Do you have a sleep bank?

A while ago I wrote about sleep debt its affect on day to day life. This time I want to introduce the idea of a sleep bank, where you can 'deposit' sleep hours before a busy week.

Studies have shown that there are benefits for accumulating sleep - Volunteers were split into two groups and one group slept normally for a week and the other accumulated sleep, both groups then had a week of sleep deprivation and only slept 3 hours a night. Those who had accumulated extra sleep performed better at mental and physical tasks, even towards the end of the week.

This is useful information for those in extreme circumstances such as soldiers before a big military operation but how can we use it in day to day life?

If you know that you are going to have a busy week - exams, traveling abroad for work, a relative with a scheduled operation etc, then you can plan to sleep an extra half hour to an hour each night the week before. You can also bank extra time through naps (but remember to keep them to early afternoon).
Try and keep to a regular routine and accumulate your extra sleep by going to bed early rather than lying in late, as you do not want to disturb your night time sleep. It is better to go to bed half an hour early each night, than have a lie-in for two hours one morning.

If you have children with a busy schedule of exams coming up, then ensure they go to bed early in the days leading up to the exams as anxiety and last minute studying may hinder sleep the night before.

If you are a competitive athlete and have been training for a big run or event then banking your sleep may help give you that edge on race day.

Going away for the weekend but will be sleeping a strange (and possibly uncomfortable) bed or be burning the candle at both ends for a weekend city break? Then planning your sleep ahead will help you make the most of your time away.

However please bear in mind that just like a bank account - if you already have a sleep debt, then trying to bank sleep will not work in your favour as you will still be repaying your debt!

Sweet dreams!

Teenagers and sleep

The other night I did an overnight babysit and the apartment had the heating programmed to be on all night. I found it way to hot to sleep and seemed to spend the entire night adjusting the radiator and opening/closing the window.

I did only get about 2 hours sleep - and it was in two different blocks. I got the children up and took them to school and returned home and straight to bed.
I have not slept that badly for years and when thinking about it I remembered that this was my norm when I was a teenager. In those days I would sleep for about 2 hours one night and then the next night about 5 hours, and kept repeating this two night pattern until I went to the doctor about my sleep.

Seeing how tired I felt the other morning, and how I was incapable of doing anything other than going to bed made me reflect on how this must have affected my studies at school and college. Nowadays if I do an IQ test I'm up around 140, yet my school teachers thought I wasn't coping with the work. Some of this was due my dyslexia (which is fortunately much better understood these days) but I now think that my insomnia severely affected my studies.
When revising for my A levels I would spread all my books around my room, and because my Mum would leave me alone 'to study', I would end up with droopy eyelids and falling asleep. I ended up with average results.

So, what to yo do if you are a teenager, or a parent of a teenager with sleep problems?

Firstly teenagers sleep is naturally different from an adults and they become Night Owls and naturally go to bed later, finding it hard to sleep before 11pm. They need at least 9 hours sleep and some need more. School and college hours mean that they are not getting enough sleep.

In order to help try and establish a good evening routine that means homework is finished earlier in the evening, allowing time to unwind before bed.
Encourage having a shower or bath before bed, to send sleep triggers to the brain.
Have a no screen time guideline for the last hour before bed, this includes ipads, laptops, smart phones etc.
Reduce the amount of caffeine in the diet  remember a lot of soda drinks contain caffeine.
Encourage regular sleeping hours to train the body to sleep but do allow for a small lie-ins at the weekend/holidays for catch up.
Strategic napping can help - as long as it is not for too long nor too close to bedtime.
Make the bedrooms as sleep inducing as possible.
Encourage plenty of exercise - again earlier in the day and at least 3 hours before bedtime.

Discuss sleep with your teenager like an adult. Telling them they need to sleep more and enforcing strict rules may well end in resentment and a lack of co-operation. Give them the facts about sleep and how important it is and what the benefits are. Also point out that getting enough sleep helps with weight control and skin conditions such as acne. Let them come to realise the impotence of sleep themselves. Ask if they want to keep a sleep diary to track the amount that they are getting.

