The books Life Time and Why We Sleep helped me better understand and improve sleep and it will probably help you too

Introduction

We don’t have to understand sleep or circadian rhythm to survive in the majority of cases. But having an understanding about it is going to help us recognize the problems we may be having with sleep and even some solutions that might help. Better sleep has various benefits with positive impacts on our health and well being. I recommend the books Life Time by Russell Foster and Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker PhD to learn about the topic. Life Time by Russell Foster is a book about circadian rhythm. It talks about how circadian rhythm affects our sleep and health and how we can improve certain aspects of it. Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker PhD is a book about sleep as the name suggests. It talks about different stages of sleep, change in environment, diet or the use of drugs to improve sleep etc. The areas in which these books help can be grouped as recognizing whether we are sleeping good or bad, how things affect sleep, what can be done to fix some of the problems and the ways in which sleep impacts us.

Recognizing good and bad sleep

Generally I didn’t pay much attention to my sleep, I didn’t even know what to pay attention to. My sleep habits were like this. I slept when I felt I can no longer stay awake and woke up +/- 1 hour from when the alarm clock went off, usually on the longer side. Some days I woke up refreshed and some days not so refreshed. Now did that affect me. Most probably it did, in retrospect. I think my days and nights could have been better with better sleep in areas like mood, having more energy or being able to go to bed easier etc. These books discuss what to look out for in evaluating sleep. Things like how long did it take to get up from bed after waking up, how tired you feel after waking up etc. Asking myself these questions gave me a framework to think about sleep quality and brought the topic of sleep to my conscious level. It helped me connect sleep with some of its impact on day to day life like energy levels, temperament etc. This was also a starting point for me in taking measures towards better sleep.

Things that affect our sleep

These books discuss the impact of light exposure, night shift, alcohol etc on sleep. Understanding those aspects and its effects is important to know what could be affecting our sleep and what changes to make to improve it. It could help us in being more mindful of the impact that our day to day behavior has on sleep. Understanding these interactions and being mindful of it paves the way for recognizing the behavioral or mental modifications that we could make to improve our sleep.

It may not be easy, it may take time to work or it may not work in certain case.

How to fix some of the problems with our sleep

These books give actionable advice on ways to help with making our sleep better. From what I feel, I can personally vouch for some of the advice like timing of caffeinated drinks or light exposure during different times of the day. Most of the advice given in the books are simple like try not having caffein after noon, get some sunlight in the morning or try to have dinner 3-4 hours before bed time. The practicality of implementing some of them may not be that simple. We all work slightly different so some of them may take some time to work or may not work at all. Anyway, I think it is helpful to know what to look out for and what can be changed. I believe incorporating the relevant advice into our life would be very beneficial for us.

How sleep and circadian rhythm affect our body and mind

Sleep and circadian rhythm affects a lot of other areas of our life. It is no surprise given that different systems work together in our bodies. Nonetheless there were things that surprised me like the role of sleep in emotional regulation. Maybe it is common sense but I never considered sleep to be affecting my mood and temperament. For example, I may have attributed my bad mood to the bad vibes my parents gave me after waking up tired. Now I know that it may not be my parents, it may be my sleep. Our circadian rhythm plays a major role in the regulation of our body to the day and night cycles that we go through. There is release of certain hormones and other bodily processes that have a pattern set by our biological clocks. Disruptions to it might cause issues with coordination between different systems in our bodies. Having a better understanding about these things will likely help in putting things into perspective when it comes to overall health and well being.

Books discussed:

• Life Time: Your Body Clock and Its Essential Roles in Good Health and Sleep by Russell Foster
• Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker PhD