How to get a better night’s sleep

Sleep is a precious commodity. We spend a third of our lives sleeping, which is when the body resets, restores and heals — making sleep essential. According to the American Sleep Apnea Association, approximately one in three adults, or about 84 million people, do not consistently get the recommended amount of uninterrupted sleep they need to protect their health. “When people average under six hours of sleep a night, they have a much higher mortality rate from all things, including cancers,” explains Michelle Haroldson, MD, Hospitalist, Family Medicine, Sleep Medicine, Ridgeview.

“On the other hand, adults who routinely get more than nine hours of sleep a night also have an escalated mortality rate,” Dr. Haroldson said, “There seems to be a sweet spot, and the optimal sleep range for adults is 6.5 to 8.5 hours a night.” Still, not all sleep is created equally, and there are ideal percentages of each sleep stage that your body requires.

Build a better sleep environment

By changing the factors that disrupt your sleep, you can help to construct better sleep architecture, which refers to the pattern and length of your sleep cycles. To do so, Dr. Haroldson shares five tips for creating good sleep habits and an optimal sleep environment.  

• Decide sleep is a priority. Set an appropriate bedtime for yourself. Calculate your bedtime by considering  your ideal hours of sleep and what time you need to wake up. If necessary, use an alarm to remind yourself when it’s time for bed to hold yourself accountable.
• Decrease exposure to blue wavelength light. About an hour before bedtime, reduce your exposure to blue light. Eliminate screen time altogether, use blue light filtering glasses or switch to “night mode” on your phones and devices.
• Remove light from your sleeping environment. Use blackout shades in your bedroom, cover any light sources and turn your alarm clock away from you. 
• Modify your sleep temperature. The ideal temperature for sleep is a cool 65°. Adjusting the temperature of your bedroom below 70° helps promote better sleep.
• Add white noise. Use a fan or white noise source to block or drown out noises. 

What happens when we don’t get enough sleep?

Dr. Haroldson stresses just how important sleep is to overall health. “There is a long list of health impacts as a result of not enough sleep, including memory loss, weakened immune system, increased risk of cancers, earlier onset of dementia, insulin resistance (which increases blood sugars and weight gain), higher blood pressure, substantially greater risk of heart attack and stroke, an increase in anxiety and depression and more,” Dr. Haroldson explained. “Poor sleep also puts others at risk and is associated with being a cause of major accidents — not just on the road but in work-related accidents as well, particularly in shift workers,” she added.

If you are still having difficulty sleeping despite efforts to change your habits, Ridgeview offers diagnosis and treatment so you can feel rested and be more productive. Request an appointment to learn more about what may be preventing you from getting the sleep you need.

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Dr. Haroldson is board-certified in both Sleep Medicine and Family Medicine. She is an advocate for optimizing sleep and is fascinated by how certain medical conditions, such as COPD, can be affected by sleep optimization. As a sleep specialist, Dr. Haroldson diagnoses and treats many sleep conditions, including sleep apnea. She evaluates sleep conditions using the Ridgeview’s sleep lab for testing and sees patients for clinic appointments.