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Welcome back to my second blog post of my MasterClass blog series on Matthew Walker Teaches the Science of Better Sleep. He is a professor of neuroscience and psychology at UC Berkeley and the director of the Center for Human Sleep Science. In this blog post I’ll provide a few tips on how to improve sleep, explain why getting enough sleep is important and how it impacts mental health, and share life lessons and some other takeaways I got from this MasterClass.
Yeah, Yeah… Sleep Is Important.
No really, it is! You’ve probably heard that getting enough sleep is important. Even though most people know that, we usually go “meh” when it comes to actually making any changes that would improve it. So many people under-appreciate sleep. 1 out of every 3 people aren’t getting enough sleep. Sleep makes up ⅓ of our lives, and if we understood it better, we could improve it. Let’s take a look at how sleep impacts all other aspects of our lives to get a better understanding of why it’s so important. Keep reading to get a better understanding of why sleep is so important, and tips to improve it.
How Sleep Affects Mental Health
Improving sleep improves the rest of our lives. When you’re sleep deprived, you tend to be more aggressive, illogical, impulsive, irritable, less successful, and less fulfilled. Some people think, “I can stay up late tonight and sleep in tomorrow,” or “I’ll catch up on sleep tomorrow night.” You cannot make up for lost sleep. It just doesn’t work that way. So it’s important that we consistently get good quality sleep.
Not only does sleep change your mood, it affects your memory. When we sleep, the brain processes short-term memory into long-term storage. So if you don’t have good quality sleep, those short-term memories don’t stay. When we do get enough good quality sleep, it can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s down the road.
Sleep drives our daily activities, thoughts, and processes. If you don’t get good sleep, you only reach a small percentage of your potential. When we prioritize sleep, it impacts all other areas of our lives, from our careers, to physical health, to relationships, and more.
Sleep is a Part of the Equation to a Better Life
One of my biggest takeaways from this MasterClass is that sleep is one out of many factors in our lives that plays a role in our success and fulfillment (or lack of). Most of my therapy clients want help with a specific problem – their mood, anxiety, a relationship, or have a goal they want to reach. They have this idea that if they focus all of their attention and energy on hitting that target, they’ll accomplish what they set out to do. “If I want that job, all I have to do is rehearse what I’m going to say for the interview,” or “the only thing that is wrong with our relationship is that my partner doesn’t listen to me.” They think about what is going on that is directly related to the problem or goal, without thinking about the bigger picture. While those things do affect the outcome of what we want to achieve, our problems or goals are never isolated.
Reflective Intentional Journaling
The path to getting what we want includes so many factors… including getting good sleep. Solving life’s problems is a lot like solving math problems. The problem isn’t your ability to solve the answer. It’s that you can’t keep it all straight in your head, just like simple math – if I said out loud: “what’s 2 + 4 x 3 – 8 – 1 – 3 + 5 x 2 – 10 + 11 + 4 + 2 divided by 2,” you probably wouldn’t be able to remember all of the numbers, or solve the problem without writing it all down. Now if I gave you the same math problem but you had a pen and paper, it becomes easy! Just like the problems we have to solve in life, it’s easier when you can see the whole equation and its parts laid out in front of you. This is done through reflective intentional journaling. What’s going on in your life that you need help with? Write it out, take a look at the whole equation, break it down into bite-sized pieces, and you’ll have a whole view of the problem and a clearer path to the solution. It gives you a tangible grasp of the problem and all of the different factors that affect it, including sleep!
Making Small Changes
As we’ve learned, sleep isn’t the entire solution to our problems, but it is part of the equation. When you add up all of the different factors, it leads to what is currently happening in your life. So what if you slightly change all of those? You may have previously shrugged at the thought of better sleep helping you solve your problem, but reflective intentional journaling helps you see that everything you do is interconnected and affects other parts of your life. So think and write about your sleep habits and routine – do they contribute to your problems or help you reach your goals?
