It doesn’t take an expert to tell you that pregnancy isn’t easy.

Not only does it take a very visible toll on woman’s bodies but it kills their sleep.  According to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) 78% of women develop insomnia when they are expecting.  And that’s just the beginning.

While this is common knowledge, formerly good sleepers are often taken off guard by the changes that naturally happen when you are expecting.

Top 10 Ways Pregnancy Sµ¢k$ Your Sleep

1. Insomnia
2. Increased snoring
3. Increase in obstructive sleep apnea due to weight gain
4. Physical discomfort, especially at the joints.
5. Frequent urination–about once an hour in the later months
6. Migraine headaches
7. Restless legs syndrome–especially in the third trimester
8. Changes in hunger cycles
9. Vivid dreams and nightmares
10. Heartburn and acid reflux at night

All of this can feel like insult onto injury, especially since common images depict pregnant women “glowing”, as though they just turned into Melanie Hamilton from Gone With the Wind.

How the heck are you supposed to do that when you’re sleep just went out the window – and might not be back until your little baby is 3?

3 Things You Didn’t Know About Pregnancy Sleep

The first thing women should know about sleep during pregnancy is that:

• It’s absolutely normal to lose sleep
• Your sleep loss does not affect the health of the baby.

The other thing you should know is that these disruptions can’t be blamed solely on hormones, either.

Sure, during pregnancy hormones rush through women’s bodies like a hold-onto-your-britches rapids patch on the Colorado river – and they cause a number of discombobulated sensations and effects – but they’re not the sole reason why you’re not sleeping.

The big reason behind why you’re not resting like you used to?  You’re pregnant. It’s a wallop for any body to undergo – and we know that the smallest body changes can interrupt sleep.

7 Ways to Sleep Better When Pregnant

If you are normally a great sleeper, the sudden difficulties that pregnancy brings can seem insurmountable.  However, you can take a few proactive steps to get better sleep.  That’s right; it is possible to sleep during pregnancy.  These tricks will go a long way to help you cope with daily obligations and some of the fatigue that comes with any pregnancy.

1. Make sleep a priority. Get to bed earlier, and give yourself time to wind down with a relaxing activity, such as a bath or listening to music.
2. Change your diet. Avoid spicy and acidic foods. Chose foods rich in minerals, fats and fiber. Eat smaller meals more often. Keep yourself hydrated. Pick up some over-the-counter antacids for any heartburn.
3. Take a walk. 30 minutes of easy-to-moderate exercise a day is a safe way to get better sleep. It’s also great for morale to get some fresh air.
4. Sleep on your left side. This increases blood flow to the fetus and takes pressure off your kidneys. Also try wedging a pillow between your legs to take pressure off your hips. Sleeping on your back is okay, but it’s best to limit it as much as possible.
5. Take naps. They are usually a welcome opportunity. The exception may be naps late in the day, as these can stall your regular bedtime.
6. Don’t lie in bed and worry if you can’t sleep. The best middle-of the-night activities are those that are calming and repetitive and can be done in low-light conditions, such as knitting, reading, prenatal yoga, or taking another bath. Avoid watching TV or turning on a bright light as this can stall sleep even further.
7. Take comfort that this is only temporary.  Many of these symptoms will pass quickly after your delivery day.

Just Remember: When you’re pregnant, you don’t have to keep up with the pace of normal life, and you don’t have to pretend to be cheerful and glowing all the time, either.

Instead, adapt to these new routines to help you get the sleep you need – and make sure to cut yourself a little slack if it’s not 100% perfect. You’ve got enough on your plate as it is; no sense losing sleep over it.

Ryan Hurd is a dream researcher, educator, and a contributing sleep expert to Zeology. He is editor of DreamStudies.org and author of the ebook Sleep Paralysis: A Dreamer’s Guide. He is also the proud papa of a healthy new baby boy.

There is a fair bit of misunderstanding of what exactly constitutes insomnia. In this article, I’ll attempt to shine some light on this subject as it affects a lot of people in some very irritating–and sometimes serious–ways.

To start off, it’s quite normal to experience a few days or a couple of weeks of poor sleep once in a while. Often, it’s brought on by some psychological or physical trauma of some sort – a death in the family, a bankruptcy, a looming deadline – anything.

Once the event passes or the shock wears off, the sleeplessness goes away. We’d call this transient or acute insomnia. If it lasts much longer than about three weeks, we transition into chronic or long term insomnia.

Yet what exactly constitutes insomnia, as opposed to any other sleep disruptions or disorders?

Insomnia – A Definition

Insomnia is generally interpreted to be a positive or yes answer to either of these questions:

Do you have difficulty falling asleep at night?

Do you have difficulty staying asleep at night?

If you’ve answered yes to either or both of these questions (as it is with me), then you have to ask yourself the question:

Do I really have a hard time falling or staying asleep?

How do I know?

