleep debt won’t be paid off after a single night of deeper sleep, maintaining a consistent sleep cycle is more effective to long term improvement in sleep than paying off sleep debt as fast as possible.

Improving Sleep:

Ultimately the best way to improve sleep is to track your sleep in a sleep log and modify your habits based on what you record.

Keeping a Sleep Log:

A sleep log should be filled out as early as possible each day after waking up. A basic sleep log should include the times you go to bed, when you fall asleep, when you wake up, and when you finally get out of bed. A sleep log also works as a way to plan when you want to commit to falling asleep and wake up and seeing how well you stick to that commitment. The sleep log can either be kept in a booklet or on a digital spreadsheet using Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. In a later section there will be a sample sleep log with additional options.

Activities Before Going to Bed:

There are multiple things that people do before bed that can disrupt sleep. Before going to bed you should spend at least 30 minutes away from bright sources of light. This includes laptop or mobile phone screens. If you feel you need to do something on one of these devices you can turn down the screen brightness. A good way to tell if a screen is to shine it on yourself in front of a mirror in darkness and see if you can make out any features. If you can make out all of your facial features then the screen is probably too bright. You should also do an activity that is relaxing such as reading or meditating. You should also avoid eating or drinking anything within an hour and a half of going to bed and avoid anything containing caffeine, alcohol, or nicotine about 4 hours before bed since these substances can disturb sleep.

Activities After Waking Up:

The most important aspect of waking up is getting and staying out of bed as soon as possible. Keeping an alarm clock away from the bed so you have to get up to turn it off. After turning off the alarm clock people are usually tempted to to go back to bed. In order to prevent this you should plan out something to do right after you wake up. This should be something you want to do and is comfortable like sitting on a couch watching netflix. If you still have trouble staying out of bed after waking up you should write a reminder and put it next to your alarm clock to remind you what you planned to do after waking up.

Get Started Now:

Recording Sleep:

As you’re reading this open up a new spreadsheet using Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. Fill out the spreadsheet like the sample below.

Date	(Today’s Date)	(Tomorrow’s Date)	Etc...
Time I went to bed last night:
Estimate of how long I was in bed before falling asleep
Time I woke up:
Time I finally got out of bed::
Total Time in bed	(Row5 - Row2)
Weeklong average
Total Time asleep	(Row4 - Row3)
Weeklong average
Sleep efficiency (time asleep per time in bed)	Row6 / Row8
Weeklong average

Additional Options:

The above table is very basic and doesn’t take into account individual factors. There are some additional options if an you have additional sleep issues. For example if you wake up periodically during the night you should put a row for amount of times you woke up last night and a row for the average time it took for you to fall back asleep. If you find yourself consistently waking up earlier than you planned you should put in a row for that so you can adjust your future bedtime.

Planning:

In order for this to work you will have to continually fill out the sleep log so you can adjust your habits based on where you are having difficulty. In order to commit to filling the sleep log out you should write down a note to remind yourself and put it near your computer. You should also set your alarm for the same time every week and have something planned to do as soon as you wake up.

What to do Next:

As you fill out the sleep log you should think about how to adjust your habits to improve your sleep. For example if you find that you are spending a long time in bed before falling asleep you should start to go bed later until you fall asleep quickly after going to bed. As time goes on your habits will improve and you won’t need to take as many precautions. You will be able to wake up at the same time every day without an alarm clock and fall asleep quickly after going to bed.

Part 2