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Sleep for High Performance

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Health and well-being is not merely the absence of illness.

I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?

Ernest Hemingway

Sleep is essential – although in modern times we treat it rather as an illness that we need to heal or conquer in order to be successful.
Yet, even though throughout the general decline in sleep through the introduction of electrical light and restructuring of work hours, humans still need to sleep on average 7 h.

The benefits of sleep and the side effects of sleep deprivation

Whereas sleep occurs in general in different cycles of rem and non rem sleep of 90-100 minutes (4-5 cycles per night); dreaming as a byproduct of processing information and consolidating of the memory can occur in both cycles of the sleep cycle. Sleep offered a great potential for creativity. Salvador Dali, Richard Wagner and Robert Louis Stevenson (just to name a few) were obsessed with the potential of sleep, the latter even drew his inspiration for his work “The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide” from sleep or rather dreaming.

But there is no banking system for sleep in order to save sleep for difficult times. Studies have shown that people who sleep less than 6 hours for two weeks have the same limitations in performance like someone who is acutely sleep derived for 24 hours.
Hence sleep is especially important for memory and learning as well as cognitive performance in general related to the ability to focus. Sleep enhanced critical thinking and problem solving skills in individuals.
The deprivation of sleep leads furthermore to poorer motor performance, communication, decision making and increased risk taking (especially through the changes in mood and the elevation of anxiety/ depression/ irritability).

Also, a decreased amount of sleep can lead to weight gain ( eating carbohydrates) and therefore to metabolic disorders like diabetes or an increased risk of hypertension leading to strokes or heart attacks.Thus sleep deprivation furthers a higher risk of illness ( also: impaired immune response/ cancer).

How to use sleep for high-performance

There are some common tips for finding sleep and using it for high-performance:

  1. Have a regular bed time/ wake-up time.
  2. Don’t exercise 2-3 h before you aim to sleep.
  3. Don’t drink alcohol in the evening.
  4. Don’t smoke or consume caffeine in the evening.
  5. Don’t eat heavy meals/ drink calorie rich beverages before bed.
  6. See your physician and examine whether the meds you are taking disrupt your sleeping patterns.
  7. Don’t take naps in the second half of the day after 3 pm.
  8. Adjust your sleeping pattern and amount to sex, age, illness etc.In general it is advised to sleep between 6 to 9 h per day.
  9. The temperature of your bedroom should be between 15 and 19°.
  10. Your bedroom should be dark quiet and should display a comfortable interior/ environment.
  11. Don’t use electronic devices between 11pm- 4am.
  12. Take a warm bath before sleep.
  13. Get enough (sun) light during the day. (Ideally 1.000 lux from 10 am to 6 pm to cope with depression, mood, Alzheimers and general focus and alertness.)
  14. Don’t work/paint/eat/ etc. in bed. The bed is a place for sleep and sex.

Additional Tip:

Some people use magnesium and melatonin as well as l-theanine and 5-HTTP to support sleep.
The use and consumption of supplements can interfere with your overall health. Hence it is very valuable and advisable to consider a physician before using these supplement.

How to wake up earlier

In order to wake up earlier some researcher recommend having a Ice bath before 8 am in the morning in order to recalibrate your circadian rhythm and to start your day with cognitive alertness and focus on the right foot.

Furthermore it is advisable to start your day with an exposure to light in order to recalibrate your rhythm for waking up earlier.

Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.

Mahatma Gandhi

Resources and further reading material

  • Frates, B.(2020)Lifestyle Medicine Handbook, Healthy Learning
  • Kryger, M. Et al. (2016) Principles and Practices of Sleep Medicine, Elsevier: Philadelphia
  • Lockley, S. (2021) Sleep- A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford
  • McNamara, P. (2019) The Neuroscience of Sleep, Cambridge: Cambridge
  • Walker. M. (2018) Why We Sleep, Penguin: London
  • Walker, M et al. (2009) The Neuroscience of Sleep, Academic Press: London