This second question is really important as it’s been shown that people are very poor judges of their own sleep quality and quantity.

However, I believe that, if you can’t actually measure the insomnia (i.e. how many times you woke up and how long you were awake for), the better subjective attitude would be:

How do I feel the next day? Am I unfocused, tired, confused, otherwise compromised?

Some people really suffer with this, and the effects of insomnia are basically an inability to function. They may hallucinate, have difficulty doing simple tasks (like driving or cooking) – it generally ruins their quality of life.

There Are Two Types of Insomnia

Now that we’ve defined insomnia, it’s important to differentiate between the two types: primary and co-morbid (or secondary).

Primary insomnia is basically the condition you have when no other “causes” for the sleeplessness are there, or can be found. Once all the other medical, medication, substance or sleep disorder (sleep apnea) causes are eliminated, this is what’s left. If the insomnia was “caused” by some depression or anxiety without a real medical issue present – than this is what you have.

Co-morbid or secondary insomnia is a type that is brought on or amplified by the use of some other factor – and it could be almost anything. Medications, nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, illicit drugs, pain, stress, rheumatoid arthritis, hyperthyroidism, brain trauma, anything. It’s important that we get these medical issue resolved first, or the insomnia issue may never go away.

The important lesson here is to find out whether the cause of your insomnia has got a third-party contributor – something that can be controlled. I’d say that things like “jet lag” are pretty hard to control, and so that would be considered short-term, primary insomnia. Something like taking amphetamines or your arthritis causing pain all night would be co-morbid.

13 Things You Didn’t Know About Insomnia

In 2002, the Government of Canada conducted a study on insomnia. I was really surprised when I started to look at these statistics, and when I started to talk about my sleeping problems; seems that this issue is a lot bigger than I ever imagined.

Based on the responses of the 36,984 randomly selected respondents, the study reported the following:

1. 13% (about 1 in 7) of people in Canada over the age of 15 have insomnia. (Editor’s Note:  Compare to an estimated 9% of the US population)
   
2. 18% of these reported sleeping less than 5 hours a night.
3. 29% of them said that they had taken some kind of sleep medication during the previous 12 months, versus 7% of non-insomniacs.
4. Insomnia risk rises with age – about 10% at age 15-24, to about 20% at age 75+.
5. Women are more likely to report insomnia than are men, but only just – 15% versus 12%.
6. Medical conditions seemed to affect about 20% of the sleepless.
7. Almost 1/3 reported insomnia along with anxiety or mood disorders – versus about 12% who didn’t report these issues.
8. 23% of people who reported their lives as “stressful” suffered from insomnia – about double the people who reported “little or no” stress.
9. 17% of insomniacs rated their ability to cope with difficult problems as fair or poor.
10. Heave/obese people have a higher prevalence of insomnia than people of normal weight. The lowest reported episodes of insomnia were people of a normal weight.
11. Those with high school education or lower report a higher incidence of insomnia than more educated groups. Lower education generally translates into a lower standard of living (they looked at this as well).
12. 16% of heavy drinkers (2+ drinks/day) reported insomnia. It’s pretty much taken as fact now that alcohol may help you get to sleep, but the quality of that sleep is really poor.
13. 18% of people who use cannabis (marijuana) were sleepless.

Most of their conclusions from the study reinforce many of the things about sleep that we’ve been told -in particular the fact that what you do during the day affects your sleep at night.  As they say it better than I ever could – here it is:

Physical and psychological problems can interfere with sleep. Painful conditions such as arthritis, migraine and fibromyalgia were associated with insomnia, as were anxiety and mood disorders and stressful life events. As well, alcohol and cannabis use were significant factors. Obesity, too, was related to having problems with sleep.

Even allowing for a series of physical, mental, lifestyle and socioeconomic factors, insomnia was related to some adverse situations. Relatively large percentages of insomniacs had difficulty coping with day-to-day demands and unexpected problems. They were also more likely than other people to have had a recent disability day and to express overall dissatisfaction with life. As well, a significantly large proportion of people in the prime working age range who suffered from insomnia were not employed.

Some less obvious factors were associated with insomnia. When physical and mental health status, lifestyle, and demographic and socioeconomic variables were controlled for, being female, middle-aged, widowed, and having a low education were significantly related to insomnia.

On the other hand, moderate physical activity and a bit of work stress were protective. The lack of a positive association between work stress and insomnia may reflect the relatively large proportion of insomniacs who do not work.

So there you have it – some things about sleep you may not have known!  Hopefully this information will help you assess your own sleep quality.  In my next post, I’ll go into more detail about some of the (natural) things you can do to help lessen or relieve any insomnia symptoms.

A nightcap helps you sleep, right?

Well, yes…but not they way you think it does.

During my initial explorations with the flow-meter, I thought that I’d test my set-up by trying to INCREASE my AHI using a well known substance that makes sleep apnea worse:

Alcohol.

