Some good, some bad and some sensible stuff about sleep–including that temple of sleep, our bedroom.
Bummed about losing an hour’s sleep?
Prepare yourself for daylight-saving time, because it takes a day or two to reset that circadian clock in your brain, said Dr. Phyllis Zee of Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Sleep Disorders Center. On Saturday night, go “to bed an hour or half-hour earlier so you’re prepared to wake up an hour or half-hour earlier on Sunday. It takes at least a day to move your circadian clock by about an hour.”
What are some bad bedtime habits?
– TV blabbering in the bedroom: “When we want to go to sleep, we should try to decrease the arousal stimuli we are exposed to,” said University of Chicago sleep researcher Eve Van Cauter. “If you sleep in front of the television, you have a strong visual stimulation from the image and you also have the noise.” It’s not just TV, people. Van Cauter lists video games, computer games and surfing the Internet as stimulating activities that should not be done just before bed.
– Bed as computer workstation: “It’s OK to use your bed to sit some,” said Dr. Sheila Dugan, a physiatrist. “But to use it as a workstation is not necessarily good ergonomically,” especially with your back against the headboard, legs straight out–a hyper-flexed position.
– Caffeine buzz: “Because everyone is more or less sleep-deprived, we are consuming huge amounts of caffeine,” Van Cauter said. “Caffeine after 12 o’clock noon will adversely impact sleep qualities.”
– Eating at the wrong time: The National Sleep Foundation suggests steering clear of large meals near bedtime. Another reason to watch when you eat? Being overweight or obese is a very high risk factor for sleep apnea. “With the epidemic of obesity that we have in this country,” Van Cauter said, “we have today an epidemic of sleep-disordered breathing.”
– Being a slug: Exercising helps you sleep better, Dugan said. The caveat: Not too close to bedtime. The sleep foundation has more tips on its Web site, www.sleepfoundation.org.
Looking for a good night’s sleep?
“Read a book for a while. Sleep will come much easier than if you are watching a computer screen or a TV screen,” Van Cauter said.
Think about your bedroom–and bed.
“People are putting more money into their sleep products because they believe they want a more comfortable surface,” Tod Marks, a retail shopping pro at Consumer Reports, told Q. “Just like people are spending more on big screen TVs, they’re doing the same with sleeping.”
So we zero in on the mattress, sort through pillow types, opt for a blanket or duvet, puzzle over thread counts.
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Steven Samsom, the director of room operations for Marriott International, has been thinking about all that for months, lab and field testing bedding products for this year’s total refurbish of more than 600,000 beds in the chain’s hotels.
His take: We like thick mattresses and lots of pillows.
With retail trends for residential mattresses climbing to 27/28 inches, according to Samson, Marriott opted for an overall height of 24/26 inches, up from 22.
“Ten years from now we may be saying, they want it back on the floor and have that camping look again,” said Samson, who settled on foam for the mattress, added duvets and upped pillows from five to six.
It may be the mattress that’s most mind-boggling for consumers.
Marks, who’s readying a June issue on mattresses for Consumer Reports, calls them “the single most difficult consumer product to buy.”
Q would agree. Which is why we checked out a few mattress types and came up with some guidelines to help you. (See Qurious Consumer, Page 5.)
Some sleep problems (sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome) require medical attention, said Zee, with an evaluation often including a bed partner. Cool temps in the bedroom plus a comfortable bed for whatever your sleep preference–back, side and so on–can help.
But, cautions Dugan, don’t sleep in a chair. “You definitely need your body to be supine in a gravity-eliminated position.”
What makes a good night’s sleep?
“A good night’s sleep partly depends on hours,” Van Cauter said. “If your bedtime is too short, you may sleep solidly but you will still feel tired and have adverse effects from not having slept enough.”