10 Mistakes You're Making That Are Stealing Sleep From Your Eyes

We always need restful sleep, and although we spend nearly a third of our lives sleeping, it can often seem out of reach due to insomnia and other wrong practices.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in three Americans sleeps less than the recommended seven to nine hours per night.

In Britain, a 2020 YouGov poll found that 18 percent of Britons sleep less than six hours a day, a length of time experts have described as “insufficient and unhealthy.”

This deficiency has serious health consequences, explains Dr. Alina Tiani, a clinical health psychologist and associate member of behavioral sleep medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Sleep Disorders Center, adding that lack of sleep is linked to decreased and deteriorating ability to concentrate, poor memory, feelings of depression and irritability, as well as a number of physical ailments, including a weakened immune system and hormonal imbalances, according to the British newspaper The Guardian.

“There are social factors that influence sleep,” says Dr. Julio Fernandez-Mendoza, professor of psychiatry and behavioral health at Penn State College of Medicine.

People who live in neighborhoods with higher rates of violence sleep worse, as do those who work multiple jobs or face greater racial and gender discrimination, Mendoza says. “Any social factor that determines health affects sleep,” he says.

However, there are some elements we can control. Below we explain some of the most common sleep mistakes and how to avoid them.

• Not knowing how much sleep you really need

“People tend to underestimate how much sleep they need,” says Dr. Kenneth Lee, medical director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the University of Chicago.

For adults, experts recommend about seven to nine hours of sleep per night.

However, he tells me that this is a general guideline, and there is a lot of individual variation in sleep needs.

For example, Margaret Thatcher slept only four hours a night, and actress Dakota Johnson once said she was “unable to function” if she got less than 10 hours of sleep a night.

• Overeating and undereating

Eating too much right before bed can lead to discomfort, indigestion, and heartburn, all of which can disrupt a person's ability to sleep. Similarly, eating too little before bed can make a person feel hungry, which can also disrupt sleep.

Like our sleep cycles, our bodies’ hunger tends to follow a daily rhythm, explains Fernandez-Mendoza. By eating three meals a day at roughly the same time every day, we can better manage our hunger and sleep.

• Screens before bed

One of the most common sleep mistakes people make is staring at screens before bed. The blue light emitted by smartphones, computers, and TVs can boost alertness and “delay our sleep onset,” says Patricio Escalante, MD, a pulmonologist and sleep medicine specialist at the Mayo Clinic.

There is some debate about how much blue light affects sleep. But besides the light itself, the content we watch on screens, such as exciting TV shows or social media posts that encourage thought and contemplation, can make it harder to fall asleep.

• Not relaxing

“People often don’t take enough time to relax and unwind before bed,” says Fernandez-Mendoza. “After dinner, people may work more, do intense exercise or socialize, and then go straight to bed. Our brain works like a TV that you can just turn off.”

For her part, Tiani advises that it is helpful to have a routine to unwind at the end of the day. She adds: “It is important to have at least 30 to 60 minutes to relax and do something unproductive before going to bed.”

• Long nap during the day

A nap can be a great way to get a quick rest and recharge during the day. But only if it’s quick. Napping for too long can affect the amount of sleep your body needs at night, disrupting your regular sleep schedule.

Experts recommend that the ideal nap time is half an hour.

• spending a lot of time awake in bed

Winston Churchill worked in bed. Marcel Proust wrote much of In Search of Lost Time in bed. Frida Kahlo painted in her bed. Despite these monumental accomplishments in bed, experts recommend avoiding using our beds for anything other than sleep.

• Not getting enough sleep on weeknights

Many of us cut back on sleep during the week because we think we can make up for it on the weekend. But that's not really the case, says Fernandez-Mendoza.

He explains that when you regularly get inadequate or interrupted sleep, “you build up a sleep debt.” While the occasional nap or late night sleep may help,

A 2022 research paper in the journal Trends in Neuroscience found that after one to two weeks of sleep restriction (i.e., less than seven hours of sleep), autonomic impairments, such as sleepiness and mood, typically compensate with one or two nights of catch-up sleep.

• Maintaining an inconsistent sleep schedule

The more different we are when we go to sleep and wake up, the harder it is for the body to adapt.

“Focus on maintaining a consistent wake-up time every morning,” says Tiani. Ideally, this wake-up time should be similar on weekends and weekends, too.

Sleeping in an hour or so on the weekends won’t do much to your body’s protein, but if you wake up two or more hours later than usual, you could inadvertently be giving yourself what Fernandez-Mendoza calls “social jet lag.”

• drinking too much caffeine

Experts say caffeine and alcohol can disrupt sleep. They explain that caffeine takes eight hours to be metabolized by the body, which means your 3 p.m. coffee could keep you up until 10 p.m.

• worry about sleep

If all of these tips sound overwhelming, don't let them stress you out. As experts explain, one of the worst things you can do to your sleep is worry about it.

“It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy,” says Fernandez-Mendoza. “If you spend the day worrying about not sleeping well, it’s more likely to happen.” So try to relax. And maybe fold some clothes if you’re feeling anxious and wake up in the middle of the night.

(The Middle East)