A sleep experiment where I get to have a drink or three… it’s tough, but I’ll do it for science.

Alcohol Increases Your Risk of Sleep Apnea

Pretty much as it does with people, alcohol relaxes the muscles in the airways making them more prone to flopping around all over the place and causing an obstruction.

When it comes to the rest of the practices, gadgets, fads and ideas that I’ll be exploring I’ll be testing them for 5 days in a row each. To be honest I’m not going to do that with alcohol as I can’t afford a week of waking up sluggish and groggy.  However, what I did was to take 5 non-consecutive days approach instead.

I consumed alcohol and recorded my AHI on those nights along with my 5 day no-alcohol mean AHI for comparison.

Pretty conclusive.

Alcohol increased the number of times that I either stopped breathing or breathed so little that it was ineffective.
Not only that, but it did it in quite a startling way. It took my 5 day mean AHI from 6.95 to 12.2.(max 15.3) To get that into perspective, that’s nearly double the number of times PER HOUR that I had breathing problems.

As discussed in this post, I went from just scraping in with a diagnosis of “Mild Obstructive Sleep Apnoea” to being firmly in the category!

Surely there was something positive to salvage from this bad news?

Yes.

In my mind, alcohol helped me to get to sleep and I found that the Zeo data backed that up. Again, using a 5 day mean value, my time to sleep onset (or Zeo’s “Time to Z”) went from 28 minutes without alcohol down to 9 with alcohol.

That seemed to be the only significant difference in the data, so I haven’t bothered to clutter the page with other measurements.

My time to Z decreased significantly ... but my AHI increased as well.

It may help you to get to sleep, but the chances are that the sleep will not be good sleep. The chances are that it will be disturbed sleep, the chances of having to go to the bathroom will increase, as will the likelihood of dehydration-related headaches and fragmented sleep towards the morning.

Not only would I wake up feeling slow and mildly hungover, but I’d be tired from being woken up up to 15 times an hour through apneas.

Don’t misunderstand me; this isn’t one of those damning posts about alcohol, but it is something to bear in mind if you already suffer with sleep apnea, and it may even cause mild apnea in people who don’t have it.

Will I continue to drink alcohol? Of course – and that’s the dilemma. So I guess the answer is “everything in moderation.”

We hear a lot of stories here at Zeo.

Some are straightforward. Some are complex.

Some are mindblowing.

Recently, a Zeo user named Joel B. wrote to us and told us how his wife’s life improved after her sleep improved.  Their story falls into the “mindblowing” category.

Here’s Joel’s story:

For perhaps 6-8 months, possibly more, my wife had been showing signs of cognitive impairment. Memory loss, lack of ‘presence,’ unable to follow complex instructions, etc. It was bad enough that a few weeks ago when a new client asked her our address, she couldn’t remember.

She also developed a bilateral hand tremor so we went from her internist to a neurologist. I’d noticed that she had taken to snoring, and my thought (with which the neurologist agreed) was that it could be obstructive sleep apnea.

So we did the whole sleep study routine, and yes indeed, she had obstructive sleep apnea. Tried CPAP, she couldn’t stand it. She switched to Provent (small nasal strips with a one-way valve that restricts exhalation to raise pressure in the oral cavity and thus do some or all of what a CPAP machine does). That eliminated the snoring, and a recording pulse oximeter showed improved oxygenation. Great!

But her cognition didn’t improve.

I then bought the Zeo, to see if she had a more or less normal sleep pattern. Well, lo and behold, after about 2-3 weeks of measurements, my wife had registered a grand total of no REM sleep.

Zero.

Not one minute in the entire period.

Since my wife was on antidepressants, I thought that might have something to do with her issue. So I decided it was time to hit the research literature.  Fortunately, I’ve had training as a medical writer and researcher, so this wasn’t unfamiliar territory for me.

In poking around, I came across info that that said that SSRI (a.k.a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) antidepressant drugs suppress–often entirely–REM sleep. As I delved further into the literature, I found robust support for this.

Apparently, it’s a well-known (if rarely mentioned) side effect of the antidepressants. I contacted an old grad school friend, Joe Graedon. He immediately said that not only do the SSRIs suppress REM as I’d seen in the literature, but so do ALL the antidepressants, including the first generation ones.

It seems that in order to have REM sleep, you have to deplete serotonin (and have melatonin kick in) and if you’re on an antidepressant, the antidepressant is upping your serotonin levels, thus lowering your melatonin levels, which is counterproductive to getting good REM sleep. “So, with the approval of my wife’s physician, we started to slowly ween her off her medication.

For about three weeks, nothing dramatic happened. A week ago yesterday, she woke up one morning and within minutes I knew she was ‘back.’ She was just remarkably different. Much more animated, much more engaged, much livelier.

And SHE knew the difference.

That night she used Zeo again and she showed about 10 minutes of REM sleep.

Hooray! Not huge, but at least SOMETHING.

