What I wish I knew about sleep 10 years ago

Tired and forgetful. This is most probably how I have lurched through my adult life.

I often wake up not feeling refreshed and drag myself out of bed wondering why. Aren’t high functioning individuals meant to be able to perform on less than 5 hours of sleep a night, or is that what Hollywood has duped us into thinking? Shows like Greys Anatomy, (I love Greys by the way), have good looking doctors and interns performing life-altering surgeries on little or no sleep! Pulling all-nighters at school and university was a regular occurrence. Isn’t that what we were meant to do to cope with the coursework?

I have paid a lot of attention to staying fit and active through my adult life, but I have severely neglected to get enough sleep and cultivate good sleep habits, although the Sunday afternoon snooze has been an institution in my life since childhood. Since reading  Matthew Walker’s book, Why We Sleep, I have become increasingly aware of the negative compound effects of less than 7 hours of sleep a night.

Routinely sleeping less than six hours a night weakens your immune system, substantially increases your risk of cancers and Alzheimer's, disrupts blood sugar levels and the list goes on and on. Marketers are constantly advertising the next wonder treatment or supplement to help us live happier, healthier lives but they should be simply telling us to go to bed and get a good night’s sleep. I believe we have been duped into thinking that the modern-day person doesn’t really need that much sleep and have completely lost sight of how sleep is wired into our DNA. We were created to sleep and, no matter how we try and avoid it, it is vital to functioning at our best.

Walker is compelling and utterly convincing, backed with science and antidotes, I can highly recommend this read for any person living life actively. I also wish I had really become an advocate for a good sleep in my 20s. So, the next time you set your alarm to wake up, make sure you are setting one to remind you to head to bed.