The Importance of Sleep
Why Prioritize Sleep?
Getting enough sleep is a key aspect of an individual’s health, just like exercising and eating properly, yet many report not catching enough of it. According to the National Hearth, Lunch and Blood institute, “about 7-19 percent of adults in the United States reported not getting enough rest or sleep every day” (National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute). And according to a 2010 study by the CDC, around 30% of US workers report getting less than 6 hours of sleep per night, despite the recommended amount of sleep for an adult being 7-9 hours (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).
The consequences for this overabundant sleep deprivation are serious. Poor sleep habits are linked to a large number of health concerns, both mental (sleep association) and physical. Sleep deprivation is linked to a greater risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and inflammation (Leech). It also had adverse effects on mental health, because the REM stage of sleep facilitates the brain’s procession of emotional information (Suni, “Mental Health and Sleep”). Modern theory suggests that sleep and mental health have a bidirectional effect - sleeping problems can be both the cause and effect of mental health problems (Scott). The correlation of poor sleep and specific mental health conditions is astounding - insomnia, other sleep conditions, or generally not getting enough or too much sleep is reported by 65%-90% of adults with major depression, 50% of adults with generalized anxiety disorder, and 69%-99% of bipolar patients experiencing a manic episode (Harvard Health).
A lack of sleep has a significant negative impact on an individual’s productivity as well. According to the American Sleep Foundation, “sleep loss can make it more challenging to maintain focus, attention, and vigilance” and also lead to more errors and omissions and worse reaction times. It can also lead to the individual feeling angry and irritable and worsened emotional strength can strain professional and personal relationships. So if you’re trying to get more work done by skipping sleep, it’s actually counterproductive - if you can help it at all, get more sleep and you’ll finish your work in less time (Rob Newsom).
How much sleep should I get?
According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s recommendations, this is the amount of sleep an individual should get every night by their age (Suni, “How Much Sleep Do We Really Need?”).
These guidelines leave a lot of “wiggle room” because each individual’s needs can be slightly different. Vary your sleep goal based on how awake or drowsy you feel during the day, your level of productivity, your pre-existing healthy conditions, and more (the linked sleep foundation article goes into more detail, I highly recommend giving it a read).
Also keep in mind that our body goes through sleep in several stages that repeat in a sleep cycle. This cycle takes, on average, 90 minutes, and to feel refreshed when you wake up you should try to wake up at the end of a cycle. Thus, calculate when to go to bed and wake up based on how much sleep you need (as detailed in the chart above), when you need to wake up for school/work, and how you can wake up at the end of a whole sleep cycle (Roland).
| Age Range | Recommended Hours of Sleep |
|---|---|
| Newborn - Toddler (0-2 years old) | 11-17 hours |
| Preschool (3-5 years old) | 10-13 hours |
| School-age (6-13 years old) | 9-11 hours |
| Teen (14-17 years old) | 8-10 hours |
| Adult (18-64 years old) | 7-9 hours |
| Older Adult (65+ years old) | 7-8 hours |
Healthy Sleeping Habits
Many of us struggle to fall asleep at earlier times, especially if we’re trying to shift our sleep schedule to a more healthy pattern. Oftentimes, these struggles can be lessened with better sleeping habits, or “sleep hygiene” as some professionals call it. If you continue having trouble falling asleep regularly or you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night too often despite changing to these habits, you might have a more serious condition that needs to be addressed by a medical professional.
Tips to improving your sleep hygiene:
- Commit to a regular schedule that you follow every day, including the weekends
- Have a morning and night routine that you do every day to prep your body for the daily changes
- Avoid caffeine, alcohol and excessive carbohydrates for several hours before going to bed (sugars right before bed also tend to ruin any diet you might be trying, despite how tempting that midnight ice cream is…)
- Avoid screens right before bed (so try logging your sleep hours in the morning). The bright light from any device, especially blue light, can disrupt your body’s natural circadian rhythm, or the pattern or feeling sleepy and awake that humans developed that follows the sun.
- As part of that night routine mentioned above, find an activity that calms you down. This can be meditation or yoga or a hot shower or anything else that you prefer. I love listening to Jane Austen right before bed so my mind is mildly occupied but I’m not looking at a screen!
- If you can, make your bed a place that your mind associates only with sleep - so don’t work or watch TV or read in your bed, it’s ideally only a place to sleep.
- Some material changes to your bedroom like a good mattress, a weighted blanket, scent diffusers and dim lighting can help get physically relaxed.
- Good sleep hygiene (or the long-term changes and habits to improve your sleep quality) will also help!
*the tips are a mix of suggestions from the Sleep Foundation, the American Sleep Association and Zapier.
For more resources, a great source of information is the Sleep Foundation and the American Sleep Association.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “Short sleep duration among workers--United States, 2010.” MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report vol. 61,16 (2012): 281-5.
Harvard Health. “Sleep and Mental Health.” Harvard Health, 18 Mar. 2019, www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/sleep-and-mental-health.
Leech, Joe M. “10 Reasons Why Good Sleep Is Important.” Healthline, 25 Feb. 2020, www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-reasons-why-good-sleep-is-important#10.-Sleep-affects-emotions-and-social-interactions.
National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute. “Sleep Deprivation and Deficiency | NHLBI, NIH.” National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute, 28 Apr. 2020, www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/sleep-deprivation-and-deficiency.
Rob Newsom. “The Link Between Sleep and Job Performance.” Sleep Foundation, 8 Jan. 2021, www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene/good-sleep-and-job-performance.
Roland, James. “How to Calculate When You Should Go to Sleep.” Healthline, 21 July 2020, www.healthline.com/health/sleep/sleep-calculator.
Scott AJ, Webb TL, Rowse G. Does improving sleep lead to better mental health? A protocol for a meta-analytic review of randomised controlled trials. BMJ Open. 2017 Sep 18;7(9):e016873. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-016873. PMID: 28928187; PMCID: PMC5623526.
Suni, Eric. “How Much Sleep Do We Really Need?” Sleep Foundation, 10 Mar. 2021, www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need.
---. “Mental Health and Sleep.” Sleep Foundation, 18 Sept. 2020, www.sleepfoundation.org/mental-health.