It has continued to increase, up to 15 minutes two nights ago, 20 minutes the night before last, and 45 minutes last night!

She has continued to be much more energetic, totally present and responsive, with her memory working as it should. The hand tremors also entirely disappeared.

Again, research literature points out that antidepressant drugs can have a noticable affect on sleep quality.

NONE of the doctors raised the meds as a possibility. The sleep study center should have mentioned it in their report. The neurologist should have flagged it.

Without Zeo, we would not have had the information we needed. Since tapering down the medication, my wife’s been consistently getting some REM every night.

We’re hoping that this trend will continue – and that our experiences will help others.

Tell Us Your Story

We love stories like this because it reinforces what we believe:

“When you know your sleep, you can change your sleep.”

Joel’s wife, for example, wasn’t getting good REM sleep because she was on antidepressants.  However, that wasn’t even considered as a root cause.

Only after seeing her Zeo sleep data did the light bulb go on.  Her sleep issues were not what they (and doctors) originally thought.  Armed with this information, Joel and his wife were able to make small but meaningful changes – and reap the benefits of good sleep.

We also believe in the power of personal experiences to guide others. After all, what hinders my sleep could be completely different from what hinders another person’s sleep.

While you might not have the same experience as Joel or his wife, someone else might.

That’s why we’re always asking for your story.  Your own experience, however humble, could be someone’s light bulb; their “ah-ha” moment.

So we want to know:

What was it like when you first looked at your sleep data?

Post it in the comments, share it on Facebook, or email it directly to us at mystory@myzeo.com.

We look forward to reading about your experiences and learning from what you’ve discovered.

Thanks for sharing!

Keith (Ave ZQ: 97) is a writer and member of the Zeo Marketing team. When it comes to sleep, he’s a Viking.

It happened precisely at 7:34 am.

I fell back asleep and felt my body become paralyzed. Then I sat up, and felt “myself” lift out of my physical body. I floated above my bed and melted into the window. I entered the thin pane of the glass and hovered inside its boundaries.

Pictoral representation of an OBE

Then I woke up.

What I experienced was an out-of-body experience (OBE). These experiences happen all over the world and their descriptions are similar across cultures. In new age circles, the experience is known as astral projection whereas more indigenous cultures call it soul flight.  Some instances are spontaneous while others are initiated through ritual dancing and drumming.

What all these traditions have in common is the insistence that out-of-body experiences are real, and some part of “you” moves away from our material existence, having a life of its own. Having had many realistic OBEs, I can respect that worldview.

But what exactly is an OBE?  If they happen cross-culturally, what exactly is going on inside someone during an OBE?

When is a Dream not a Dream?

Scientific interest in the physical underpinnings of OBEs supports what dream researchers have suspected for years, namely that most out-of-body experiences occur when you are falling asleep or coming out of sleep.

According to my Zeo, at precisely the time when I was floating above my bed, my brain was in REM sleep.   This supports what Kevin Nelson MD noticed, namely that OBEs come with REM sleep.

OBE - Zeo caught it

Yet an OBE is not “just a dream.”  The realistic sensation of moving out and/or away from the physical body “feels” real because the mind is alert and thinking clearly while simultaneously aware of the sensation of bodily paralysis that normally comes with REM sleep.

Swiss researcher Olaf Blanke suggested that the cause of OBEs can be traced to a breakdown in communication in a part of the brain known as the temporoparietal junction, or the TPJ.

Location of the TJP region of the brain

The TPJ essentially acts as a bridge that links body sensations from the vestibular system (your balance and spacial orientation system) with visual information and higher order thinking processes from the prefrontal cortex. When the bridge collapses, our sense of self is untethered from the constraints of the senses.  Hence, that “floating” sensation.

Vestibular System

No Sleep Required

While most OBEs are instigated from sleep (I have had dozens of them through my experimentation with sleep paralysis),  they can be spontaneously generated as a result of life stresses such as shock, illness, and trauma.

German philosopher Thomas Metzinger believes that the evolutionary origin of the OBE is shock, as part of the paralysis reflex in mammals when attacked by prey. As carnivores don’t like to eat dead animals due to the risk of contamination, animals who “play dead” are more likely to survive a sudden attack.

I wonder if the gazelle has an OBE when being eaten by a lion? It’s a tempting idea.

Gazelle: Think happy thoughts /Think happy thoughts

Perhaps one of the best example of an OBE due to shock or trauma is that associated with a Near Death Experience (NDE).  It’s been postulated that those who have NDEs are also more likely to have sleep paralysis and out-of-body experiences, with the implication being that REM sleep plays a role in all three.

REM intrusions in Sleep Transitions and Near Death Experiences

However, just like ritualized OBEs in more indigenous cultures, many who have had a NDE report a positive effect, impacting their lives for decades after the event.  Far from inducing terror and fear, the experience actually give them extraordinary insight.  As such, many Dream researchers (myself included) suggest that OBEs could be integrated into counseling efforts.

