Why We All Need to Go the F*ck to Sleep
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
Lack of sleep been a thorn in my side for as long as I can remember.
I didn’t sleep as a kid because of migraines, sleepovers, my sister creeping into my room and scaring the shit out of me so every night I laid waiting for her, my parent’s fighting or my dad’s chainsaw revving snores from the basement rumbling up through the floor of my bedroom.
I didn’t sleep in my teenage years because of my late night teen line conversations, more sleepovers, reading my Sweet Valley High books, parent’s still fighting, and late-night teenage shenanigans.
I didn’t sleep in college. At all.
I didn’t sleep as I started real life in my first job because we were all just out of college so happy hours turned into all-nighters. I got married and we led a pretty active social life (if you know my husband, you know why) and then we dove into parenthood. The end of sleep forever and ever.
Well, I’m 48 now and I still push it off. I wish I was one of those people who loved getting into bed, turning ut the lights, and off to dreamland, I go. It’s never been that way. I used to watch TV but that’s morphed into late-night reading and social media scrolling. There is no such thing as just one Tik Tok video.
I know it’s a huge reason for some lingering health issues and I’m determined that I’m not going to let this go on any further.
I read a couple of things recently that made me take notice.
First, I read that by the time we are 50, we will have collected 20,000 hours of sleep debt. Twenty. Thousand. Hours.
Then there was this:
Dr. Zach Bush
If you experience a chronic lack of sleep, these deficits in brain function worsen and increase your risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Several studies have demonstrated that a lack of sleep can cause chronic inflammation in the brain and subsequently lead to the accumulation of abnormal proteins associated with many forms of dementia.
This is not how I want to go out. I’ve watched my father and my grandmother suffer with these diseases and it’s awful to watch.
Here’s why this happens and lots of other issues that arise from chronic sleep deprivation:
Our memory suffers because our brains aren’t able to process both short and long-term memories properly due to lack of time in REM sleep.
Our concentration, creativity, and problem-solving are all impaired because when there hasn’t been enough time to create new pathways for all that we’ve learned during the day. Basically, our brain is exhausted from not enough sleep and just can’t do the work.
We are prone to depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and mood swings because our central nervous system can’t function properly.
Our metabolism and digestion become compromised, causing them to slow down and send mixed signals. Lack of sleep reduces the production of growth hormones that help us build muscle and repair cells and tissues. It also reduces the production of leptin, the hormone that signals we’re full, and increases ghrelin, the hormone that signals we’re hungry. It also slows down the production of insulin after we eat which we need to lower our blood sugar. Random weight gain? Maybe not so random after all.
Our cardiovascular system gets run down because our blood vessels and heart aren’t given ample rest time to heal and repair themselves. This leads to unhealthy blood sugar and blood pressure levels and increases our risk for stroke and heart disease.
Last and most important to know, it weakens our immune system. When we sleep, we produce antibodies and cytokines that help us fight off illness and disease. When we are sleep deprived, we aren’t giving the body enough time to build up an adequate supply making us more susceptible to illness and it takes us longer to recover.
Those are a whole list of major reasons why we need to go the f*ck to sleep. So what’s the problem? Maybe you’re one of those people who really WANTS to go to sleep but as soon as your head hits the pillow, your eyes are wide open and there’s a Million Thoughts March happening in your head.
Here’s what can help us both:
Shut down the devices before bed. It’s said to be device-free for at least an hour before you want to fall asleep. That means TV, laptop, smartphones, iPads, and the like. All of these things are stimulating and not relaxing at all. I mean, when’s the last time you caught up on the news before bed and felt totally relaxed? I thought so.
Set up a routine. Go to bed every night at the same time and get up in the morning at the same time. Our bodies will start to find a rhythm in this and will anticipate by releasing the necessary hormones to induce sleep.
Find what relaxes you. Spend that hour before bed doing relaxing things like taking a soaking Epsom salt bath and essential oils, read a real book, or meditate.
Set up a diffuser with relaxing essential oils. Aromatherapy signals the body to release specific hormones that can help with sleep. Some of my favorites are Vetiver, Roman Chamomile, Ylang Ylang, Sandalwood and Cedarwood.
Stay away from caffeine in the afternoon or close to bed. Obvs.
Exercising regularly. This will help tire you out but be careful not to exercise too close to bedtime.
Cut back on alcohol. Too much alcohol affects the quality of our sleep so limiting intake is vital.
If there ever was a time to start this healthy habit of getting more sleep, I think 2020 is the year. I mean do we really want to stay awake for all of this more of this shit than necessary?! I know I don’t.
Sleep deprivation has been my hardest bad habit to break but I know it’s a major obstacle for me to feel truly well. So if you see me tweeting late into the night, liking one of your social media posts well past a reasonable hour, I give you full permission to text, tweet or DM me with the exact phrase…
“Go. The. F*ck. To. Sleep.”