NaBloPoMo 2023, here we goooooo!  What’s already good and what could be better?  

How do you sleep?  Has it always been the way it is now?  What affects it?  What do you know about sleep in general?  What questions do you have about it?  

Personally

I am a great sleeper.  I fall asleep easily and sleep through the night, and am also easily aroused and quickly lucid.  I do best with 8 hours, and can function highly with much less, at least for a while, given ready access to caffeine.  I love sleeping, look forward to it every night, climbing into bed, burrowing under the covers, closing my eyes, letting my thoughts and fantasies drift where they may.  If my mind is full, the relief from dumping it all into a journal is almost euphoric for me.  I use fun colored pens and observe my handwriting, which often correlates with my mood, energy, and general state of being at the time.  

I just don’t spend enough hours in bed.  Night time is when I get my best writing done, so too often I stay up too late. In past years NaBloPoMo has severely exacerbated this tendency.  I know that when I don’t sleep enough, not only do I have more food cravings, but they are for unhealthy foods and I have essentially no impulse control, so sleep deprivation poses a cascade of downstream risks for me.  If I just hit 7 hours a few nights in a row, I literally feel viscerally better.

So, NO MORE (for now)!

Adding “Lights out 11:30” to my habit tracker last month, I documented goal achievement four times.  I think I do better.  It starts with realistic expectations of what I can accomplish each day: see patients, work out, write, read, cook, etc.  I can anticipate on Sundays and find times and tasks that can flex if needed. I should probably make a list of things I will put down or scale back during this month of daily blogging… Or multitask–pair attentive with mindless activities, like phone calls with friends instead of video, so I can also fold laundry.  I’ got this. Form a plan, experiment, evaluate, adjust, repeat. 

OH and social media, ya. Jeez, gotta manage that time sink better. I’m getting there—more on that November 12!

Societally

How do we sleep as a society?  Wow, so much data at our fingertips!  Here’s what’s already good:  According to sleepfoundation.org, a majority of Americans get 7 hours of sleep or more, yay!  Is that you?  I think maybe half of my patients report this.   Also good is that only a small minority of people report chronic insomnia, about 10-15%.  Does that seem like an underestimate to you?  In my skewed perspective, most people don’t feel satisfied with their sleep.  Maybe I’m thinking of all the other sleep disruptors: apnea, hot flashes, young children, night time peeing, anxiety, depression.  Aging can be a huge factor, what with menopause, enlarged prostates, and effects of aging on circadian rhythm.  

Collectively, sleep awareness is at an all time high, I think. I credit this in large part to Matthew Walker and his remarkable book, Why We Sleep, which I highly recommend. Walker presents the science clearly and accessibly, and while dense, the book clarifies mysteries of sleep that can inform our habits in practical ways. It’s humorous and clever, and well worth a read or listen.

Age, menopause, and prostate symptoms are individual factors that we each must manage ourselves.  My night owl habit challenge is mine to solve.  How could we modify our systems to facilitate better sleep for everybody?

Arenas where solutions may lurk:

Media streaming guardrails.  I have timer settings on Spotify, Audible, and Scribd (soon to be Everand), but not Netflix or Prime.  We’d probably disengage from leisure media sooner and more easily, especially late at night, if the apps’ defaults were to ask us when to stop at the time we start, rather than making us do it proactively.  And how many collective hours–which I think could be measured in lifetimes–do internet browsing algorithms cost us?  All of this is unlikely to change, I know.  

Alcohol. When do the costs outweigh the benefits for individuals, and yet how often do folks drink more than they want, becauase it’s ‘what you do’? Peer pressure is no less real at fifty than at fifteen. How likely is it that our culture can depend less on ethanol to lubricate social and business gatherings? I’m gratified to see mocktails and the like increasing in popularity and acceptance. Let’s see where this goes…

Synchronous global video meetings.  Meetings in general.  I understand the importance of face to face connections.  How can we make them maximally efficient and effective, and give some time back to people?

Remote work in general.  The average American work commute time is about 30 minutes.  That’s 5 hours per week.  Cutting commute time, as happened for so many during COVID lockdown, not only gives people time back, but decreases overall stress and anxiety.  We are happier when we’re not rushing around every day; we can get more life tasks done.  We may then get to bed earlier and in a better mood.

Later school start times for adolescents.  This is ideal for growing brains, and also a bear to execute when parents must coordinate drop off with morning commute or international Zoom calls.  We can see here how some solutions collide and some others coincide–yikes.

There are many ways to move more and differently when we’re awake. Food choice, volume, and timing can also be flexible. But we can only sleep when we are sleeping. This is why I list it first among the 5 reciprocal domains of health, the last two being stress management and relationships.

I should have worn my blue blocking glasses tonight, come to think of it.  With 29 more days of increased screen time, what else can I put in place to protect my sleep?  I’ll sign off now to rest my thinking brain, give my subconscious a chance to mull it over.  Maybe in those unfocused minutes of first waking, I’ll have a stroke of insight.  Good night!