Personally, my OBEs have been less sublime (floating in a window, while neat, didn’t yield any mind blowing insight) but the experience is certainly up there with one of the strangest things that might happen while asleep.

Ryan Hurd is a dream researcher, educator, and a contributing sleep expert to Zeology. He is editor of DreamStudies.org and author of the ebook Sleep Paralysis: A Dreamer’s Guide.

Falling asleep can be tough.

It shouldn’t be. It should be the most natural thing in the world.

You get into bed, close your eyes, and take a trip to Sleepville, population: you.

Yet, sometimes it’s not that simple. To some people, it may never seem that simple.

I’m pretty good at sleeping – one of the (few) things I truly excel at – but sometimes actually getting to sleep can be downright hard. Hard to the point of irritating the bejeepers out of me.

I’ve gotten irritated so much that I’ve spent a good amount of time trying out different ways to fall asleep.  Along the way I found out what works – and what didn’t.

Don’t try these at Home

• Booze -I’ve tried having an alcoholic beverage or two before bed, didn’t work. Actually, it sort of did but I had problems later on during the night.

• Boob Tube- I’ve tried watching TV to relax me, didn’t work. Turns out exposing yourself to light at night not only doesn’t help but hurts your chances of falling asleep.  BTW, If you fall asleep watching TV, that’s a dead giveaway of how badly your body needs sleep.

• Breaking a Sweat – I’ve even tried exercising a few hours before bed to tire myself out and that didn’t do the trick either. Exercise is a surefire way to get better sleep but is not the greatest thing to do before bed.

Try These Instead

What I found is that when I relaxed mind and body, it was much easier to fall asleep – and stay asleep.  I didn’t need to be plopped in front of the TV or running on a treadmill; I just needed to be in my own bed, still and ready for my body to say “good night.”

• Deep Breaths – I found that taking deep breaths over and over actually relaxed me pretty quickly.

• Sleep with One Eye Open – Sometimes I keep one eye closed and the other eye open, as if I’m fighting to stay awake. This works way better than I thought it would.

• Om, Shanti – I looked up different meditation mantra words on the Internet and repeated one word over and over in my head until I relaxed my way into sleep. It’s a good way to cancel out other thoughts in your head as it takes your concentration away from worrisome thoughts, focusing instead on the words.

• Go With the Flow – Instead of trying to push nagging thoughts out of my head, there are times when I actually mentally embrace them and let them race through my head until they wear themselves out. Sounds kind of silly but this has actually worked, and it usually doesn’t take that long either.

Share and Share Alike

I’m always in the market for new techniques to help fall asleep -and I’m pretty sure others are too.

So, all you sleep experimenters out there, what tips and techniques do you have for falling asleep?  What works for you – and what was an utter fail?

Share below, on our Facebook page, or on Twitter using #helpsmesleep – we’ll take your advice and publish here on Zeology for all to see and benefit from.

Think of it as a good deed designed to make you sleep better.

Related Articles

• What Can One Do to Promote Good Sleep?
• How can one clear their mind to help fall asleep?
• 6 Tips for the overworked, sleep deprived and anxious
• How to Write Your Worries Away — at 2:45 am

Keith (Ave ZQ: 97) is a writer and the newest member of the Zeo Web Content team. When it comes to sleep, he’s a Viking.

Join the forum discussion on this post

On your “good sleep” list, you’ve got all your sheep in place, so to speak.

• Deep Sleep De-Mystified? Check.

• REM remastered? Check.

• 7 Steps for Sleeping Soundly? Check.

The only thing your missing is Wake.  Or rather, you’re not missing it – you want to know what to do about it.

For the record, I only remembered the "Wake" in the middle -and it felt like forever.

I’ll know it when I see it, right?

Wake is a funny thing.  For instance, we as humans constantly misjudge our time in wake. We’re only right about 45% of the time.  For some, it’s even less.  I myself know that I rarely remember being awake unless it’s for more than 5 minutes.

Don’t worry though – not being able to remember your awakenings is not a sign of dementia.

And then there’s that whole time warp thing going on while you’re awake.  You know, that “I’ve been lying here for ages” feeling you get when you’re trying to fall back asleep.  For those suffering from broken sleep – sleep that is constantly interrupted by periods of wake – this can add to the frustration.

What to do about it?  How can I get rid of that dreaded “Wake” bar(s) once and for all?

You can’t.

I’ll let Dr. John Winkelman explain why.

News Flash:  You Wake Up A Lot More than You Think

Did you catch that?  We wake up, on average, 70 times a night.

70.

Holy Cow.

Did you know that?

Keep in mind that most of these awakenings are less than a minute long.  As you know, Zeo doesn’t record anything shorter than 30 seconds, and looks at the past five minutes to figure out what it should call that period.

