It’s no secret that sleeping is one of the most important things you can do for your health. Mountains of research over the past decade repeatedly demonstrate that a good night’s sleep is essential for everything from cognitive function to heart health, mood and more. Not sleeping well or not getting enough sleep is associated with an increased risk of heart diseasetype 2 diabetes, stroke and hypertension, not to mention the consequences on your health. cognitive function.
However, for many of us, sleeping well is often easier said than done. And most of the advice that’s out there is probably already familiar, even if it’s a little too generic: get 8 hours of sleep, avoid bright light and anything stressful before bed, etc.
In reality, life is more complicated. For starters, we don’t all need the same amount of sleep: our age, gender, personal habits, and tolerances all influence our individual needs. We also all have different lifestyles, including work and travel, which may require us to regularly adjust our sleep schedules. To sleep well, it is not enough to count the time spent in bed – but we are also not good judges of the quality of our sleep, a consequence of being unconscious when we do what we are trying to evaluate .
All of this means that following prescriptive messages about getting more sleep can be frustrating. The good news, as we explain in this special issue on the topic, is that new research reveals the benefits of a more holistic approach: Some of the most important things you can do to improve your sleep aren’t happening in bed, no matter how comfortable that bed is.
Your sleep is affected by what happens during the rest of the day, like what you eat and when, as well as your gut microbiome and hormone production. Your personal chronotype – not only when you prefer to sleep, but also when you are most active during the day – also plays a role in the quality and quantity of sleep you get.
So what we need is a 24-hour perspective on sleep. None of this changes how crucial our unconscious hours are, but it does give us new opportunities to improve them long before we put our heads down.
Explore key questions about sleep in our latest special series:
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