Why I sleep 8 hours every night.
I’m the type of person that likes to challenge myself, whether it’s professionally or athletically.
To be able to do everything (work, exercise, go out, etc.), I need to have a lot of energy. And that’s why quality sleep is so important — it rejuvenates my mind and body from activities of the day before.
When I was only getting 5 or so hours of sleep a night, I’d wake up feeling tired throughout the day. Now that I’ve started tracking my sleep habits and focused on quality sleep, I wake up feeling refreshed.
To understand how I sleep, I needed to track it. After researching various products, I decided on the Oura Ring. Here is a screenshot of the data.
What I love most about the ring is the amount of data that it captures. The ring not only tracks my sleep, but provides daily feedback on how I can improve to reach my goals.
For example, one of my sleep goals is to get 8 to 10 hours of sleep a night.
About an hour before bed, I eliminate all blue light distractions including laptop, cell phone, and TV. Using electronics before bed is a terrible sleeping habit because high intensity blue light is emitted from these devices, which negatively affects the secretion of your melatonin (sleep hormone) levels. Melatonin also influences the circadian rhythm (your internal clock).
Though everyone has a slightly different circadian rhythm, the average length is 24 ¼ hours.This internal clock is runs in the background of your brain, and cycles between sleepiness and awareness at regular intervals. It’s also called your sleep/wake cycle.
Research shows that your environment affects this sleep/wake cycle. That’s why if you’re exposed to blue light at night, it’s hard for you to fall asleep.
After 8 p.m., I wear special glasses that blocks out blue light. I typically sleep by 11 p.m. and wake up around 7 or 8 a.m.
I also make it a habit to finish my last meal before 9 p.m. This is important because eating can cause discomfort from digestion, making it hard to sleep.
Another sleep goal I have is to get 40 cycles of REM sleep per week.
Each night, your brain cycles through 5 phases with the last being rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. REM makes up about 25% of your sleep cycle, and occurs about 70–90 minutes after you sleep. It’s during REM, that you get your deepest (quality) sleep. Lack of REM sleep has also been linked to migraines.
Getting this deep sleep is important because REM sleep stimulates part of your brain that’s used for learning. Research shows [6] that people deprived of REM sleep can’t remember the things they’re taught before going to sleep.
I’ve experienced so many benefits to quality sleep, such as being healthier and performing better. Better sleep has also helped me be more productive, since I’m no longer tired throughout the day.
