Optimize Sleep Timing

We have already touched on timing briefly when we talked about the element of sleep anxiety.  While getting one good night of sleep is invariably a good thing and makes us feel great the next day, sleep tends to have a cumulative effect over time.  Consistent sleep over a long period of time is what will have the greatest impact on metabolism and mental clarity.  Good,  consistent, high-quality sleep  has been shown to reduce the risk of degenerative disease of the brain and it may even reduce over mortality.  To get good consistent sleep over time, you need to set a regular bed and wake time and then you need to stick to it.  The ideal bedtime is a time typically in the evening when your body clock has begun to drop the wakefulness drive and your sleep drive is at its highest.  If you miss that ideal window then your body clock will continue to cycle and you may not feel that sleepy later when you do try to go to sleep.  This second wind phenomenon is common in college students who study all night to try and cram for a test.  This practice is generally a bad idea and students who do this routinely perform worse on the exams due to poor sleep and inability to concentrate.  The wake time in the morning is important too because we have already reviewed how critical that first hour upon waking is when we reviewed the natural light intervention.  When you awaken at a good time in the morning, you start building up the neurotransmitters that create the strong urge to sleep in the evening at just the right time for your ideal bedtime window.

Some sleep trackers will help you determine the ideal window for bedtime in the evening.  But you can also determine your ideal bedtime manually by looking at duration, quality and next day Epworth score.  You must also remember that if you go to bed too early, you may develop sleep anxiety because you are going to bed when you are not tired and you might lay there for a long time before falling asleep.  For 2 weeks, try to get to sleep at the optimal time by going to bed at a consistent time each evening but not before you are sleepy.  Then awaken without an alarm clock and try to get active and get some natural light as soon as you wake up.  Record duration, overall score and Epworth score during this 2 week experiment.