13.3: The Basics of Self-Care-Sleep
- Page ID
- 208918
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At the end of this section, the learner will:
- Learn basic strategies for self-care (sleep, exercise, diet).
- Review how they currently perform self-care activities.
- Begin to engage in planning self-care by evaluating personal needs.
Definition of SELF-CARE
If you were asked to describe self-care, what would you say? Most often, people talk about the health trinity: sleep, exercise, and diet. If you think back to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, those are certainly very important components of self-care. However, self-care can be so much more – an idea that is explored in more detail later in this chapter. The most useful definition of self-care may be: self-care is anything that makes you better. To explore this idea, let’s first look at self-care through the lens of the health trinity.
SLEEP
Questions to consider:
What Happens When We Sleep?
What Happens If You Don’t Get Enough Sleep?
Tips to Improve the Quality of Your Sleep
Make sleep a priority.
Sleep in a cool, quiet, dark room.
Avoid eating late or drinking alcohol or caffeine close to bedtime.
Start to wind down an hour before bed.
Exercise for 30 minutes a day.
Improve your diet.
What If I’m Doing All These Things and I Still Have Trouble Sleeping?
Why Is Sleep Important?
Sleep is an essential part of your daily routine. Sleep allows your brain to “reset” and your body to remain healthy. The sleep-wake cycle consists of roughly 8 hours of nocturnal sleep and 16 hours of daytime wakefulness. This cycle is controlled by two internal influences: sleep homeostasis and circadian rhythms. More than 25% of the U.S. population report occasionally not getting enough sleep. Nearly 10% have chronic insomnia (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, 2009). These can be serious problems for a college student.
Sleep loss results in a “sleep debt.” Sleep debt is the accumulated loss of sleep that is lost due to poor sleep habits. Like any other debt, sleep debt must eventually get repaid, or there will be consequences to personal health and well-being. For example, staying awake all night results in a sleep debt of 7 to 9 hours. Our bodies will demand that this debt be repaid by napping or sleeping longer in later cycles. Even loss of one hour of sleep over several days can have a negative effect.
Insufficient sleep is associated with a number of chronic diseases and conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and depression. As well, daytime sleepiness can affect mood, performance, and memory. One research study found that students who stayed up all night simulating “pulling an all-nighter” studying scored 40% lower on a general test compared to students who got the recommended amount of sleep (Walker, 2019). That means that getting a good night’s sleep can be the difference between making an A and a D on an important test.
How Much Sleep Do I Need?
The National Sleep Foundation recommends:
- young adults aged 18–25 years sleep 8.5 to 9.5 hours every night
- adults should sleep 7–9 hours every night (National Sleep Foundation, 2009).
The National Sleep Foundation has many resources including sleep facts and tips for restful sleep: www.sleepfoundation.org
Sleep Hygiene Tips
- Avoid caffeinated drinks after lunch.
- Go to bed at the same time each night and rise at the same time each morning.
- Avoid bright light in the evening. Make sure your bedroom is quiet, dark, and relaxing.
- Avoid arousing activities around bedtimes such as heavy study, text messaging, prolonged conversations, and heavy exercise.
- Avoid large meals before bedtime.
- Avoid pulling an “all-nighter” to study.
- Sleeping in on weekends is okay. However, it should not be more than 2 to 3 hours past your usual wake time to avoid disrupting your circadian rhythm.
National Sleep Foundation, (2009)
Activity: SLEEP ACTIVITY
Sleep Activity: What’s your Chronotype?
All of our bodies follow a 24-hour sleep-wake circadian rhythm. However, not everyone’s rhythm is the same. Some are more alert earlier in the day, while others come to life a bit later. This variation is known as your chronotype.
A simple way to classify chronotypes are: morning lark, day dove, and night owl. Morning larks are, naturally, early to bed and early to rise. Night owls, by contrast, get going and may have an alert and productive period later in the day. Day doves seem to fall somewhere in the middle.
- Which chronotype fits you?
- What’s your best sleep/wake schedule?
- What might that mean for your most productive time of day?
Based on your answers, This might be a good time to do more important and challenging work, like writing a paper or doing more focused studying.