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S8: E160 Summer Health Series - Sleep

Afternoon Ti Podcast

Season Eight

Episode 160

Summer Health Series - Sleep



At the beginning of summer I picked up the book “Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams” by Matthew Walker at Barnes and Noble.  I’d heard his interview on the Ten Percent Happier podcast with Dan Harris and wanted to learn more.  The hardest part of finishing the book was that I often read it before bed and reading about sleep made me sleepy.  It was full of research, practical information, and helpful advice. 

There’s so much to sleep that is valuable.  Our bodies do so many things that are beneficial for us when we sleep.  We’re often looking for ways to be healthy or to increase our energy.  We look at our nutrition and our physical activity and often overlook sleep.  In fact we often neglect sleep and don’t consider it at all.  It can be a badge of honor to share how little sleep we are functioning on all while doing our daily tasks.  So how can we make it not only more of a priority in terms of giving ourselves sleep opportunity - more about that soon - but also something that we want more of and that we purposefully seek out?  Here are several things I found interesting, insightful, and helpful from reading “Why we Sleep”:

  1. It is highly effective.

  1. Sleep helps before and after learning

  1. Sleep affects our eating and exercise

  1. Dreaming helps with creativity and processing emotions

  1. This idea of Sleep Opportunity


So what do we do with this information?

Action steps to a better night of sleep


National Institutes of Health - 12 key tips.  I’ll link the article in the show notes. According to the NIH, the most important of these tips is to go to bed and wake up at the same time no matter what (pg 293).   Stick to a sleep schedule. Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day. As creatures of habit, people have a hard time adjusting to changes in sleep patterns. Sleeping later on weekends won’t fully make up for a lack of sleep during the week and will make it harder to wake up early on Monday morning.


Other things that were recommended that I hadn’t thought about before included not staying in bed awake for more than 20 minutes.  Don’t lie in bed awake. If you find yourself still awake after staying in bed for more than 20 minutes or if you are starting to feel anxious or worried, get up and do some relaxing activity until you feel sleepy. The anxiety of not being able to sleep can make it harder to fall asleep.  


Take a hot bath before bed. The drop in body temperature after getting out of the bath may help you feel sleepy, and the bath can help you relax and slow down so you’re more ready to sleep.

On page 21 of the article there’s a sample sleep diary that you can print if you want to track your sleep and see if it helps you pinpoint the things that work for you in aiding your sleep.


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