Make small changes in other areas of your life. We often get too focused on the big things, ignoring the small things. No problems or goals are isolated – they are part of a bigger picture. Small steps, tweaks, and consistent changes will add up and over time help you reach your goals. One of those small changes? Start with realizing how little we prioritize sleep.
Do You Know Yourself?
An important part of solving our problems or reaching our goals is to gain a better understanding of ourselves. Do you really know yourself? When I work with clients in therapy, I help you bring full awareness to yourself. I give you space and time to self-reflect, to better get to know yourself, so you can reach greater fulfillment. I love working with people who have a drive to find out more about themselves.
We all have external problems, but what are you contributing to them? What is your role in the equation? Whether you like it or not, you are part of the problem. What you do on a daily basis can either have a positive, neutral, or negative affect on your problems, goals, and fulfillment.
Making Positive Change
The first step in understanding how you play a part in the equation is to observe. Write down your patterns, habits, thoughts, behaviors without judgment. Just take note of what you do, like David Attenborough narrating a wildlife documentary.
“I have 2 cups of coffee at 8am. I have another cup of coffee at 4pm. I tend to eat spicy snacks at 10pm. I woke up three times during the night and couldn’t go back to sleep for an hour.”
Then take time to reflect. Read the observations you wrote in your journal, think about how what you do is part of your life’s equation, and write down how you feel.
“I felt sluggish when I woke up in the morning. Forgot to pack my lunch. Then I was grumpy at my morning meeting. Does coffee at 4pm and spicy snacks at 10pm impact my sleep?”
The next step is to plan. What small tweaks can you make that will lead to positive change? Write it down. This way you can hold yourself accountable.
“Switch from coffee at 4pm to tea at 4pm. Eat spicy snacks at 8pm instead of 10pm.”
Then start doing what you wrote in your plan. Continually repeat these steps. If something in your plan isn’t working, adjust it and give yourself time to see if these changes are working.
“I remembered to grab my lunch before leaving the house, which made me happy. Cut out caffeine altogether at 4pm and drink water instead. Eat spicy snacks at 7pm.”
When you give yourself the space and time to observe yourself – and write it down – you start to notice patterns about your routine, areas for improvement, and how you feel as a result of things you do. When you become more aware of yourself, you gain the ability to make positive change.
Tips For Better Sleep
So now that you understand why sleep is important (remember, it’s a part of a bigger equation that either helps or hinders your goals and fulfillment), here are some ways to improve it.
Reduce caffeine consumption at night. Coffee is the credit card debt of sleep. When you have bad sleep, you need more coffee. The caffeine stays in your system for hours, so you become unable to sleep. Then you wake up tired, need more coffee, and keep building debt. But just like a credit card, you can work it down. Drink a little less every day and eventually, gradually you can pay off that debt.- Reduce alcohol consumption at night. Contrary to what many people believe, alcohol actually disturbs sleep. When you fall asleep from drinking, it is sedation, not actual sleep. Your body doesn’t recover the same way under sedation as it does during sleep.
- Keep a consistent sleep schedule. Weekday and weekend schedules should be the same. When you stay up late and sleep in late on the weekends, it breaks the sleep cycle, leaving you more tired.
- Restrict naps to 15-20 minutes, and nap before 3pm. When we nap for 45 minutes or longer, it can trigger deep sleep, so when we wake up, it’s in the middle of a sleep cycle, making us feel worse than before.
Reduce caffeine consumption at night.If you want more tips and insight on better sleep, check out MasterClass’s Matthew Walker Teaches the Science of Better Sleep.
Reach Your Full Potential with Better Sleep
There are so many ways to improve your life, from better sleep to going to therapy! If you are struggling with problems, trying to achieve a goal, or just want to be the best you can be, therapy can help. I offer individual therapy, couples counseling, family therapy, and therapy for teens. Contact Fernando Campos to get started.
