Sleep-less in Seattle

No this isn't about the wonderful 90's movie... It's about the constant state of fogginess and day-dreaming most of us experience throughout the day, despite how much we sleep! As I have mentioned in my blog, "Running into the New Year," I have struggled with fatigue that has lasted for months at a time. I finally came out of that intense fatigue when I started getting busy with work, studies, and challenges. Even though I don't experience that abnormal sense of fatigue, that doesn't mean I don't still find myself struggling to keep my eyes open!

First things first, make sure you are not experiencing a deficiency of some sort. Anemia and lack of vitamins can cause an abnormal sense of fatigue. There's a huge difference between not being well-rested and experiencing fatigue due to a deficiency. How do you know the difference before making that expensive and unnecessary trip to the doctor? Trust me you will just know. Feeling tired feels like a normal kind of tired, if that makes any sense. Your eyes burn, you are yawning, and you just want to crawl into bed. The kind of fatigue thats abnormal, feels kind of like the flu. Your body feels weak and like it weighs a million pounds! If you feel this then yes that trip to the doctor may not seem so unnecessary. More than likely you are anaemic and you are lacking iron, but it is still good to check if theres other deficiencies or underlying illnesses that can be the cause to your extreme lack of energy.

To know why your so tired despite sleeping 8 hours, you have to understand what your brain is doing during sleep mode. Throughout the night your supposed to have 5-6 beautiful, even-looking waves spaced out at 90 minute intervals throughout the night. That's 7.5-9 hours of sleep. That's why you hear the magic number of 8 all the time; its the average amount of sleep, but not necessarily what you need. These waves go up and down through REM and Non-REM sleep. Ok, if you haven't taken psychology, you are probably looking at this screen like:

So, let me explain. REM sleep is basically when you enter a light sleep. This is when you have dreams and you experience sleep paralysis, which is when your body paralyzes your muscles so that you don't act out your dreams! Little side note, sleep-walkers actually have a REM sleep disorder where their body doesn't paralyze itself the way its supposed to.

Non-REM is simply the opposite. Your brain waves slow down, and you are put into a deep sleep where you move, but don't dream.

The ideal time to wake up is when you reached your peak of REM sleep, which is the closest to being awake as you can get. Now even though you put your alarm on for exactly 8 hours of sleep, that does not mean you are going to be waking up at the most ideal time. What sometimes happens is that your sleep cycles are a little longer or shorter. So, your alarm rings in the middle of your deep sleep, which causes you to end up waking up hating life itself.

Ok, I know this is starting to sound like a problem with no solution. So, Im going to give you one, but it involves a lot of trial and error to find out how many hours of sleep is perfect for you. Download the app called "Sleep Cycle." This amazing app uses your phone's microphone and accelerometer (the part of your phone that detects if it's sideways) to identify any movements you make throughout the night. This way it can track your REM and Non-Rem sleep. You set your alarm for the time you need to wake up, and the app will predict when you are at your lightest sleep and wake you up anywhere up to 30 minutes before your alarm. You can adjust this 30 minutes anywhere from 10-90 minutes, but 30 is recommended.

This app also wakes you up with a ringtone that gradually gets louder in order to gently transition you from hibernation to having to face the real world. If you are like me, a grizzly bear who can sleep through anything, don't get discouraged. You will hear the alarm because you will be at your lightest sleep when it sounds. If you are still doubtful, go ahead and set your regular phone alarm 5 minutes after, just in case. I used to have that annoying siren of an alarm because it was the only thing that I would hear. Little did I know that waking up to aggressive alarms can actually start your day off on a horrible note (no pun intended). These aggressive alarms shock your body to wake up grumpy, and in need of a cup of joe before you slap the first person that has the audacity to say "good" morning. Note to all those crazy morning people: don't assume the rest of the world is having a good morning. Most of us feel like an iPhone after you update it and just dies at 80%.

Another amazing feature about this app is that it has something called intelligent snooze. Instead of the regular snooze that rings every 9 minutes, the duration of the intelligent snooze becomes shorter each time you snooze it, in order to gently bring you from sleep-mode to being awake at your wanted alarm time. Also, all you have to do is tap your night stand twice to snooze!

I woke up wide-awake, the first day I used this app! I was in a good mood, I said good morning to strangers, and my energy held all day long. I looked at my waves and they looked evenly beautiful. I was simply amazed!

Then came the second day. I used this app, and went to bed at the same time, but I woke up grumpy. I was totally discouraged and thought it was the apps fault for not waking me up appropriately. When I went to look at my waves, they were scrambled and all over the place. That's when I learned that even though you sleep X amount of hours, they still may not be quality hours of sleep. So take it from me and don't get discouraged. Use this app every night, try to sleep the same amount of hours, and take notes on how you feel waking up. If you are not satisfied then change it up and try sleeping less or more until you find out what works for you!

App:

Sleep Cycle: You do not need to purchase anything or sign up for a free trial. The sleep tracking itself is a free feature but if you want online back ups and other special features then you would have to purchase it.

Things to keep in mind:

1. Try eating a light dinner or eating a few hours before you go to bed

2. Harsh alarms jolt your body into waking up and will put you in a grumpy mood. Try gradual alarm ringtones

3. Intelligent snooze rings before your desired alarm time and shortens the duration between each snooze until you reach that time.

4. Don't get discouraged! This is a trial and error process!

5. The amount of hours you sleep, what part of your sleep cycle you wake up in, to what ringtone you wake up to, and the way you snooze affects a big part of how you feel the next day. Keep in mind that you can do everything right but sometimes we just have those days where we don't get quality sleep. A huge reason for this is stress, so try drinking chamomile tea before bed or taking a melatonin.

6. Try exercising! Exercising can help with things such as anxiety and depression, which help give you better quality of sleep. It will also help stimulate longer periods of deep sleep.

Now I'm going to take my own advice and go to sleep!

Until next time,

Camila