I’m usually a sleep rock star. Twelve years ago I declared sleep my super power.
Of course, I would rather that human beings needed less sleep. Life is really short and there’s so much I want to do. It just seems like bad design that we spend a third of our lives asleep. But given that we need sleep and I’m healthier and happier with enough sleep, I’m glad I’m mostly able to get it.
Here’s a year of sleep in review thanks to my Garmin. Just over eight hours a night, on average.
Pretty good. I had some rough years with knee surgeries and the pain that led up to the surgeries, or more recently with stomach woes, but I’m back to sleeping well again and that feels so good.
Except some nights aren’t great. I think that’s true for most of us, even us sleep rock stars.
Occasionally, I try to get by on as little as five hours when work is super busy.
When that happens, I tend to be sleepy in meetings, and I also fret about the lack of sleep. I have a hard time reading. I look at my Garmin a lot. I complain about my “body battery” score. How can I be expected to put in a full workday and walk the dog when my body battery score is 12/100?
What I read: It’s your perception of sleep that’s making you feel tired all day | New Scientist
“A wave of new research is suggesting that, in many cases, the way we think about sleep matters more than the hours we get. Simply believing you are well-rested can be enough to create the positive mental and physical benefits of a peaceful slumber. The question then becomes, how do you trick yourself into thinking you have slept better than you have? The answer may be easier than you think.”
The study found that people who were told they’d had good sleep performed significantly better on cognitive tests — even when they hadn’t.
The researchers called it “placebo sleep.”
I blogged about placebo sleep a few years ago. See Quick! Get me some placebo sleep!
Someone should market a Garmin that lies to you and always tells you you had a good night’s sleep. But since not getting enough sleep is bad for you, maybe every once in a while it could let you in on the secret.
Want to dig deeper? The research on placebo sleep was conducted by Christina Draganich and Kristi Erdal at Colorado College. Their findings have been widely discussed in the context of sleep psychology and the mind-body connection.
So what to do if you’ve had a bad night’s sleep?
From Tips to Feel Well Rested on Tip Hero.
“So, how can we apply this to our lives? When you don’t get enough sleep, what can you do to function as if you slept really well? One big suggestion is to switch up your daily routine and do something you believe will make you feel more rested. Here’s where the coffee comes in. If you believe that drinking an extra cup of coffee will make you feel wide awake, it probably will. You could also try doing some stretches, exercise or meditation that you believe will wake you up. This isn’t backed by research, but one thing I do to trick my mind into not believing I’m tired it not to look at the clock before I go to sleep, especially if I know I’m not going to get as much sleep as I need. If I don’t know exactly what time it is, I won’t know how little sleep I got, so I can let myself believe that I got more sleep than I probably did.”
I had a terrible sleep last night. And, it meant that the first time I woke up fully, I went to look at the lunar eclipse, which was at 30%. And then the second time I woke up fully, I had the rare privilege of seeing a total eclipse of the moon! I couldn’t have timed it better if I had set myself alarms. So, I find, that I feel less strung out today with tiredness, knowing I got those gifts.
I have had a very hard time falling asleep lately, so I make sure I don’t look at a clock/phone after I get in bed. I set up white noise or lulling audio book, and just practice my usual relaxation tricks. If I have to get up for a more advanced relaxation trick (if I’m desperate I’ll take one acetominophen), I still don’t look. That makes for one less worry, even if I know I’ve underslept.