YOUR MINI RESOLUTION SLEEP BETTER • WEEK 3

View this post with graphics in your browser

Happy Monday, and welcome to week 3 of our SLEEP BETTER mini resolution! We hope you’ve risen today feeling well rested.
 
Don’t forget to try one of our curated sleep tips each week, and track the hours spent in bed each night.
 
Today we’re discussing sleep pressure, our body’s need for sleep.


CCP helps you stay on track!

Use our log to to track your progress toward our mini resolution. This month, we encourage you to try one sleep tip per week. Log which tip you selected and the result(s) you experienced. 

For questions or assistance, email your Motivated Mondays Coach Michele McCambridge:  
[email protected]

Sleep Pressure: The Need for Sleep


As we mentioned last week, the two primary drivers impacting alertness and sleepiness at the right times of day are the Circadian Rhythm (CR) and sleep pressure. Sleep pressure is our need for sleep and is driven by the neurotransmitter, adenosine.

Sleep pressure is typically lowest in the morning, after an evening of sleep and highest at night after a busy day. Adenosine is the neurotransmitter responsible for sleep drive. It accumulates in the cells during the day, inducing sleepiness at night and is metabolized during sleep to encourage wakefulness.

Essentially, the “pressure” for sleep rises as the day progresses and adenosine rises in our cells.


How can we increase sleep pressure so we can fall asleep at bedtime? 

Avoid or limit naps.
Many people don’t realize that napping can destroy sleep pressure. While they can be an effective tool to refresh the brain and body on occasion when we haven’t slept, naps actually reduce sleep pressure and become a problem when they replace and interfere with a good night’s sleep.

Napping creates a vicious cycle of not sleeping, napping to recover and then not sleeping because you napped! Consistently relying on naps to make up for lost sleep is a sign of a deeper, underlying issue to be discussed with a healthcare professional. 


Keep a consistent sleep schedule.
It is not unusual for people in today’s busy world to binge and purge on sleep, a habit known as “sleep bulimia.” In other words, they skimp on sleep most days (purge) and catch up when they can (binge). This may be a quick fix to offset sleep debt (discussed next week!), but as a regular habit it can lead to social jetlag or a misaligned Circadian Rhythm. 

The body prefers consistency, which means going to bed at the same time, and rising at the same time each day. Your body will reward your consistent sleep schedule with high sleep pressure at your chosen bedtime to help you fall asleep faster.


Exercise.
Exercise is so powerful at reducing sleep latency, improving sleep quality, and it is considered a valuable non-pharmaceutical weapon against sleeplessness. Why is that? 

Exercise promotes the secretion of adenosine!

The relationship between sleep and exercise is bi-directional, meaning exercise helps you sleep better and sleeping better helps you have the energy to exercise. Conversely, not exercising will prevent sleep pressure from building, interfering with your sleep and not sleeping will leave you without the energy to perform.


Be mindful of what you consume and when.

Caffeine
Caffeine blocks adenosine which is important for increasing sleep pressure. The half-life of caffeine is 12 hours, meaning half the caffeine from your 8 AM cup of coffee is still in your bloodstream at 8 PM! So, take into consideration the timing of your last cup of caffeine.

Sugar
Sugar and sleep also possess a bi-directional relationship, meaning excessive sugar consumption will impair sleep, and impaired sleep will increase sugar consumption—ugh! Why is that?

Studies show consuming excessive sugar leads to longer sleep latency and worsened efficiency.

One theory is that sugar decreases magnesium absorption while also increasing its excretion. Magnesium is considered one of nature’s many valiums and is helpful for sleep. When you don’t sleep well, the body makes more hunger hormone (ghrelin), less satiety hormone (leptin) and the endocannabinoid system (munchies) is activated, leading you to consume on average 400 – 600 extra calories a day... typically in the form of sugar for energy.

Chocolate
Some people are stimulated by chocolate, mistakenly thinking that it contains caffeine, but there is a very small amount of caffeine in chocolate. Chocolate possesses a substance known as theobromine, which can also block adenosine.

Alcohol
While an alcoholic drink may help you fall asleep faster, it will keep you up later in the night, reducing the total hours slept and will also impair entry into REM.


That’s all for now! Don’t forget to check out our sleep tips and log your sleep each day. Visit our blog if you need to backtrack on past issues. 

We’ll see you next week for a discussion about “sleep debt.”