Getting enough rest is essential for health and well-being. Sleep patterns vary very much but we all need our sleep especially when we are trying to improve our lean body mass, strength, physique and general health. This Infosheet looks at what sleep is, the common causes of sleeplessness and offers advice on improving the quality and quantity of your sleep.

We don’t know exactly but natural sleep patterns vary a lot. We all seem to need a lot of sleep especially when we are training, exercising, growing or recovering from illness/trauma. Sleep is usually described as stages of varying responsiveness that occur in a cycle. The number of stages is usually thought to be around 5 (or 6 if you count being wide awake as one stage).

As we sleep, we cycle through the different stages over and over again. Our degree of responsiveness to stimuli such as noise changes through the stages of the cycles. We get less responsive (harder to wake) as the cycle progresses towards our deepest sleep and more responsive (easier to wake) as sleep lightens and we approach our REM sleep. REM sleep is the lightest stage of sleep. The length of the cycles varies but one and a half to 2 hour cycles are typical.

Most importantly, REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is associated with maximum growth, healing and recovery. The opposite is also true, the extent and rate of growth, healing and recovery are impaired or lost when REM sleep is absent. Dreaming appears to occur more often during REM sleep. If you wake someone up when you see their eyes moving rapidly (REM), they can usually recall the dream they were having.

With the exception of jet travel, the things that stop us sleeping have not changed much historically, the problems we have sleeping fall into three broad areas, environmental, physical and psychological:

Environmental Factors that Impair Sleep and Rest

1. Shift work and intercontinental flights (jet lag).
2. Light, most people can sleep through some disturbance, but switching lights on and off will disturb sleep.
3. Noise, we seem to adapt to noises that we are used to fairly well within reasonable limits, but additional, louder or unusual noises will disturb sleep.
4. Unfamiliar room or building, most people sleep best in familiar surroundings.
5. Room Temperature, a room that is too hot, cold, humid or draughty will impair sleep.
6. Unfamiliar odours, every place has its own particular odour, these become familiar and then we don’t notice them or notice only if it changes. Even changing cleaning products can produce an unfamiliar odour.

Physical Factors that Impair Sleep and Rest

1. Pain, very few people can sleep if they are in pain, if you have chronic pain, analgesia should be taken well before retiring so it has time to work.
2. Over tiredness, oddly enough being overtired impairs our ability to get to sleep.
3. Stimulants such as nicotine (in the form of tobacco or nicotine patches/gum), caffeine (in coffee, tea, chocolate or caffeine pills), guarana or yerba mate. "Street" or "recreational" drugs besides being physically and psychologically dangerous, impair healthy sleep patterns.
4. Alcohol impairs REM sleep, it also alters your natural sleep cycle. Most other drugs (legal and otherwise) radically change and impair natural sleep patterns, with REM sleep being most affected.
5. Sleep apnoea, severe snoring with sleep often disturbed by abnormally abrupt wakening with a choking sensation. This is often accompanied by, and the cause of, other serious health problems. This must be addressed by your GP. Don’t ignore it, life threatening illnesses can and do develop if sleep apnoea is left untreated or undertreated.
6. Full bladder, this will prevent sleep and wake people up.
7. Hunger or thirst, either will prevent settling down to sleep. Warm milky drinks help to induce sleep and deal with these problems.
8. Tinnitus, this is noise generated within the ear itself and/or by the brain failing to damp out physiologically induced noises. This can be improved by a specific training program provided by a hearing specialist.

Psychological Factors that Impair Sleep and Rest

1. Anxiety, this is best described as fear spread thinly so that it affects a person’s thinking for long periods. This is the single most common problem with sleeping. Anxiety is very individual, what would make one person anxious may not affect another at all.
2. Depression is very much more common than most people think. If your pattern of sleep has changed significantly for no apparent reason and/or people tell you that you are “quiet” withdrawn or unresponsive, or your consumption of alcohol etc… has gone up and you find it hard to get interested in your appearance or anything else (including sex) you need to see your GP… LIKE NOW.
3. Withdrawal from sleep medication, the medications used to induce sleep work for about 7 to 10 days at most, many are ineffective after 2 or 3 days. After this period they do not induce sleep effectively. However stopping sleeping tablets always produces withdrawal. Withdrawal produces profound wakefulness and sometimes anxiety. Withdrawal wakefulness lasts about 3 or 4 days so persist with the advice given here without resorting back to medication.
4. The above is true with both prescription and over-the-counter medication. Finally, sleep medication does affect your memory.

1. If you are overtired and cannot get to sleep, make sure you get at least 3, 20 minute naps during the day. Stick to the 20 minutes using a kitchen timer or your phone alarm. Any longer and it will have a detrimental effect.
2. 20 minute naps during work breaks is absolutely essential if you are a shift worker.
3. Exclude light in the bedroom as much as possible if you have to work shifts. I use both vertical blinds and heavy curtains.
4. Jet lag will resolve within 3-4 days normally.
5. Warm, milky drinks (full cream milk) induce a natural sleepiness due to production of specific hormones.
6. Avoid stimulants such as coffee, tea, nicotine, drinks with caffeine, guarana or yerba mate.
7. Avoid excess alcohol (over 2 standard drinks, none is best) and all other "recreational" drugs.
8. Settling routines are helpful, these may include reading, a short walk or a warm shower or bath. These are very individual.
9. Go to bed only when feeling tired and sleepy rather than at a specific time.
10. Avoid falling asleep in the evening before bedtime. Falling asleep in front of the TV and then waking, going to bed and being unable to sleep is common.
11. If you wake up after a few hours or can’t get to sleep at all, get up, leave the bedroom and do a routine (boring) task that does not require any thought or decisions. Tasks like copying out recipes from magazines onto cards are ideal. Again go back to bed only when you are feeling tired and sleepy.
12. Do what you can about things that make you chronically anxious. Creating and carrying out a plan to reduce personal debt often work better than any sleeping pill. Specific anxiety related problems like phobias need professional help, start with your GP.
13. Finally, if you suspect you (or someone close to you) have depression, drag them off (physically if necessary) to see their GP.

If none of this helps you may be one of a tiny minority that has abnormal sleep capacity. Sleep research centres can help to diagnose the cause but occasionally nothing is found that can be treated. If this is you, take several 20 minute naps (at least 12 or more times a day) and you should begin to feel and function better. Alternatively, you could have sleep apnoea. Get this treated immediately, even if this means using CPAP (continuous positive air pressure) ventilation and/or ENT (ear, nose and throat) surgery. Your GP will explain what you need to do if either or both of these are advised. Losing substantial amounts of body fat always helps.

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