Sleep is most unproductive habit that we go through. We don't hunt for food, not looking for mate, not reproducing or caring for the family. However, this unproductive habit is one of the important process that our body need to go through to improve our performance throughout the day.
Yet, there are so many things that get in our way of sleeping. Stress over family, work, relationship are pretty common things that people lose their sleep over. Alcohol, caffeine, drugs are also cause of sleep deprivation.
Sympathetic and Parasympatheic Nervous System
Psychological or mental stress, such as family, work or relationship related, cause stress hormone to increase and can cause brain to not shut down when you are in bed to fall a sleep.
There are 2 nervous system that you will need to be aware of. First is sympathetic nervous system. You may have heard of fight-or-flight nervous system. Purpose for this nervous system to get activated is to be ready for anything to happen. Therefore, body will raise heart rate, focus blood flow mainly to the muscles, pupil in the eyes get dilated so that the body will be ready for any situation such as hunting or escaping from tiger.
Parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for recovery-and-digest. When parasympathetic nervous system is active, the body is relaxed and focused on recovering from any damages.
Just like hormone, when one nervous system is active, other nervous system is shut down. In other words, if you are not able to turn off sympathetic nervous system the body will not be ready for any recovery or digestive process, which also means may cause sleep deprivation.
Challenging part is sympathetic nervous system will be active whether you are exercising, having hard day at work, broken up relationship, or excited about the vacation tomorrow.
Your stress level can also elevated by consumption of caffeine. Caffeine has half-life of 6 hours and quarter-life of 12 hours. This means caffeine has affect on your body, including brain for 12 hours.
It is important to know how to switch between sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system.
How to Turn Off Sympathetic Nervous System?
So how can we turn sympathetic nervous system off to activate parasympathetic nervous system? There are 2 things that are very effective.
First is carbohydrate. It is known for several hundred years that when stress level is high, our body crave carbohydrate, especially sugar, which helps lower the cortisol level. This shouldn't be surprise to you since, you have experienced this. Whenever you are stressed out, you won't crave for broccoli or asparagus. But you will crave for things like ice cream, cookies, and so on. Of course, with this solution, there is a consequence which is metabolic issues including obesity and diabetes.
Second is manipulating breathing. The fastest way to activate sympathetic nervous system is to increase your breathing frequency just like when you are running. When you mimic breathing pattern similar to when you are sprinting, you will find your heart rate elevating. However, when you work on deep and slow breathing, you can turn off sympathetic nervous system and turn on parasympathetic nervous system.
More than sleep medication, breath manipulation or meditation is known to have positive affect to improving both sleep quality and quantity.
Breathing Manipulation For Sleep
After you are done with your dinner, or taking shower prior to your bed time, you should work on deep and slow breathing. Many times, advice is focused on breathing in deep, but you should also breath out deep.
So the breathing practice should be 3-5 seconds on breathing in and equivalent duration of breathing out. By repeating this until you get into your bed, you should be relaxed and ready to sleep.
Other Things to Consider
What time you have your dinner is not very important. However, how much time you can give between last meal, including dessert and drink, to bed time does seem to have effect. It is ideal to give about 2-3 hours between last meal to bed time.
Stimulants, such as caffeine, alcohol, and drugs may seem not to have any affect on sleep but studies have shown that it affect on your deep sleep and reduce the quality of sleep by 20%. Try avoid utilizing stimulants as much as you can.
Keeping the consumption of sugar or refined carbohydrate low will also help improve the sleep quality.
Conclusion
Quality and quantity of your sleep does affect quality of your daily performance and ability to think. It is very important to practice manipulating your breathing and other consideration to improve your sleep.
Of course, you should be enjoying your life and not dictated by just improving your sleep. However, sleep improvement should be practiced at least 80% per week.
Kota Shimada
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