Remember - if you treat sleep and sleep issues with respect, encourage discussion and ask them what they would like to do to improve their sleep, they are far more likely to take it on.

Keep an eye on their sleep patterns and if you suspect that their lack of sleep goes beyond normal teenage patterns then get an appointment with their doctor and discuss the possibility of other sleep problems such as insomnia or sleep apnea.

If you have any concerns and want to discuss them further then please contact me for a free consultation.

Too hot or too cold to sleep?

A sudden dip in the temperatures across Europe and a snowfall last night and it seems like the right time to write this post.

I woke up in the middle of the night the other night and couldn't get back to sleep for a while. I then realised that I was slightly cold. I didn't feel cold in that I was shivering, or my hands and feet were like ice blocks, but just slightly cold. I pulled a blanket on top of my duvet and was asleep within 10 minutes, just that little bit of extra warmth making the difference.

There is a very narrow range for an optimum temperature in the sleep environment for humans, which is between 18 and 22°c (65 - 72°F). The body temperature dips at night to allow sleep and so being in a cooler environment helps the body achieve this. However if it is too cold, then your body is working to warm you up and therefore makes it difficult to sleep.
I was brought up in a home were central heating was sparsely used, so prefer a cooler sleep environment. I find it difficult sleeping in houses were there is 24 hour heating (which happens a lot in Europe with communal heating for a block of flats).
Of course if you were brought up or live in a warmer environment/climate you become used to higher temperatures, but when temperatures fluctuate over the year, you need to try and keep the bedroom temperature as steady as possible.

Here are some good sleep hygiene practices for the different seasons -

In Winter
- keep the thermostat cooler in the bedrooms (radiator thermostats help with this) or turn the temperature down half an hour before going to bed.
- try experimenting with layering - using different tog duvets and blankets as well as warmer bedclothes, pyjamas and bedsocks!
- when your partner has different needs, try using separate duvets or perhaps sharing a duvet and one partner having a light blanket over them as well.

In Summer
- keep the room as cool as possible during the day, closing the curtains to keep out the sun, blackout blinds etc.
- use a fan to keep the air circulating and put a container of frozen water in front of a fan
- avoid memory foam pillows as these can heat up the body.
- turn off or remove all unnecessary equipment, as these can heat up a room, even incandescent lightbulbs can heat up a room!
- if you use it, check the air-con is not too low, as too much of a drop can make it too cold to sleep.

Here in France the temperature can fluctuate between overnight lows of -12°C to overnight highs of 35°C, so over the year I employ many different techniques to try and maintain the best sleeping environment, in winter I have a fleecy undersheet, high tog duvet, blanket and sometimes a hot water bottle. This all gradually reduces to a sheet and fan in the high Summer.

If you're not sleeping too well then take a look at the temperature in your sleep environment and see if there anything you can change to get a better night's sleep.

Sweet dreams!

Night time activities

What do you do when you wake in the night?

Seems like a strange question and I am guessing that most people would say that they lie in bed, tossing and turning and trying to get back to sleep - all the while stressing about not sleeping.

I had a new client recently and she wanted to find the final piece of the puzzle to help her sleep through the night. She had had insomnia for years and done a lot of work in improving it, but would still wake in the night. During this time she would play on-line games and work with clients on the other side of the world. that combined with exercising late at night meant that she was doing 3 activities that were stimulating her brain and not helping herself to get into a relaxed state in which to fall asleep.

My initial reaction was to encourage her to stop these activities and go through new ideas to help her relax and start sleeping through the night. However the more I listened to her, the more I realised that actually she had worked out a lifestyle that suited her.

I have mentioned in a previous post that in the past we had segmented sleep and this idea is still a big talking point in the sleep community and are we going against nature to try and sleep through the night? While we know it is possible to sleep in 8 hours blocks, most people actually do wake in the night and then fall straight back to sleep again and have no recollection of waking, therefore believe they have slept through. For some people, waking in the night means waking in the night and staying awake a while (for some a long while!)