So you’re waking up, but don’t see it in your sleep graph.  Instead, you’re getting depressed about the few 5 minute Wake bars (which could only be 2 minutes in reality) that show up in everyone’s sleep, no matter their age.  There’s a good chance that you don’t even remember that longer wake.

What to do?  Am I really telling you to just not worry about it?

Of course not.   There are things you can do to decrease the amount of time you spend in Wake each night- and I will share them with you.  I really want you to have the best sleep possible.

Ready?  Let’s go.

Taking Matters into Your Own Hands

The first thing for you to do is relax.  Seriously, stress doesn’t do your sleep any favors.

For instance, that chunk of wake in the sleep graph was from stress.  My body was waking me up to say “Andi!  You didn’t deal with issue X earlier – and it’s killing your sleep!   Deal with it, so that we can get some rest!”

The second thing you could do is look at your overall sleep patterns.  Do you get a typical amount of Deep, REM, Light and Wake (yes, Wake) for your age?  If so, then congrats.  You’re sleep -and Wake- is statistically okay.

Typical Zeo users, with breakdown by Age and Sex, 1 Standard Deviation

However, if you fall into the camp of “too much Wake” – what Dr. John called “Excessive Wake” – then it might be a good time to take inventory of your lifestyle and habits. That’s step three.

It’s possible that there could be some underlying issues – chronic pain, perhaps – that make it harder for your body to stay asleep.  Of maybe you’ve got a young kid who needs you at 3am or you’re going through a huge, life changing event.

It could be what you eat & drink – or even, what you don’t.

Your circadian rhythm could be off as well, or you’re trying to sleep when you’re not tired.  Travel, shift work, and light exposure all have an impact on our circadian rhythm, which in turn predicts whether or not we’re going to successfully “sleep through a night.”

Lastly, stop worrying about what being awake at night might mean for the next day.  Instead, teach yourself to focus on how much sleep -and its quality- you got.

Despite being awake for over an hour, I came pretty close to my standard amounts of Deep and REM.  Seeing that in the morning actually made it easier to face the day than just relying on my memory.

In short, the best way to manage your Time in Wake is to manage your daily life.  It’s been said before, but what you do during the day really helps you sleep more soundly – and with less interruptions – during the night.

Sleep Well!

Related Articles

• Sleep:  Forgetting to Remember to Forget
• How to Write Your Worries Away – At 2:45am
• What’s a typical number of awakenings for my age?
• Can I have more awakenings than I remember?
• A Tale of Two Sleepers

Andi (ZQ: 86) is the editor of Zeology. By tweet or by post, email or Expert Answer, she makes sure people get the information they need about sleep.

Be honest:  How many times have you had that extra drink at night or that soda in the afternoon?

Didn’t get that walk in like you said you would?  Suffered though a night of pain instead of talking with your doctor to help find a solution?

We’ve all done these things more than we’d like to admit–but hey, what’s the worse that could happen?

You will screw with your sleep, that’s what.

You’ll deprive your body of its necessary building blocks and guarantee that it will under-perform.

The worse part is that you’ll think this is normal.  Like being drunk, you won’t even recognize it until it’s too late.

To help you out, I’m going to share with you 7 things that you can to today to sleep better tonight.  I’m going to give you actual sleep data and resources to show you how effective these tips are.  And I’m going to encourage you the whole way through.

A little change goes a long way, especially in the sleep department.

Ready? Let’s go.

7 Steps to Sleep Fitness

1. Skip the caffeine. You think you can’t feel it? That you fall asleep just fine at night after that afternoon soda? Think again. Caffeine six hours out was as disruptive or more so than caffeine 3 hours before bedtime–especially compared to no caffeine whatsoever.
   

   Drake C, Kick, A Roth T. The effects of caffeine given 0, 3, or 6 hours before bedtime on objective sleep parameters measured in the home. Sleep 2010;33 (Suppl.):A107. Abstract 0306.

2. Quit Drinking after dinner. There’s a reason why your doc says not to have more than 2 drinks/day. This stuff really screws you up on many levels, and your sleep (like your liver) takes a big hit.
   

   As the the drinks go up, the Deep sleep comes down,

   

   The REM takes a beating, ...

   

   ...& and Andi@Zeo's ZQ drops by 10 points. Ouch.

3. Get Moving. You don’t need to run a marathon, but you can’t just sit there all day and expect yourself to have good sleep. Your body was made for movement–and Deep sleep gets a boost from consistent, moderate exercise.
   

   L-R: Julie's Deep Sleep vs No run, Easy Run, Moderate Run, Long & Hard Run

4. Dim the Lights at Night. Light has the biggest impact on our circadian rhythm–far more so than food or social cues–so do yourself a favor and step away from the TV. If you truly must work after dinner, use a dimmer on your computer or laptop screen to block out blue light, as that type of light can keep you awake longer than yellow light.  Use an eyemask to block out unwanted light–and potential wake ups–during the night.
5. Keep cool. Body temperature and room temperature both help us fall asleep, stay asleep, and get more restorative sleep, too. Keep your bedroom between 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit for the best results.
   

