Have you seen that meme? The one that says “I’m not an early bird or a night owl but some sort of perpetually exhausted pigeon.” Yeah. I can relate. I think a lot of us are feeling tired right now. Exhausted, even. Emily Ballesteros wrote for Time Magazine last year that we are more exhausted than ever.
It might be political fatigue, emotional exhaustion, job fatigue, burnout, physical reasons (including some diseases) or actual sleep deprivation.
I have a daughter getting ready to welcome her first baby, and it’s been a bit challenging for her to wrap her head around the lack of sleep coming her way. Have you ever met people without kids who talked about how neatly those children would fit into their schedule? Hahaha. Babies don’t work like that. Sure, the books might say “newborns sleep 18-20 hours a day” and “babies eat every three hours.” Uh huh. What they don’t say is newborns like to be held 22-24 hours a day, and some babies are snackers and some are guzzlers. I remember feeling like I would feed a baby for 30 minutes, the baby might sleep for an hour and then the whole process would start over. And teenagers — they’ll keep you up too, for different reasons, although eating in the middle of the night is a thing for them too.
I’m quite sure I did not sleep through the night for more than 30 years after my first was born. Now, I am a morning person and I get up quite early (between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m.), but I also have become a really good power napper. In 15 minutes, I hit REM sleep and wake up refreshed. My husband, on the other hand, naps for two hours and wakes up groggy.
A good night’s sleep is just as important as regular exercise and a healthy diet. Research shows that poor sleep has immediate negative effects on your hormones, exercise performance and brain function, but it has long-term effects too. It can also cause weight gain and increase disease risk in both adults and children. It can even increase the risk of suicide. I had a recent conversation with a university president who said he tells the students on his campus that sleep is a critical component to their mental health and well-being.
Tips for good sleep
Do as much as you can to make sure the sleep you do get is good sleep. Keep the blue light in your room as low as possible. Decrease ambient noise. Keep your room on the cool side. Taking a hot bath or shower 90 minutes before bed can help improve the quality of your sleep.
Get off your phone/tablet/laptop at least 30 minutes before you go to bed. Add in a deliberate night-time routine to wind down, rather than falling into bed absolutely exhausted.
Cut your caffeine consumption later in the day. For some people, that’s noon. For others, it’s 6 p.m. For some, caffeine doesn’t seem to impact sleep at all and for some, it can actually have the opposite effect.
Move your body. Exercise can help us fall asleep more quickly and improves sleep quality, according to Charlene Gamaldo, M.D., medical director of Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep. Moderate aerobic exercise increases our time in deep sleep, releases endorphins that can help stabilize our moods and allows our minds to decompress, she says.
Make sure your self-care practices actually get practiced. It’s great to have a goal to journal, to meditate and to practice gratitude, but it doesn’t help us unless we actually take action. Just like exercise. Sigh. If you’re an extrovert, be deliberate in being with other people. If you’re an introvert, be deliberate in getting alone time. Just like a lack of sleep becomes cumulative, lack of ability to recharge also becomes cumulative.
So for my daughter who is about to become a new mom, those of us exhausted by politics and anyone else who needs to hear this: get some sleep. And remember, we “spring ahead” in less than three weeks.
Originally published in the Deseret News
