Techie Sleep Tips 2 : Improve your Sleep Duration

A recent poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation revealed 95% of 1,500 surveyed Americans used some form of electronics before bedtime.  43% of them also said they rarely/never get enough sleep; and 60% said they also experienced one or several chronic sleep problems.  The National Center on Sleep Disorders Research (NCSDR) estimates 70 million Americans have sleep problems from insomnia to sleep deprivation. 

In regards to the number of hours someone needs to sleep, it’s highly debated that people over 17 need somewhere between 6-10 hours depending on your chemistry and sleep quality. The numbers are even more crucial for athletes who require additional sleep. In fact, one study by the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic discovered athletes who got 10 hours of sleep held even greater physical and mental performance compared to getting 8 or 9 hours.  Learn which hours you need and respect them most nights in your schedule. With this being said, here are some tips to improve your hours of sleep:

Fitsugar.com POLL: How Many Times Do You Hit Snooze?

1 - TRANSITION TIME: Take into consideration the transition time it takes you fall asleep and wake up. Add these transition times to your sleep schedule in addition to the hours you want to sleep. Unless you immediately collapse to sleep and spring out of bed in the morning, you need to respect these transitional periods also as they can deceive you of how many hours your really getting.

2 - COMBAT INSOMNIA: If you have insomnia that makes your hours unpredictable, plan at least an hour or two ahead and develop a sleep ritual that involves no electronics and very little light such as reading under a lamp. Or perhaps take a brisk walk or jog outside in the dark for 20-40 minutes and reflect on your day. Many studies say people shouldn’t exercise too close to sleep, but insomnia is a special case where extra exercise and meditative rituals (perhaps meditation itself) are certainly more necessary and beneficial.

Image from  North Shore Medical Central

3 - STOP OVERSLEEPING: It's possible you might be getting too many hours of sleep.  You may oversleep till noon or take a long time to get out of bed and continue rolling back to sleep.  To combat this, you can retrain yourself to spring out of bed by as soon as you wake up near the time you intend to.  If your full of energy before your intended wake up time, go ahead and wake up anyways and reward yourself with a nice breakfast.  It's also important to plan ahead and give yourself a comfortable amount of time to transition from sleep to wakefulness after you get out of bed. You need to have a comfortable morning routine to adjust with – whether it takes 10 minutes or an hour. Give yourself something very motivating to wake up to.

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