Take a second and think, how many times within the past week have you woken up feeling exhausted when all you want to do is roll over and go back to sleep? It seems like a difficult task to change your sleep habits, but once a few easy changes are made to your nighttime routine the beneficial results will be apparent. It is definitely a process, but increasing your sleep by even just an hour per night can reduce your risk of car accidents, give you more energy, and boost your immune system, and lower your risk of memory loss.
Obviously, it is a lot easier said than done, otherwise we would all be lovely morning people who cannot wait to wake up and start the day. In reality, many of us roll out of bed during our last alarm and groggily get ready for the day feeling a bit tired without doing anything strenuous. As we get going throughout the day we slowly wake up, but it usually takes a coffee or caffeine to give us that final boost.
Some days the commute to work takes place while you are still a bit groggy making you a danger to other drivers. According to CDC driving sleep-deprived and drowsy is comparably worse in some cases to driving while intoxicated. On average sleepy drivers are the cause of over 5000 accidents and over 850 fatalities. Whether you realize it lack of sleep doesn’t always only affect your life, and constant sleep deprivation can put others in danger.
Lack of sleep affects all parts of your body physically but it can also affect you mentally. According to Alana Biggers MD from Healthline If you get less than seven hours of sleep on a daily basis it can mank you very temperamental with harsh mood swings. After persistent sleep deprivation, you may develop disorders such as depression and anxiety. Lack of sleep makes it harder to focus and concentrate on your tasks throughout the day, but it also slows down your reaction time and problem-solving skills.
This makes it harder to process new information and understand concepts. According to studies conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, while you are sleeping it may seem like you are resting and everything is shut down. Your brain is actually wide awake and working hard to processing information that you learned the previous day. Your brain fuses connections to help you recall information from the day before. Less sleep means less time your brain has to process the information causing you to remember fewer things.
Their studies also have shown that lack of sleep can have unfavorable impressions on both long term and short term memory. It can affect physical parts of your body by raising your blood pressure, increasing the risk for diabetes, and confusing you into overeating. This causes you to put on more weight, but it can also weaken your immune system. On top of that, it has a negative impact on your performance in sports.
Lack of sleep affects your balance along with your hand-eye coordination. These two skills appear in many sports, whether it is hitting or catching a ball, skating, or trying to balance on a four-inch-wide beam while doing tricks. It is important to get around eight hours of sleep to be successful in performing at a high level. There are many things that contribute to your lack of sleep, but the technological advances we have today have negatively affected the amount of sleep we get each night.
As we grow older new and improved technology is coming out almost daily. According to my interview, everyone responded that they got decent sleep (eight or more hours) every night as a child. This because we did not have as much technology and distractions to keep us up all hours of the night 10 or twenty years ago. Nowadays most everyone has a cell phone and according to my questionnaire, everyone uses it before they go to bed whether it is to set an alarm, play a game, read an e-book, or check social media.
We all live busy lives and have priorities that have to be met before we can slumber peacefully. Whether it is working late, watching or playing sports, or even work at home the evening usually flys by. If you are a mom, you have kids to tuck into bed, laundry to catch up on, and many more time-consuming tasks to be met for the next busy day. Leaving us to wonder what happened to the time and how it is so late already. Changing your night routine and setting a schedule are two ways to use the precious evening hours to their full potential.
There are many small adjustments you can make that will allow you to get better sleep consistently. Remembering to not spend too much time on devices and shutting them off at least an hour before you go to bed will have the most positive impact. One thing we often forget is how distracting technology can be. It has a huge impact on how fast you fall asleep. After stating at a screen glowing with blue light, your brain gets confused, making it think that it is a time to be awake. This makes it easier to stay up late and difficult to fall asleep quickly.
So instead of being on a phone or laptop right before bedtime, you could use the devices earlier on in the day at six or seven to maximize the time you get to sleep. Some examples of things you could do instead of going on your phone right before bed are reading an actual book, organizing, journaling, or even meal prepping/packing for the next day. This not only gives your tired eyes a break from screens, it will also cut time off your morning routine allowing you to sleep in a bit more.
Although waking up is can be hard without caffeine, cutting back on it another small change that can be made for the better. Not only are they full of sugar and harmful chemicals, but they can also throw off your sleep schedule. If cutting back is too much of a change, simply monitoring when you drink them would be a better option. Do not allow yourself to indulge in an energy drink within four hours of the time you are supposed to go to sleep.
Another thing you can do is set a goal time of when you want to be sleeping. If you set a goal and create a reward system you are more motivated to carry the goal out. The hardest, but most effective option is to create a schedule for better time management. This can include goal times of which tasks should be completed and when they should be completed by, so they are done with enough time for you to get decent rest consistently. It takes an average of a week for your circadian rhythm to get back normal after just one night of bad sleep. If it happens multiple nights in a row there is a high probability your circadian rhythm will not get back to normal until you crash and burn, or until you realize there is a problem that is just waiting for you to take proper action.
I believe that sleep deprivation has many negative impacts on anyone who does not get enough sleep on a daily basis. If we put in the effort to get better sleep it will cause you to be more motivated and willing to learn and try new things. It will also help you stay healthy for longer periods of time, and you will have the ability to hold on to amazing memories longer. Changing your bedtime to a reasonable time and shutting off technology earlier can allow you more time to prepare and organize for each difficult task life may throw at you.
