Getting a good night's sleep
Worried sick about waking up at 3am? Researchers say there is nothing to worry about.
Blame the electric light!
Circadian neuroscientist Professor Russell Foster says the commercialisation of electric light since the 1950s has allowed us to declare war upon the night and think that we can do what we want at whatever time.
He argues that in doing so, we have thrown away an essential part of our biology. He says advertisements showing people exercising and jogging in the middle of the night have got it very wrong.
They encourage viewers to pursue their health and wellness goals on their schedules – despite the overwhelming objective scientific evidence that this can be extremely harmful.
This insight about our arrogant 24/7 society underpins Foster's new book, Life Time, published by Penguin.
The book contains information on what scientists have discovered about sleep and biological circadian rhythms.
It is designed to help us make informed and evidence-based decisions about improving our sleep and circadian health to improve our lives.
The practical take-home messages of this book are that there is no one size fits all in terms of sleep.
It is not helpful to think that everyone should be aiming for eight hours of sleep a night, for example, or even that the holy grail is to sleep right through the night without waking up. The sleep you need is linked to your genetics and environment and can change throughout your life.
There is advice about the best time for various health interventions: stroke medications such as aspirin should be taken before you go to sleep rather than in the morning because aspirin turns off the stickiness of platelets which are made at night; a flu vaccine is better given in the morning because the immune system is upregulated during the daytime.
It also explains the scientific evidence for improving our sleep, such as not drinking caffeinated drinks after lunchtime, not eating a large meal, or discussing difficult issues immediately before bedtime.
Foster says waking up in the middle of the night is a natural form of sleep.
“When people accept that, they get the best sleep they ever had.”
It is natural for people to have two periods of sleep at night, with reference to it from antiquity to the mid-19th century. Until electric lighting and strict factory schedules interfered, it was common to sleep in two shifts: slumbering until somewhere around midnight, then waking naturally for a couple of hours.
Our circadian (sleeping) rhythms drop as we age Foster explains. “The drive for sleep and wake is not so pronounced.” The hormonal regulation of our urine production – which tell our bodies to produce lots in the day and little at night – weakens too. So, you may wake up needing a wee.
Here are some tips:
Reduce toilet trips by moving around more before bed. Foster says age plus sedentary habits can lead to generating as much as a litre of urine when you lie down to sleep because of reintegrating the fluid that is accumulated in your ankles and feet.
Do not be worried and get outside early. Foster says, “morning light is very good at setting the clock and therefore the sleep-wake timing.”
If you wake up after your first sleep, keep the lights low, and play some soporific music.
Do not check the news or emails, but reading from a Kindle is fine.
If the sight of the early hour alarms you, cover the dial on your clock.
Importantly, you need to enhance your ability to fall back to sleep.
Most of all, do not worry about waking up.
It may not be in Foster’s book, but the writer of this article swears by switching on the radio when the brain won’t switch off after waking up.
The gentle, inoffensive tone of late-night radio refocuses the brain, or distracts it from its own thoughts, allowing you to get back to sleep.
For further reading: NDCN
