The Land of Nod

The average human spends approximately one-third of his or her life sleeping or trying to sleep. Reviewing our typical day, this might not be surprising to most, given that most of us are hoping for something in the realm of eight solid, uninterrupted hours of sleep. But when we take a step back and consider the evolutionary history of humans, it does seem surprising.

How did it become an advantage to be unconscious and completely defenseless for a third of our lives? Wouldn’t that time be better spent foraging for nutritious flora and/or hunting relatively unthreatening fauna? Beyond an inability to gather food for oneself and the tribe, being unconscious for eight hours at a time could have made us prone to attacks by hungry nocturnal predators.

There are many hypotheses about why our sleep adaptations were advantageous. One is that being inactive at night — when we couldn’t see well and therefore couldn’t identify predators well — provided safety, keeping us hidden in the dark and away from becoming a sabertooth’s meal. Another hypothesis is that sleep is restorative. It is essential for healthy immune function, for starters. It is also essential for building muscle and repairing injuries. Sleep also aids in our cognitive performance, including the encoding of memories. So all forms of learning require healthy sleep. And of course we need sleep to keep us feeling alert and focused throughout the day.

So sleep was an evolutionary advantage, and here we are. But as sleepers, we are not all created equal.

For some people, sleep comes naturally, without effort. They fall asleep almost at will and wake feeling great. We might call them morning people. For others, sleep can be a struggle. They might take quite a while to fall asleep. They might also wake feeling not great. We would not call them morning people. Night owls, perhaps.

If you’re one of those who struggles with sleep, there are behavior modifications that can help. We all have two major biological systems that affect sleep. One of them we’ve all heard of: our circadian rhythm. This is our body understanding when it’s time for waking and sleeping based on the cycles of light and darkness. The second system is our homeostasis, whereby our bodies are constantly working toward a healthy balance of everything, in this case waking and sleeping.

A key element to healthy sleep is to have these two systems in line. Who doesn’t love sleeping in? But this, and naps here and there, can fiddle with your homeostasis and make it such that you’ve had too much sleep when your circadian system wants to take over after dark. Think of it like having too many snacks before dinner. If a good night’s sleep is a meal, you want to be hungry beforehand. That might mean getting up in the morning before you want to, and no naps throughout the day. It also might mean making sure to have the same bedtime every night.

Further, you want to help your body understand when it’s supposed to sleep. Anything stressful, exciting, taxing — anything that will get you worked up — can keep you awake. These should be avoided before bed. If you have a stressful TV series or movie to watch, for example, watch it tomorrow. And keep screens of all kinds away for at least a half hour before bed. In fact, try not to have a TV in the bedroom at all. Try to do nothing in your bedroom other than sleep and intimacy.

It also helps to have your bedroom at an optimal temperature, lower than the rest of your home. Aim for 18 Celsius in your bedroom if you can. Refrain from eating or drinking shortly before bed. Limit caffeine later in the day. (Caffeine has a half-life of five hours, which means that half of the caffeine you drank at noon is still in your system at 5pm, and half of that caffeine — a quarter of the total — is still there at 10pm!) And as usual, there cannot be enough said about exercise. Try to make your body physically exhausted for sleep.

Another set of positive sleep adjustments comes not from behavior but from thinking. When we can’t sleep, we start to “chase.” Maybe we keep looking at the clock. The number gets worse and worse, and we get more and more stressed. This makes sleep more difficult. This is when your bed becomes a sort of war zone. It’s hard to sleep in a war zone.

As hard as this might sound, and as hard as it might be to actually do — stop trying to sleep. The effort and resultant stress are counterproductive. As author Gillian Flynn put it in Gone Girl, “Sleep is like a cat: It only comes to you if you ignore it.” The best thing to do here is to try to simply let go of your thoughts. Accept them as they are, good and bad, and let them drift away. No need to fuss right now. They will be there tomorrow.

Focus instead on enjoying all the lovely sensations in your body when you’re preparing for rest: a glorious end-of-day stretch, burrowing into the mattress, wrapping yourself in the covers, eyelids coming to a soft close, breathing slowly and deeply. Look forward to your trip to Nod. It is the ultimate self-care, and one of the most enjoyable things about life. After all, it can’t completely be a coincidence that we say fall asleep and fall in love.

Edan Tasca, RP (Qualifying)

Edan started his career in psychology as a writer and editor for Multi-Health Systems Inc., a major publisher of psychological assessments. Since completing a master’s degree in counseling psychology in 2016, he’s joined the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario and has been working with patients from the general population as well as patients of motor vehicle accidents who’ve suffered significant trauma and resultant PTSD. When he isn’t obsessing over his fantasy baseball team, he’s either watching boxing or working out in the hopes of one day being half as fit as a boxer.