Part 09 - A Story About Sleep
This month’s article will focus on one of my favourite hobbies, sleep. Like many people I enjoy a nice long comfortable sleep, but sleep isn’t just an enjoyable pastime it is also a very important facet of living a healthy life. When we travel, we often have to make sacrifices, especially when it comes to our health. Long journeys, very early or very late travel and often cramped and uncomfortable time spent getting from place to place.
Set aside time for sleep
With the pressure to see everything you can when travelling and to do more with the time you have, we often fail to set aside adequate time for sleep. No one wants to miss out on a great time late at night down at the pub or to miss out on that great deal on a flight that leaves at 5am, but in the long run there are many health benefits from getting a proper amount of good quality sleep.
Restore yourself
Research shows that the body restores and repairs itself during sleep. As we sleep, tissue grows and repairs itself and the immune system is strengthened. The brain may also repair itself during sleep and researchers believe sleep is critical to healthy brain function. In fact, researchers also believe the brain performs actions vital to learning and memory during sleep. Sleep can also affect the levels of hormones and other important chemicals circulating in your body. There is also research that shows that all of the processes we perform while asleep can under the right circumstances be fuelled exclusively by body fat, meaning you could possibly sleep yourself thinner.
Don't knock napping
One of the best ways to add additional rest and down time while travelling is to go back to one of the most important things we did when we were very young, napping. However, unless you know the correct way to conduct a daytime doze, you could snooze and lose. To prevent the napping or resting from stealing the drive for night time sleep, we should aim for short and mid day napping. The best time is during daylight hours, at least 4 or 5 hours before you plan on going to sleep at night. Any later and your circadian rhythms (the "body clock" mentioned in last month’s article on jet lag, that are in reality a small cluster of brain cells that control the timing of biological functions) will kick in, possibly making you feel disoriented upon waking and likely preventing you from sleeping come your regular bedtime. As for short, keep your naps to less than an hour; 20 to 30 minutes is enough for most people to get the benefits.
Be consistent
Due to the circadian regulation of sleep, consistent bedtimes and sleep duration are of most benefit in order to optimize sleep patterns. Delayed bedtimes or early awakenings that result in partial sleep deprivation can affect mental and physical performance on the following day. Too much or too little sleep can also be counterproductive to daytime performance. Optimal sleep time depends on the individual and the level of physical exertion and stress.
How to ensure a good nights rest
- Maintain a regular bed and wake time schedule, including weekends.
- Create a sleep-conducive environment that is dark, quiet, comfortable and cool. If your mind and body be come accustomed to a place and time for sleep and only sleep then the relaxation process will be improved.
- Exercise routinely and complete your exercise well in advance of bedtime. Regular exercise can enhance the quality of your sleep and may also offer additional immune system benefits.
- Use caution when taking over-the-counter medications to treat cold or flu symptoms. Some of these products can cause sleeplessness at night or sleepiness during the day. Conversely, avoid sleeping pills and other medications that create artificial rest as you will not get the same benefits of real natural sleep.
- Establish relaxing bedtime routines that include non-alerting activities such as reading or listening to music, rather than watching television.
- Limit eating and drinking before bedtime; caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol when used close to bedtime can lead to poor sleep.
