Even if you are getting enough shut-eye, chances are you’ve wondered if you could be doing sleep a bit better. Maybe you’ve pondered whether a weighted blanket could help you nod off faster, or wondered if a midday nap will improve your performance at work. For something that is supposed to come naturally, sleep can often feel like a science experiment.
That’s because the more we learn about sleep, the more complicated it seems to get. Add in the products and apps designed to optimise our sleep, and it is little wonder why the land of nod has become an anxious place for some.
So whether you’re a good sleeper or start each day hitting the snooze button, here are the things Dr Gemma Paech wants to set straight. She is a Senior Sleep Scientist in the Adult Sleep Laboratory at John Hunter Hospital, where she investigates sleep loss and non-invasive therapies to improve sleep and shift work.
As a society, are our sleeping habits changing?
Every now and then you hear reports saying something like we’re sleeping less than we used to, but we don’t actually have strong evidence to show how much sleep people were getting twenty or thirty years ago, because people weren’t as invested in sleep as they are now. I think as a general perspective, people are more aware about sleep than they used to be and so there’s been more of a focus about the importance of having good sleep.
How helpful are sleep-tracking apps?
A lot of these devices are built around
algorithms based on healthy young people’s sleep. So for people who have a sleep disorder or take medication or work shift work, the algorithms might not always be accurate.
We have this problem where people become so obsessed with the data they get from these devices that they don’t believe what a sleep clinician is telling them. They’re saying, “Well, my device is saying that I’m only sleeping for four hours,” even though we can do an overnight sleep test and show that someone sleeps quite well. So there is a bit of a caveat that you shouldn’t become too dependent on the numbers and the values those devices give you.
To people who feel worried because their device told them they only had a small amount of restful sleep, I would encourage you to ask yourself how well you think you slept. Maybe stop wearing your device for a while and listen to how your body feels. Think about whether or not you can fall asleep easily, whether you feel like you wake up a lot, and then how you feel when you wake up and thirty minutes after you’ve woken up. If you feel tired or like your sleep was restless, then that’s probably a better indication than what a device can tell you.
What about products like sleep teas, weighted blankets and essential oils?
If you are someone who can get quite anxious in the evening and you find that a calming tea or a weighted blanket helps you sleep, that’s not a bad thing. Having said that, some people can become very dependent and when they don’t have those items, they become very distressed and can’t sleep.
So it’s important to not become too dependent on certain things. That’s not to say they can’t help – but you shouldn’t become wholly reliant on something to the point where you develop a mindset that if you don’t have it, you won’t sleep. So still have nights when you try and fall asleep without those aids.
Does a nap really help to improve performance at work?
Napping can definitely be helpful for certain people. What we generally recommend is that people shouldn’t nap for more than half an hour during the daytime. That’s because we don’t want people getting into too deep of a sleep and then not being able to sleep at night.
If someone had an hour break, I would say take five or ten minutes to unwind, then try to sleep for about half an hour, and then take five or ten minutes afterwards to allow your body to wake up and fully refresh.
Then the other thing is not napping in your own bed, which is what we would classify as bad sleep hygiene. That’s so you don’t become too comfortable and you don’t sleep for too long.
And then you’re not developing an association that every time you go into your bedroom, you’re going to want to automatically fall asleep.
How much sleep should we be getting?
The guidelines around how much sleep people should get is a loose recommendation.
Some people definitely need less and some people need a little bit more. It’s more about listening to your body and how your body responds, because everyone is different and everyone’s sleep times vary.
But we generally know that if people go outside those extremes of around six to ten hours, they risk having other health-related problems – but there are a lot of different reasons that could contribute to those health problems. So I think if someone feels like they need nine hours of sleep and they sleep fine for those nine hours,
then that’s probably okay for them.
What is one thing we can do to improve our sleep?
A lot of people will present with tiredness, daytime sleepiness and trouble sleeping at night. Then when you look at their sleep, they are sleeping at a different time every single night, and that is potentially why they’re having problems sleeping and why they’re so tired during the day. So usually the first advice we give them is to have a consistent sleep routine. If your sleep routine is quite irregular, that is likely to cause some tiredness and sleepiness during the day and sometimes difficulty sleeping at night.
What is your advice for those moments when you wake at night and can’t get back to sleep?
We all have these moments and there are some practical tips people can try if they find themselves getting into that cycle. Keep a pad or pen by your bed and write down the things that you’re worried or anxious about. Then say to yourself, “I can’t do anything about this now, I’m going to address it tomorrow.” Some guided meditation can be helpful to switch your brain from thinking to turning off.
Some people use white noise or listen to music to help them sleep. I would suggest that anything you use to assist in turning your brain off is not stimulating – so something that you don’t have to watch, because then you’re listening and also trying to watch something, and you’re getting light stimulation. So try something that you can just listen to or close your eyes and focus on.
If you’re really struggling, the other thing that can be helpful is to get out of bed and sit on the couch in a darkish room and read a book or do some kind of easy activities until you feel sleepy. Then go back to bed when you feel sleepy again.
Is caffeine okay if you’re feeling tired?
With caffeine, one piece of advice we give people is to use it more strategically rather than a habitual thing. So rather than just thinking, “I need my coffee first thing in the morning,” look for the times of the day when you are most sleepy and use it to help with your alertness – this is so that you don’t become too dependent on having six or seven cups of coffee a day. Then try to ensure that you have a couple of days a week where you don’t have quite a lot.
In a study looking at a shift-working model,
we found that giving people caffeine strategically in the early morning hours when you have peak sleepiness levels did increase cognitive performance. So their reaction time and performance in certain cognitive tasks improved to a level that was more or less equivalent to their baseline levels.
Interestingly what also we found is that people still reported feeling sleepy, even though caffeine was able to help their performance. So in those situations they might start taking more caffeine than what they need to.
To prevent that, you should be looking at things like are you actually physically falling asleep or can you stay awake? Do you find yourself making lots of mistakes?
What do you recommend for people who can’t maintain a consistent sleep routine?
If people are having problems sleeping because of shift work, children or health conditions, it can be quite helpful to use things like caffeine, talk to their family and friends, and try not to beat themselves up about not having a super consistent routine.
For people who might be doing fly-in fly-out work, it’s actually quite hard because it’s likely that they haven’t been getting good sleep while they’re away. They come back quite tired and
do need the time to recover and have longer
sleeps to accommodate for potential lost sleep. So it’s important that family and friends
are understanding.
The same goes for new parents. Sometimes people want to come around and meet the new baby.
In those situations, chat to your friends and family and say, “Well I’m actually really tired today.” Maybe you can tell the person you need some space to yourself, maybe ask them to help out if they come over – that could be housework or cooking or looking after the child for a couple of hours so that you can have a sleep.
While not everyone can create a consistent sleep routine (parents and shift workers, we see you), the secret is listening to your body. Just because you know someone who suddenly became a morning person or who takes power naps at lunch doesn’t mean that will work for you. Go easy on yourself, and rest well. And when that doesn’t work, seek advice from an expert – not an app.