   Rhiannon@Zeo found her Deep Sleep tanked when she was too hot

6. Know your medication. Numerous types of medication, from OTC to doctor prescribed, can have a noticeable affect on your sleep quality. If you are on medication, make sure you talk to your pharmacist or physician about any potential or noticeable side-effects before making any changes.  Always take as directed, too.
   

   Kuji@Zeo's Ave Time to Z by Day--No Medication use on Saturday. Tuesday (Day 2 of meds) is the worse day.

7. Respect Chronic Pain, Physical Ailments, and underlying Health Issues. These are not fun in the least, and they’re often a big handicap for good sleep. Sometimes the pain is physical, sometimes it’s mental, but often the two work hand in hand, making it a giant mess. The most important things to do are:
   • Talk to your doctor about it
   • Treat any pain as best as you can to help minimize sleep disruptions
   • Practice calming and relaxation techniques to ease your frustrations
   • Celebrate your achievements, big or small. Feeling a bit better today than you did yesterday is a real big deal and can be a game changer in the long run.

I really want you to do this. Really, truly. I know that many of you out there have struggled with your sleep and get depressed or discouraged when you compare your sleep to others. Instead of worrying what you’re neighbor got, start looking at what you’ve got–and what makes you feel better.

So, go on. Take this list and mix things up.

See how moderate exercise–that lunchtime walk, for example–compares to a high octane gym session.  Don’t try to ignore any pain; instead, work with your doctor to help manage it.

Give yourself a whole week to set yourself up and get a few nights of data, then come back and share it with me. Post it here in the comments section, or up on our Facebook page. I’m really curious to see what you find.

Sleep well!

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• How Does a Guy with ADHD sleep?
• Going the Distance: Sleep and Marathon Training
• TMJ, Chronic Pain, and Sleep
• Heat Waves:  Affecting more than just your electric bill
• 4 Simple Steps for Better Sleep

Andi (ZQ: 86) is the editor of Zeology. By tweet or by post, email or Expert Answer, she makes sure people get the information they need about sleep.

Howdy- I’m Keith, the new guy on the content team.

I’m also a new Zeo user and I love the data I get from it.   I will admit though, that part of this love affair might come from the fact that, every morning,  Zeo tells me that I have great sleep.

I didn’t pop a pill or let my body “catch up” after short-changing it.  I did this all through simple, easy to follow actions–and I’m going to share my formula with you.  Let’s face it, no one should have to just “deal” with poor sleep and part of my job here at Zeo is to help you all get that better night’s sleep.

Let me make one thing clear: This great sleep is the result of small habits and behavior changes done repeatedly for years.  True, the steps are easy but if you cheat on them, you’ll pay for it with your sleep.

Step One:  Make a (standing) date with your Bed

I go to bed every night at exactly the same time. I mean, okay, it might not always be exactly the same time, but it’s awfully close. I usually start getting ready for bed around 9:15pm and it’s lights out not too long after.  My girlfriend’s not crazy about that, but I make a point of reassuring her that it’s me who needs to go to bed that early, not her.

A steady bedtime--though like most, I too, was guilty of "shifting bed time" one weekend

To help keep that bedtime, I don’t drink caffeine and I rarely drink alcohol–maybe a beer or two on the weekend but that’s it.  I do go to parties, but I’m more a fan of the afternoon affairs so that I can keep my bedtime.  Again, 9:15pm is certainly early for some, but keeping the same bedtime and risetime–even on the weekends–goes a long way towards sleep improvement.

Step Two:  Turn your Bedroom into a Cave

Years ago, I discovered two wonderful things that help me get great sleep: light-blocking curtains and a fan. The light-blocking curtains keep the room as dark as possible, allowing my melatonin to kick in and sending me off to dreamland.

The fan, on the other hand, has two purposes:

1. to keep things nice and cool–even in the winter
2. to cancel out all other noise.

Basically, I turn my bedroom into a sensory deprivation chamber every night and it works like a dream.  I hardly ever wake up during the night, except to use the bathroom.

Step Three:  Add an Exercise Routine to the Mix

For almost 7 years now, I’ve been exercising for about an hour and a half to 2 hours a day, 5 to 6 days a week. I’m pretty convinced that it’s the world’s greatest–and most overlooked–sleeping pill.  As soon as I get up in the morning, boom, I go to the gym.  Even better? A recent study shows that exercising during the morning leads to better sleep than exercising at night.

Step Four:  Shake, Strain, then Serve Night after Night

Okay, I can hear you rolling your eyes over there.  So what’s the payoff for all of this?  An average ZQ of 97.  A recent “bad” night for me was less than 8 hours long and got me a ZQ of 94.   Andi@Zeo said that was sick, but I think she’s just jealous. (Editor’s note:  Dang right I am!)