What this girl had done was to build a lifestyle round segmented sleep. She would sleep for a while, then wake - do some work, play games etc then go back to sleep again - her second sleep. Luckily for her, she is self employed and has international clients, so actually this lifestyle works well for her.

I have also found that a some barworkers and 'graveyard' shift workers have insomnia and difficulty going to sleep - now this could be a reflection on their lifestyle, but could it also be that they have found a lifestyle that suits their sleeping patterns. When I have talked with them, they often say that they had poor sleeping habits before they started their work and again, when you talk to them of ways to change it, they don't really want to as it doesn't really bother them that much; they know that if they go to sleep late that they can sleep in during the morning.

In the end I only had a couple of sessions with this client and she left feeling more confident that actually her seep pattern, though strange, did actually work. When totaling up her sleep hours she was getting enough sleep and was not feeling tired or exhausted (common complaints of insomnia). By allowing her to have this pattern also meant that she stopped worrying about sleep and therefore slept better, she also allowed herself to sleep later in the mornings and restructured her day slightly to allow herself enough time to sleep in these two blocks.

So what do you get up to in the night? Are you like my client and can use your insomnia constructively? Or do you prefer to be able to sleep through the night? Rest assured that whatever your sleep style preferences there are ways available to help you achieve them!

Sweet dreams.

New year, more sleep?

I never usually make New Year resolutions, mainly because my birthday is at the beginning of January and it's no fun starting a diet on the 1st of Jan when you know that you're going out celebrating in a few days time!
Yep, I was the person who gave up smoking on the 10th January 2000, I still get weird looks from people when asked about that.

However having this slightly more realistic time frame works and makes me far less likely to give up on my new plans after a few days.

The other thing that I have found works well is to have positive resolutions rather than negative one or at least to phrase them in a positive way. Wordplay helps a lot in making it more likely to be a successful resolution.

Telling yourself that you are going on a diet immediately fills your head with images of boring food, no treats, a strict regime etc. Telling yourself that you are going to make healthy food choices gives you a wide range of foods to choose from and more options to think about.

Likewise telling yourself that you are going to get fit, or have a slim body feels so much better than telling yourself you are going to lose weight or go jogging every day.

You can also try positive resolutions such as making 2013 the year you complete a 10k run, or go skydiving, write a book or a blog. It needn't be a big (or even expensive choice) you can resolve to say 'Yes' more often and see where that takes you, or start writing a gratitude diary every evening and see how that puts you in a more positive frame of mind. You could try smiling at passers-by in the street - it makes both you and them feel good, or giving out more compliments.

One of the things that I'm adding to my list is to go to bed a little earlier than I do at the moment! On 'school nights' I tend to get around 7 hours sleep but this is not enough for me, so I need to go to bed a little earlier. I know it will help me both physically and mentally (more energy, stamina, reduced appetite etc), but tend to find myself just checking out 'one more thing' on the internet before going to bed. The worst thing is that I know that I'm doing it and still do nothing about it!
In order to make it easier I'm going to set my alarm to remind me to go to bed! It's something I read about and thought 'Hey that's a great idea' but have never done. So 2013 is going to be the year I do it. I'm also going to make it realistic and aim for 15 minutes extra sleep to start with, I know that if I set for an extra hour I'll still think I have plenty of time for sleep and so ignore it and stay up! I feel I will be more successful if I do gradual increments, well I've got a whole year to get there!

Why not make 2013 the year to improve your sleep? It will reduce your stress levels, improve your health, help you lose weight and give you more energy - all pretty good results from one resolution!

Sweet dreams.

Dreams

There was this amazing cloud formation in the sky that looked exactly like a fish, the white clouds forming the scales, the sky a perfect, pale blue behind it. I kept trying to get in the best position for the perfect photo but there always seemed to be something blocking it, getting in the way. It was frustrating and then I woke up!

We all dream, some remember more of them than others, some dream in black and white and others in colour.

However no ones knows why we dream! Just as scientists have no idea why we sleep, there is no definitive answer to why we dream - however there are a lot of theories.

