Leveraging Sleep to Become More Focused

The epidemic of sleep is often first realized in college. You’ll hear it every morning, “I’m so tired, I didn’t get any sleep.” If you take a survey on sleep before 12pm on a college campus, most–if not all–respondents will answer “lack of sleep.”

Guess what? This doesn’t change in the corporate world. Everyday you’ll run into one person that’s just “so tired.”

The issue of sleep arises everyday in our lives; yet, we have a foggy sense of what science tells us about sleep. Sure we’ve seen a 60 minutes documentary on the topic. Or read an article about it in Teen Magazine; but that’s now out of site and mind. Side note: I don’t read Teen Magazine. I swear.

What we don’t realize is sleep deprivation is a much bigger issue than we think. The National Sleep Foundation conducted a study from 1999 – 2004. They found that on a monthly basis, almost half of the United States experiences sleep deprivation to the point where they’re rendered useless in the workplace. People are going to work without the cognitive ability to actually go to work. Sadly, almost twenty five percent of adults experience this on a weekly basis. Due to lack of sleep we’re literally seeing a work-place filled with sleep-deprived zombies.

Sleep and The Mind

After a marathon you can regenerate muscle fibers by not moving. Awake or not, you can simply kick-back, prop your feet up and stare at the television. With the mind, we regenerate and recover through sleep.

Sleep is the mind’s way of recovering from a workout. Sleep revitalizes cognitive functions of the brain.

There are certain stages of sleep–and during those stages, different parts of the mind are recovered, and like muscle, they develop differently. Some stages develop neurons within the cerebral cortex; while other stages generate synaptic connections within the mind.

To exemplify this, take the experiment of the temporal lobe. Within the cerebral cortex, the temporal lobe is used for processing language. Two subjects were given an exercise in order to test the development of this area: sleep deprived subjects and normal sleep subjects. Those that were sleep deprived scored lower across the board. Their results were embarrassing; after a period, the sleep deprived subjects were literally slurring through the exercise.

Here’s what we know: Throughout hundreds of studies, and thousands of metrics, one thing was true: there were no instances where lack of sleep was better for the subject. There were certain sectors of the brain that stood a good battle against sleep deprivation; yet, other parts of the mind shut down–literally (through hallucinations, or in the extreme scenarios, death).

Bottom line: without sleep our brain deteriorates. With sleep our brain regenerates. And with certain sleep exercises, our brain can grow. Tremendously. Keep reading to find out how.

The Phases of Sleep

Below is a nice visualization of the phases of sleep. Notice how the REM stage virtually mirrors the awake stage:

How Much Time You Need to Sleep

The number of hours required for sleep is a topic that arises in office water-cooler conversations. “I only need five hours of sleep,” someone brags.

You’ve heard growing up that eight hours is the golden number for adequate sleep. Truth is, each individual has a different requirement.

I need a solid seven hours of sleep to be optimal. Sometimes, I’ll sleep eight hours. I’ve got a family member, on the other-hand, that sleeps three hours, and feels refreshed. You’ll find that the people that sleep very little have been doing so since they were very little. It’s not a choice–it’s natural. And to me, it’s not admirable, but I’ll admit, it’s fascinating.

Polyphasic Sleep:

There’s recent buzz about something called “Polyphasic sleep.” This centers on the practice of taking frequent cat-naps throughout the day; opposed to one eight hour sleep cycles. It’s a fascinating theory; however, it’s impractical for most people due to their schedule. There are multiple phases of sleep, and REM is the one that is critical for re-energizing the mind. Ironically, REM is also the period where the brain is most active–mainly due to dreams. Polyphasic sleep is founded on the theory that many catnaps throughout the day will result in immediate REM cycles, thus allowing you to shave off the time spent in the preliminary sleep stages.

In theory, it sounds like it works, however in practice it’s much harder. Just because you take many catnaps throughout the day doesn’t mean everyone else will. The practicality of this schedule is usually what deters people from adopting polphasic sleep patterns; however, there are a handful of notable figures and even presidents that have made this work through bi-phasic sleep schedules (sleeping twice per day).

My suggestion would be to adopt the pattern that is most aligned with your environment. If you are experiencing difficult sleep patterns, I then suggest looking into various polyphasic sleep techniques.

18 ways to leverage sleep for focus

Not all sleep issues are in your control. If certain components of your psychological system are out of whack, your sleep will likely follow suit. For instance, if your cardiovascular system or nervous system experience harmful abnormalities, chances are your sleep will suffer. However, there are certain elements within your control that you can learn to counter. Here are eighteen of them:

1. Don’t pretend to be a Rockstar:

Many people live life like rockstars (and by rockstars, I mean they’re rockstars in their own minds). They constantly are pounding away on their Blackberries, or tapping away on their iPhones. If they’re waiting in line, they’re shooting off pointless emails to annoyed co-workers. They brag about getting up at 4am for conference calls around the world. They are the people you can’t stand, and unfortunately some of us are on our way there. I admit, I once thought I was a rockstar (in my own mind); but thankfully, I had a wife. And she was good at bringing me back to reality every night: the reality that we are stewards of this universe, not owners of this universe.

So why should you stop, and take a deep breathe? Because if you don’t you’ll be a sleep-deprived zombie. Non-stop work, texting and emails interrupts regular sleep patterns. You need a sleep ritual to tell your mind when to “simma down.” As Stephen Furlani notes in the comments below, it’s critical to have a ritual every night. For instance, brushing teeth, reading book from nightstand, taking off glasses. The most critical component (and I’ll touch on this more below), centers on avoiding electronics–TV, Internet, Cell Phones–before bed.

