HEALTH|EDUCATION

One Thing Most People Don’t Take Seriously For A Good Night’s Sleep

If you ever have trouble falling asleep, or staying asleep, you really should read this

I’ve been fascinated with sleep and sleep research since I was a teenager.

Oddly enough, I’ve always wanted to be a participant in sleep studies.

When I used to travel long distances by bus or train, I’ve had people wake me up to tell me how well I sleep! Strange, but true.

There have been only a few times in my 45-year life that I’ve been unable to sleep more than a few hours at a time.

The last time was during the first 2 months of the pandemic. I had an outrageous amount of stressful things to do and they all had a relatively short time limit. The worst was finishing the last 2 months of my bachelor’s degree.

So much was going on, the fate of the immediate future was completely unknown and I absolutely hated it!

Since then, I’ve had no problems sleeping well, although I haven’t always gotten sufficient sleep for various reasons.

However, I have a few good friends who have trouble sleeping and know of many people who struggle with staying asleep once they do finally fall asleep.

I’ve suggested lavender essential oil, massage, yin yoga, chamomile tea, melatonin pills, and even acupuncture (best for pain management but can help with other ailments).

Some use medicinal marijuana to help them sleep.

One friend was on the medication Ambien, but her doctor told her that she needed to stop after 3+ years of taking it.

It’s still a challenge for her to fall asleep and she follows just about all of the recommendations — same as the ones I’ve read over the years.

“Ambience can affect your sleep quality too. Make sure your bedroom is as comfortable as possible. Ideally you want a quiet, dark, cool environment.”

I shared the part about a “quiet, dark, cool environment” because that’s the closest anything I’ve read over the past 30 years has come to mentioning TEMPERATURE.

Ironically, the temperature of the bedroom has been a subject of great debate between my partner and me for quite a while since he likes to sleep in a cooler climate with “fresh air” around his nose, whereas I am lulled to sleep with a smile on my face when I’m warm and naked under the covers.

Last night, he and I were listening to a podcast that has been fascinating and enlightening to both of us:

November 10, 2021

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Matthew Walker about the nature and importance of sleep. They discuss sleep and consciousness, the stages of sleep, sleep regularity, light and temperature, the evolutionary origins of sleep, reducing sleep, the connection between poor sleep and all-cause mortality (as well as Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease), sleep across species, learning and memory, mental health, dreams as therapy, lucid dreaming, heart-rate variability, REM-sleep behavior disorder and parasomnias, meditation and sleep, sleep hygiene, different types of insomnia, caffeine and alcohol, sleep efficiency, bedtime restriction, cognitive-behavioral therapy, napping, sleep tracking, and other topics.

Matthew Walker earned his PhD in neuroscience from the Medical Research Council in the UK, and subsequently became a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is currently Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and director of the Center for Human Sleep Science. Matt’s research focuses on the effect of sleep on human health and disease, brain, and body. Walker has published more than 100 scientific research studies and has received numerous funding awards from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, and is a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. He was recently awarded the Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization. Matt has given a main-stage TED Talk that has been viewed over 13 million times, has also created several TED Miniseries on sleep, a MasterClass series on sleep, and is author of the New York Times bestseller, Why We Sleep.

It’s a 4-hour podcast, but you can listen to the first 45 minutes or so via the link I shared or on Spotify.

Fairly early on, Walker, someone who has trouble sleeping at times, mentions the fact that TEMPERATURE plays a major role in our quality of sleep.

I was and am still floored by this fact, so, of course, I did some digging and look what I found:

The temperature of your bedroom can make a significant difference to your sleep quality. A National Sleep Foundation poll found that cool room temperature was one of the most important factors in getting a good night’s sleep, with as many as four out of five respondents saying this was important to them.

The best bedroom temperature for sleep is approximately 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18.3 degrees Celsius). This may vary by a few degrees from person to person, but most doctors recommend keeping the thermostat set between 60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit (15.6 to 19.4 degrees Celsius) for the most comfortable sleep.

Our bodies are programmed to experience a slight dip in core temperature in the evening. Turning the thermostat down at night may help with temperature regulation and signal your body that it’s time for bed.

Here are a couple of “scholarly” journal articles (highly credible sources) about it as well:

However, in both humans and other mammals, direct skin warming can shorten sleep-latency and promote NREM sleep. We discuss the evidence that body cooling and sleep are more fundamentally connected and that thermoregulatory behaviours, prior to sleep, form warm microclimates that accelerate NREM directly through neuronal circuits. Paradoxically, this warmth might also induce vasodilation and body cooling. In this way, warmth seeking and nesting behaviour might enhance the circadian cycle by activating specific circuits that link NREM initiation to body cooling. We suggest that these circuits explain why NREM onset is most likely when core temperature is at its steepest rate of decline and why transitions to NREM are accompanied by a decrease in brain temperature. This connection may have implications for energy homeostasis and the function of sleep.

The thermal environment is one of the most important factors that can affect human sleep. The stereotypical effects of heat or cold exposure are increased wakefulness and decreased rapid eye movement sleep and slow wave sleep. These effects of the thermal environment on sleep stages are strongly linked to thermoregulation, which affects the mechanism regulating sleep. The effects on sleep stages also differ depending on the use of bedding and/or clothing.

I’m not willing to shell out the money for one quite YET, buuuut, did you know that there are now “smart beds” that can help with temperature regulation, among a host of other things, while you sleep?!

Sleep Tracking: Monitoring how you’re moving while sleeping is one of the most distinguishing aspects of a smart bed’s mattress as opposed to a regular one. Using a single sheet of “smart fabric” or several sensors spread throughout the bed, the mattress tracks a variety of information such as respiration, heartbeat, sleep restfulness, and pressure to determine how to give you the most comfortable night’s rest.

Temperature Control: Smart beds sometimes come integrated with a built-in thermostat that lets you (or the bed, if it can automatically) regulate the temperature of the mattress while you’re sleeping.

Air Chambers: Inflated air tubes inside the mattress come packed with pressure sensors that allow it to adjust to your body posture while you sleep. These air tubes can also be controlled remotely via an app paired to the bed.

App Integration: Some smart beds connect seamlessly to the Internet of Things to control your other smart home items, including virtual assistants, thermostats, smart lights, coffee makers, and TVs, letting you control all these different devices without ever getting up.

Position Control: A smart bed with position control includes two entirely separate zones that can be adjusted independently of the other. This means one person could use the app or remote to physically move the mattress, like the head or leg area, while the other side remains flat.

Audio Playback: Some people feel more rested with meditation guides, nature sounds, or some other comforting audio. Some smart beds include Bluetooth connectivity so you can hook up your phone directly with the bed’s speaker system to calmly fall asleep, or wake up to your favorite radio station.

Considering how much of an impact our quality and quantity of sleep has on our quality AND QUANTITY of life (yes, better sleep helps us live longer), I strongly recommend taking this information seriously.

And to all a good night…

For more stories I’ve written that might pique your interest:

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