Sleep Foundations

When was the last time you woke up in the morning feeling refreshed and not needing an alarm clock? Would you say that you got enough sleep over the past week? These are the first two questions sleep researcher, Matthew Walker, asks in his wonderful book “Why we sleep.” He then goes on to write that research has suggested two-thirds of adults answer these questions with a simple “no.” The fact is, we need sleep but for the majority of us, we don’t get enough. In psychology we discuss sleep strategies and techniques as “sleep hygiene” however, my intention for this piece is just to provide the basics of sleep with a few tips and tricks as such we will call this Sleep Foundations.

What’s happening in the brain

When you think about it, initially sleep doesn’t really make sense. It is our most vulnerable state, and we are super unproductive – from an evolutionary perspective this seems well, dumb! However, when we then unpack why we sleep, you can see that it is our most productive state and fundamental for survival.

Throughout the night an average person will go through 4-6 sleep cycles that consists of four sleep stages (creatively called stage 1-4). As you progress through the night the sleep cycle will increase in longevity starting at about 70 minutes where later cycles can last about 90mins. The first two stages are called Light Sleep that consists of falling asleep (about 7 minutes) to Light Sleep stage 2 in which the brain activity slows (lasting about 10-25 minutes). On average, a person typically spends about half their time in stage two light sleep. Light sleep helps to sort out the content in the hippocampus (the memory and learning centre), like a cleaner and providing a mental refresh.

Next comes Stage 3 or Deep Sleep (20-40mins), in this state the body is relaxed and is critical to a restorative sleep, allowing the body and brain to recovery and have growth. The first sleep cycle of the night mostly consists of Deep sleep however, if one was to stay up and say, binge Netflix or scroll on TikTok, what actually happens is that a part of this stage gets disrupted. Deep sleep helps sort out the hippocampus so the information gets to it’s appropriate destination. So naturally, if these first sleep cycles are disrupted, our brains can have a hard time processing memories or moving new concepts into long-term storage (which is why late-night cramming sessions aren’t very successful).

The first three stages are also considered Non-REM (Non-Rapid Eye Movement) as the final Stage, Stage 4, is called REM sleep (10-60mins). During REM sleep the brain’s activity is similar to when you are awake, however the body’s muscle’s experience temporary paralysis where you can then experience dreams. In the initial sleep cycle you barely enter REM sleep and as the night goes on the REM stages are extended. In REM sleep our brains do fascinating work in trying to make sense of the day, connecting stored memories and new memories often in weird and wonderful stories that we call dreams. REM sleep can offer not just creative but emotional insights too. Dreams can be therapeutic in which they help to facilitate a processing of intense emotions such as fear and anxiety. In short, Deep sleep helps to store and recall information, Light sleep helps to learn new information and REM helps to improve how we make sense of information and any emotions that are associated with the information.

So what is a full night sleep? I have heard people try to survival on 6 hours a night, often in the pursuit of being more productive. However, to be blunt less than 1% of the population can survive on 6 hours or less. As an adult, we actually need 7-9 hours of sleep availability. What I mean by this is having enough time, where we account for sleep initiation and disturbances throughout the night – which are very normal. For teenagers, the recommended hours for sleep is 8-10 where it then gets longer for younger children (school aged children require 9-12hours). A great experiment to find the right amount of hours for yourself is to allow yourself to naturally wake up, with no alarm clock (preferably on a day where there is no work responsibilities). You could also ask yourself:

• When getting the minimum of 7 hours, do you feel productive and happy or longing for more hours in the night?
• Do you have any medical or health concerns that might require more rest?
• Do you depend on caffeine to get through your day?
• What are your energy levels like throughout the day?
• When you have an open schedule, do you tend to hit snooze and have a sleep in?

You may be asking yourself, “How does the brain know when to sleep and when to be awake?” The answer may be something you’ve heard about before – the circadian rhythm. This acts as the brain’s biological clock, lasting roughly around 24 hours. The true name of this internal clock is the suprachiasmatic nucleus which sits in the front part of the brain, drawing a line behind your eyes. Throughout the day a sleep pressure is built up through chemicals that initiates sleep such as adenosine that will create a feeling of sleepiness during the evening.

Alongside adenosine, in the evening the suprachiasmatic nucleus releases melatonin that together helps to drift off into a slumber. There are of course a number of factors that will impact the body clock which consequently can shift the sleep pressure. One example is caffeine, this acts as a block to the sleep pressure building up (think of a dam) but as one might expect (and experience) the dam will ultimately fail and the waterfall of sleep pressure that had been building up throughout the day will come crashing in. This actually happens slower than one would think given that caffeine has a half-life of 5-7 hours, meaning if you consume caffeine in the afternoon say at 7.30pm then by 1.30am you will still have 50% of that caffeine in your system. Sleep will not come easy or as smooth as your brain battles against the opposing forces of caffeine. Sneakily, caffeine is also in green tea, decaf (yep!), colas, chocolate even ice cream!

As I mentioned, there are a number of factors however the last one I will leave you with is light. Light exposure has the biggest influence on our body clock where the sun encourages us to be awake and the moon encourages us to be sleepy. Blue light from devices can trick our brains into suppressing the release of melatonin which we need to initiate that first sleep cycle. For example, reading a book on a device suppresses melatonin production by 50% more then reading a printed book.

If you want to know more about sleep tips and tricks, check out our sleep foundations checklist gift! Lastly, if you do experience any sleep difficulties, please seek professional support that can create a tailored sleep intervention that will suit you. If you answered no to any of the above questions or simply just want to improve your sleep, I challenge you to take on these tips and tricks on our sleep foundations checklist and see if they make any difference. Sweet dreams!