It is commonly agreed that we remember most dreams that happen in the REM stage as this our lightest level of sleep and if we are woken while in the dream, we remember it more easily.
There are theories that it is the brain sorting out information gathered during the day, either processing what is useful to remember and what is not, or as others believe, that dreams help us form new neural pathways in the brain to be able to access information more easily.
Other theories say that frightening and scary dreams are our subconscious trying out the brains flight or fight response.  Some say that they reflect the emotional part of our lives that gets shut down during the day as we are too busy with other stuff.
Another theory is that they do not really serve any function but are just a by product of the brain working while we sleep.

Though at the moment we cannot be sure of why we dream, we do and we spend a lot of time doing it! If you are someone who does not remember dreams vividly and would like to, then try this tip - the moment you wake quickly think back into your dream and try and recall just one image, or feeling or even a word. Just hold your self there and gently focus on that image or feeling then ask 'What happened before?' and see what image or feeling you get then. At first you may get very little, but the more times you do this and focus on recalling your dreams the more you will remember and the easier it becomes.

I learnt to recall my dreams when I was  teenager - a side effect of insomnia is that you dream more frequently and more vividly and have been able to do so ever since Most days I will get up without choosing to focus on my dreams, but enjoy having a little extra time at the weekends to go back and recall them. Most of them are run of the mill and the same old, same old but occasionally a stand out dream will make a big impression on me and it these ones that I take the time to interpret. I look on a dream interpretation as a fun thing to do, well you'd want to know why you were snorkeling with George Clooney, wouldn't you?

My dreams have definitely changed over the years, during one period of my life I used to dream of being chased up and down stairs, another time that I was trying to pack but couldn't fit everything in my bag. Then there were the fear dreams of being naked etc. Mostly at the moment I get obstacle dreams which I can relate to setting up a new business venture - and that's what the fish dream was about!

So what do you dream about?
I hope they're great ones!

Troublesome Thoughts

Let's do a little hand raise here - How many of you have lain awake at night worrying about a situation? It either stops you going to sleep or getting back to sleep if you wake in the night? Though you know there is nothing you can do about it there and then, you still can't switch off your brain and go to sleep.

I still get occasional nights like this and I think that's natural, most people would admit to this, it is a rare and lucky few that can sleep untroubled every single night.

There may be a work presentation, an ill relative, financial worries - in fact a myriad of different things can play on your mind and stop that elusive sleep from happening! If you already have difficulties sleeping this can really add to the problem.

I remember back in my insomnia days when I had been appointed manager at a Children's Centre that I slept badly for months worrying about whether I was good enough for the job. This was crazy - I had gone through an interview process and had already worked for the service, so they knew who I was and what I could do, so they were obviously confident with my abilities. Even the fact that my line manager rarely came to my Centre didn't reassure me, I just thought of a whole heap of reasons why she was avoiding coming to the Centre - none of which included the thought that it was because I was doing a good job of managing it and that she didn't need to spend much time supervising me.

It was easier to slip into my pattern of troublesome thoughts and turn into a worry wort. At this stage in my life I would worry about the strangest of things. I was a worse case scenario type of person and would think about the worse thing that could possibly happen and focus on that instead of taking reassurance about how unlikely that would be.

Things changed when a new friend talked to me about how he was always worrying and if he realised that he was not worrying about something would then think of something to worry about! Though his behaviour seemed extreme I realised that I was guilty of a little bit of this behaviour and that this was not a good place to be living my life and began to change my thought patterns.

So what to do if you have troublesome thoughts that are keeping you awake at night?

Try having a notebook by your bed and before you go to sleep each night write down the things that are bothering you and what you will do about them tomorrow. There is something about writing things down that helps take it out of the mind and breaks the thought cycle. If you do start thinking about it again you can gently tell yourself that you have made a note of it and do not need to think further about it.

Colin Epsie (Director University of Glasgow Sleep Centre) suggests that you repeat a word to block the thought patterns in your head. He recommends the word 'the' as it is a very neutral word. So when you are in bed with a busy mind, just keep repeating the word 'the'.

You can also try some EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) I have put up a video on what to do on my Youtube channel here (sorry that the sound is slightly out f sync).

Good luck on breaking the thought cycle!

Sweet dreams