What this means is that, night after night,  I can count on:

• 1 1/2 -2 hours of Deep sleep
  
• 2-3 hours of REM sleep
• 3-4 hours of Light sleep
• less than 2 wake-ups each night

I do everything in my power to ensure that I sleep like a (32 year old) baby–and it’s great to see that it pays off.  My question to you is, now that you know some of my secrets, what are you going to do differently tonight and tomorrow?

Related Posts

• How can I cut back on caffeine without “crashing”?
• How sleeping like a Pro can boost your game
• Keeping a Schedule Keeps you Healthy
• To Be(nzo) or not to Be(nzo):  A Tempered Approach to Sleeping Pills
• What Can One Do To Promote Good Sleep?
  

Keith (Ave ZQ: 97) is a writer and the newest member of the Zeo Web Content team. When it comes to sleep, he’s a Viking.

As the Research Scientist of Zeo, a big part of my job is to make sure that we keep all our efforts grounded in scientific integrity. This means staying abreast of the latest in scientific thought around sleep to make sure that what we do conforms to the high standards of the people who sleep for a living.

For instance, did you know that:

• Awakenings need to last at least 5 minutes to be remembered upon awakening?
• Anesthesia does not put you to sleep, but puts you in to a sort of reversible coma?

Neat stuff, to be sure–as well as validation for how we measure sleep.  If you think about the first fact, you’d probably remember that Zeo only pays attention to awakenings that are 2 minutes or longer, a confirmation that it’s the longer awakenings that we remember.

Go to SLEEP

But where can one go to meet and mingle with other sleep scientists?  Why to SLEEP, the annual meeting of the Association of Professional Sleep Societies (APSS), of course!  It’s here that sleep scientists present new studies and information about the wonderful–but complex–state of sleep.

Zeo’s been attending–and presenting new sleep data and science–for the last few years and true to form, I came to Sleep 2011 with a little research of my own–with help from gracious Zeo users.

• Fabregas, Objective sleep by age and sex in a large at-home sample (Download PDF)
  

News Flash: Biological Sex and Age are partly to blame for your poor sleep

Basically, sleep gets worse as we age, and men tend to sleep better than women (sorry, ladies).

If you look at the graphs below, you’ll notice that women tend to get the short end of the stick as they get older:  their Total Sleep Time (TST) decreases, they stay awake longer during the night, and get less REM overall.

However, look at the Deep sleep graph:  where men tend to just decline decade after decade, women actually level out in their 50s and may even get a little more than before.

We got all this information by using DOZER (our Data Observations of the Zeo Extraction Registry) which is the largest home-collected sleep database in the world.  All the data was made anonymous–because we do respect user privacy– and we then looked at the cross-sectional effects of age and biological sex on several measure of sleep quality.

What do you get out of this?  Well, at a basic level, these data sets form the basis for your age and sex comparisons in nightly and weekly reports as well as in the coaching program.  So if you really want to know how you compare to people your age–not lab rats or “sick people” from a lab study–keep uploading your data!  The more data and stats there are from users like you, the better you can assess your own sleep quality.

Lastly,  these data serve to show that Zeo is a valid and sensitive tool for measuring sleep as the data conform nicely to previous reports–always a key thing to have in any science-based field!

Team Zeo, Represent

Of course, I wouldn’t be going to a sleep meeting without doing a little plugging for Zeo. But we weren’t alone this year–turns out some other folks are starting to catch on to easy sleep phasing in the home.

As always, you can find the original abstracts by taking a look at this year’s Abstract Supplement at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM)’s peer reviewed journal website: journalsleep.org.  Just one more way Zeo steers clear from tinfoil hat territory.

• Gumenyuk, et al, Electrophysiological evidence of improvement of the brain mechanism of auditory pre-attentive processing in habitual short sleepers after sleep extension:  Study II

• Curtis, et al, Comparison of an ambulatory sleep-stage recorder with outpatient actigraphy and sleep logs across a wide range of sleep phenotypes

And we got a couple mentions even in projects where Zeo wasn’t used:

• Gumenyuk, et al, Electrophysiological evidence of impact on auditory pre-attentive brain mechanism in habitual short sleepers:  Study I

• Popovic, et al, Sleep/Wake classification with head actigraphy

To keep yourself abreast of the latest sleep science, stay tuned to Zeology and our Facebook page.  We’re always posting the latest sleep science news, articles, and findings and how they relate to Zeo, so keep yourself in the know!  It’s one way to becoming a better sleep expert yourself.

Related Posts

• Zeo Sleep Research Center, Part 1
• What’s Your ZQ?
• How Seasonal Allergies and Colds affect Sleep
• How long Zeo Users spend Snoozing each morning
• Daylight Savings:  Where’s the Extra Hour?

Steve (ZQ: 100) is our resident Research Scientist, working to help people understand the science behind Zeo, as well as the science of sleep. He is one of the driving forces behind our Sleep Research Center.