How do I start living a High Performance Lifestyle: Sleep Health

Sleep has a major impact on your performance, and sleep hygiene can help get a better nights’ rest.

A good night sleep is critical to achieve a high performance lifestyle. Lack of a healthy sleep causes certain things to happen to your body and mind.

Here is a list of just a few things that can happen with a lack of sleep or poor sleep:

1. Health problems — Poor sleep causes an increased rate of heart attacks, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, GERD, early dementia, Alzheimer’s, sexual dysfunction, immune system malfunction, exhaustion, accidents, poor judgement, relationship issues and mistakes. And more!

2. Weight gain — lack of sleep causes disfunction with the hormones which make you feel not full, leading to weight gain. According to a 2004 study, people who sleep less than six hours a day were almost 30 percent more likely to become obese than those who slept seven to nine hours.

3. Lack of sex drive — sleep specialists report that sleep deprived men and women reported lower libidos and less interest in sex due to the reduction in nitric oxide, which is needed to dilate blood vessels. Additionally, irritability from sleep deprivation makes having bed partners difficult.

4. Depression — In a 2005 sleep study in America poll, people who were diagnosed with depression or anxiety were more likely to sleep less than six hours a night.

5. Lack of sleep makes you more forgetful — In 2009, American and French researchers determined that brain events called “sharp wave ripples” are responsible for consolidating memory. The ripples also transfer learned information from the hippocampus to the neocortex of the brain, where long-term memories are stored. Without sleep, memory is not organized in the brain.

6. Lack of judgment — Lack of sleep can affect our interpretation of events. It can also cause us to make poor decisions and choices.

7. Lack of alertness — as little as 1.5 hours of missed sleep can have effects on alertness.

8. Quality of life — lack of sleep causes you to be more likely to skip activities and exercises.

Now that you understand the damaging effects of not getting a good sleep, how can we improve it?

Here are some “sleep hygiene” tips:

1. Get into a routine — try and go to bed around the same time every night, whenever possible. Also try to wake up at the same time. You can’t make up lost sleep!

2. Avoid caffeine after lunch. It normally takes your body about 6 hours to metabolize caffeine.

3. Do not watch TV or use your phone or computer an hour before bedtime. Your TV, computer and phone emit certain light that stimulates your brain and makes it harder for you to fall asleep. It’s OK to read a book.

4. Aim for 8 hours a night of sleep a night. Each of us needs different amounts of sleep, what do you need?

5. Sleep in a dark room. Remove all light from your bedroom.

6. Try to relax before going to sleep. Use breathing techniques to help you relax if needed.

7. Avoid alcohol 2 hours before bedtime. It disrupts healthy sleep patterns.

8. Cool the bedroom. The ideal temperature to sleep in is around 65–70 degrees.

These are just a few ways you can improve your sleep quality and thereby improve your performance. Sleep has a profound effect on our lives in many ways and until you make a serious commitment to improve your sleep, don’t expect to perform at your peak.