This Is Turning You Into a Zombie (Without You Knowing It)
Up until recently, I became more aware of how poor sleep I am having each night. That was just gut feel. In the earlier months, I’m already at bed around 7~8pm with my phone, waiting to doze off.
Then, weeks before I’m writing this content, I am facing a stressful situation in my life. I feel like I’m always in the fight or flight mode. So I began researching on how to minimize the stress and help myself out.
One of those is improving my quality of sleep. It never crossed my mind I’m a terrible sleeper. As I learn more about it, it turns out I am.
In this article, I share with you ONE game changer for me. Towards the end of this, you’ll get little hacks on how to pull off sleeping like a baby.
Looking at history
Have you ever wondered how our ancestors slept? When did they sleep? How do they know when it’s time to sleep?
Back in the old days, the only source of blue light was our very own Sun. That’s it. So it made sense to wake up when the sun is up, when they hunt and gather food. And sleep when it’s pitch dark.
I bet our ancestors were sleep professionals (you know they are extremely healthy beings). Why? Because this is what happens when we sleep.
Human Reset button
I’ll throw some jargons here. In the brain, neurons has a byproduct when generating adenosine triphosphate (ATP, your cells’ energy currency). This byproduct is called adenosine.
Adenosine accumulates throughout the day and when there’s build up, you feel the pressure to sleep later during the day. Why? Because sleep clears your brain of this byproduct.
Another waste product building up in the brain is beta-amyloid. Beta-amyloid is prevalent in Alzheimer’s disease patients. It’s not that they product too much beta-amyloid. It’s about not clearing this waste product from the brain causing amyloid plaque.
And how do we clear beta-amyloid?
You guessed it right, through sleeping.
These are just some of the benefits of having a good night’s sleep. Anyone can attest to how sleep quality affects your day quality.
And diabetes is the precursor to cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease. These 4 our top killers of today’s world.
Okay, so how do you sleep like a baby?
I’ve been sleeping for at least 8 hours for the past year but I’ve been doing it all wrong. I sleep with the lights on, phone on my hand. Sometimes, I’d fall asleep while Netflix is still playing.
If this sounds like you, listen carefully.
Blue light as I mentioned was before only coming from the sun, is now emitted by lights all around us. Light bulbs, LED phones, iPad, laptop and almost all gadgets.
Why is this important?
Because we have sensors in our eyes sensitive to blue light. And this light signals the brain to wake up.
A study from Japan was conducted showing how low-level nighttime light exposure can increase your risk of depression by 68%. I cringed when I learned about this because I finally figured out why I still feel terrible after 8 hours of sleep.
What’s in it for you?
#1 Track your sleep (not quantity, but quality)
With today’s technology, it’s easy to track your sleep quality (an advantage we have over our ancestors). So why not use it?
I started using AutoSleep app on my AppleWatch. It offers a deep analysis of how much of my sleep was quality. Quality matters, not the quantity.
Tracking your sleep will give you insight on where you are at becoming a good sleeper. You can’t get good at something that you can’t measure.
#2 Turn off all visible lights in your bedroom
Turn off, not turn down. As mentioned in the Japan study, low-level light can still mess up your quality of sleep and mental health.
Investing on blackout curtains is the best idea to block out street lights from the outside. But for now, if you don’t have the budget yet (like me) getting rid of lights inside your room will make a huge difference.
#3 Put away your phone
This is a subset of #2. But I had to point this out because today it seems normal to doze your self to sleep while browsing Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites.
If you have to check your phone before bedtime, a feature in iPhone called “Night Shift” turns the display to warmer colors. This reduces the amount of blue light emitted to your eyes.
Sleeping is a whole new world for me. It feels like I’ve opened up a new door for limitless possibilities by nailing this one aspect of our lives.
I hope these little hacks goes a long way for you. Let me know in the comments! Don’t forget to track your progress.
Thanks for reading!
