Sleep Challenge! A Review of “Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker
Movement As Medicine Book Of The Month: “Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker
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“Sleep is the Swiss Army knife of health. When sleep is deficient, there is sickness and disease. And when sleep is abundant, there is vitality and health.”
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I’m not always a big fan of random fitness challenges but I am a fan of thoughtful lifestyles challenges. With the @movementasmedicine book club we’ll be posting weekly challenges to accompany the book of the month. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Movement As Medicine Sleep Challenge #1:
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Shark 🦈 Habits:
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“Shark Habits” popularized by @coachdanjohn are simple, one-time changes you can make that have long term lifestyle impacts. These are changes you can automate or only have to think about once for long term benefits. When it comes to sleep there are some simple adjustments that you can make to your environment that result in wholesale changes to your sleep quality.
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This week see if you can make these simple adjustments to improve your sleep environment:
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🔹Add Black Out curtains to your bedroom to blockout all light. 🙅🏻♂️🌞
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🔹 Cover all LED lights in your room coming from alarm clocks and other electronics. 🙅🏽♀️⌚️⏰
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🔹 Shut off all TV screens and cell phone screens. 🙅🏻♀️🖥📱💻
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🔹Automate thermostat to 64-68 degrees for the sleep time you are normally sleeping. 👍🏽
Challenge Of The Week: Lights Out! 💡 📱🙅🏻♂️
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“Stay away from screens. Those blue-light emitting devices fool your brain into thinking that it’s still daytime, even though it’s night-time and you want to get to sleep.” – Matthew Walker
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This weeks practices for better sleep 😴:
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🔹Avoid Blue Light emitting devices at least 1 hour before bed. (TV, Phone, IPad, Computer.
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🔹Read paper copies of books, newspaper and magazines rather than from phone or tablet.
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🔹If you must answer texts or emails use Blue Blocker glasses or use apps life Flux @flux.
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If you’re accustomed to lots of screen time prior to sleeping you’ll be amazed at how much these small habits make a huge difference in your total sleep and sleep quality.
Week 3 Challenge : Feel The Rhythm!
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Our Circadian Rhythm is our internal regulating clock thats is controlled by our Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN) within our Hypothalamus. Our Circadian Rhythm pulls the strings on a number of our bodies internal function but most notably it regulates our sleeping and waking cycles.
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Our body goes through daily cycles of both “Sleep Drive” and “Wake Drive” where our body is driven towards either a more wakeful or rested state. Our daily schedules, eating habits and health behaviors can strongly effect the regulation of our Wake and Rest drives within our circadian rhythm.
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To promote more restful and regular sleep it’s best to try to regulate these habits so that our sleep and wake drives can sync most effectively.
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Try These Habits To Get Your Rhythm In Check!
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– ⏰ Maintain consistent sleeping and waking time.
– Cut Out Caffeine consumption after 12 pm ☕️ 🍵🙅🏻♂️
– Stop food intake 90-120 minutes before bed. 🛑 🍝
– Get some sunlight exposure upon waking to provide your body a signal that it‘s morning. ☀️ 😊
Week 4 Challenge : Dollar & A Dream?
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If all the health factors weren’t enough to motivate you to catch more ZzZZzZ’s maybe 💰 can?
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It’s estimated that the economic coat of sleep loss in United States accumulates to over 409 BILLION dollars! That’s 2.3% of our total GDP! Lack of efficiency, inability to focus, mistakes, accidents all of these things build up to cost us money!
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In addition to that consider…
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– Shorter sleep is associated with a 45% increase of risk for heart disease.
– People who under sleep eat an average of 300 more calories/day.
– A higher proportion of weight loss come from muscle instead of fat when people under sleep due to hormonal changes.
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This is our last week with “Why We Sleep” before we switch gears to a new book and topic. Give it your best shot this week to solidify some quality sleep habits for your future! 😴 🛏