So, why would a post about getting to bed make it onto the "Wake up it's your life" blog? Well, first, in order to wake up, we must be sleeping right? Makes sense. Let me explain a little more.
In his book, The Chemistry of Joy, Dr. Henry Emmons explores the chemistry of depression and goes deeper than most MDs by also including an Eastern perspective as well as a general holistic approach towards the condition. He clarifies what causes depression (beyond events and genetics) and also discusses what a "chemical imbalance" actually means. For example, when most people think about depression and chemical imbalances they think that someone might be born with an imbalance, which to a degree may hold some truth--yes, some of us are better equipped to be resilient towards depression and mental illness than others. However, there are also imbalances that are a product of our habits, like how much sleep we get and what kinds of foods we eat which affect all people.
I will not go into further detail here, you will just have to read the book if you are curious, which I highly recommend if you or a loved one suffers from depression or any health problem, really. BUT, I'd like to note that my partner and I have been trying to follow some guidelines regarding sleep that are mentioned in the book and our moods have already improved greatly just after one week of attempting (I say attempting because we haven't been angels, but we have made a greater effort to get to bed at a decent hour).
Common sensical it may be, yes, sleep is necessary to support brain and body function and we need it. Duh. Of course we feel better. We have been told this advice since our first waking moments. Yet for some reason we just can't get ourselves to get to bed on time and then we wonder why we feel crabby or crappy all the time. In the book, Dr. Emmons mentions that our biological clocks need routine to reset and function properly and what struck me most about his information was that keeping the same wake up time is actually more important than the going to bed-time. Now don't get me wrong, you can't go to bed at 3am and get up at 7am everyday and see benefits, but he suggests that we go to bed around 10-10:30 and wake up around 6-6:30 each day. If one night you need to be up late he says that waking up at your normal time will benefit you more in the long run if you just take a 20 or 40 minute nap during the day (instead of sleeping in later). Obviously like I mentioned before if you do this ALL the time, your body isn't really getting the routine and 7-8 hours of sleep it needs so it won't do much good. And let me reiterate that the ROUTINE is important (e.g. even though I was averaging about 7-9 hours a week because my schedule was so off and always changing I was still feeling low-energy and getting lots of headaches).
To see how much sleep you actualy need (because every individual is different) Dr. Emmons recommends setting the alarm for a specific time you need to be up and go to bed at a decent hour. Then keep going to bed 15 minutes earlier than the night before until you can wake up without the alarm.
While I enjoy the whole "I'll sleep when I die" idea and gusto for life, I'd rather not die a crabby human being so I hope to continue to make rest an important part of my day. Just in one week Dr. Emmons words of advice have given me more energy to spare for when I am awake which makes me very excited for the day and for sleep, when I get to rest and recuperate!
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