2. You are your environment

I’m not talking about global warming. I’ll leave that to Al Gore and the dudes at Kleiner Perkins. What I’m talking about is your bedroom. Ever had a horrible night’s rest where you were tossing and turning because it was hot? It’s a pitiful experience. You wake up with in a sweat. You’re tired, groggy, just out of a crazy dream, and more, you need to figure out how to turn off the “gah-damn” heat. Same thing goes for your room being too cold. You need to create a tranquil sleeping environment. The following factors need to be in-check for a great night’s sleep: climate, light, electronics and noise. It’s on you to control these factors and create an environment that’s suitable for you.

3. Get the lag out of your jet

When you travel, you throw off your internal sleep clock, or your circadian rhythms. When traveling it’s best to slowly ease into your new time zone–and by slowly, I mean stick to your old time zone for the first day, and then start gravitating to the hours of your new time zone.

4. Know what the con’s of shift-work schedules are

Twenty percent of the United States is filled with shift workers. If you’re a shift-worker, you face a chance of sleep deprivation that’s four times more likely than other occupations. You’re very likely to fall asleep on the job.  A shift worker is the practice of using various time-slots wrapped into a 24-hour period. Essentially, you’re an employee on-demand and your times are contingent upon what your boss tells you. There’s usually three shifts wrapped into the day: graveyard shift, sunrise shift, evening/afternoon shift. Depending on which one you get, or which combination you get, your circadian rhythms may suffer.

5. Don’t be a pig

Ever had one of those sleep experiences where you slept much longer than usual, yet in the morning you still felt tired and groggy? For the rest of the day you felt “out of it.” Chances are the night before was one filled with an irregular routine. If you throw off your body immediately before going to bed, your body is semi-shut off and semi-trying to digest what you’ve just wolfed down. For this reason, it’s smart to avoid eating too much before bed. In addition to this, the following items can hinder your sleep: alcohol, caffeine and exercise right before bed. Avoid these.

6. Stop stressing!

The number one cause of bad sleep: stress. We’ve all gone through this. You lay there contemplating tomorrow or reliving the previous day. That big test you have tomorrow, or presentation you have for your boss starts freaking you out. You begin to stress out. As Seth Godin would say, you experiencing failure before you experience failure.

We all experience stress, and ultimately it’s on you to calm yourself down. What’s helped me in the past is realizing how little the problem usually is when glancing at the stressful situation from a high-level perspective. Logic trumps stress.

7. Got Tryptophan?

Tryptophan-based foods are excellent for sleep. These include milk, bananas, poultry, oats, turkey, yogurt, oat-based cereal and honey. The key centers on eating a tryptophan-based snack, and not on pigging out.

8. Don’t eat lard

Avoid fatty foods because they not only assist in weight-gain, it also hampers sleep stages.

9. Just say no… to caffeine

Avoid caffeine after around 2pm

10. Alcohol + Sleep = Fail

Alcohol not only can result in ridicule and massive hangovers, it leads to ineffective sleep. Too much alcohol and you’ll experience frequent awakenings, disruptive dreams and may toss-and-turn yourself into a sweat. Balance is key, and timing is key. Don’t quench your late-night thirst with Jack and Coke.

11. Don’t be a spice-girl (or guy)

If you’re going out for a spicy dinner, keep it light–and make sure it’s not within a couple hours of your typical bed-time.

12. Slurping down protein shakes ‘aint gonna help you sleep

Here’s an interesting tip: avoid protein-rich foods. Protein takes longer to digest, thus you’ll be straining your body and mind while sleeping.  Stay away from protein shakes as a midnight drink.

13. Don’t wet the bed

Unless you like wetting the bed or constantly getting up to urinate, try and avoid drinking lots of fluid before bedtime.

14. Stick to your guns

Make sure you keep a regular sleep routine. Don’t deviate from this routine as it may throw your body off. Even if you’re traveling or in a hotel, try your best to stick to your routine.

15. Don’t be a hermit

Your body needs exercise. Make sure you get out during the day and get some exercise. This doesn’t have to even be jogging. A walk per day will help round out your routine and assist with proper sleep.

16. Invest in some tools to enhance your sleep environment

As we outlined above, your environment is critical for proper sleep. If your spouse prefers leaving the T.V. on or letting your snoring dog sleep in your bed, get some earplugs and a sleep mask. During my college days my bed was about 20 yards away from a train. Even better, I had a massive window next to my bed. After picking up some earplugs, Thomas the Train never bothered me again.

17. Hate the sound of your alarm clock? Good, ditch it.

Don’t rely on your alarm clock. If you rely on your alarm clock, you may be waking yourself up when the mind isn’t ready to. You may reason, “I’m never ready to wake up.” Don’t kid yourself; you are–it’s just a matter of getting to bed early enough to wake up.

It’s dangerous to get in a habit of waking up 15 minutes before sprinting out the door for work. Your mind needs time, your body needs time. Give yourself this by going to bed early enough to ensure two hours of slack time in the morning. This slack time is used for your daily foundation.

18. Sleep is a “no smoking” section

Last, nicotine’s effect likens itself to caffeine. Avoid it before bed or your mind will be racing for hours.

In closing, “The Most Valuable Sleep Tip”

For about six-months I fed the habit of going to bed around 12am. At this time, I would read blogs, email and articles via my iPhone. I’d get a computer tan before going to bed every night. Guess what happened when I was in this habit? My mind would be racing and I’d end up falling asleep around 2am. One of the worst things you can do for sleep is surrounding yourself with a computer or iPhone before bed. It’s like asking your mind to run a marathon one minute, and fall asleep the next.

So what did I do? After ridding myself of the iPhone, I picked up a Kindle and decided to read before going to bed. This was a beautiful replacement as there’s only one thing I do with the kindle: read. This had two effects: (i) it calmed my mind, which prepared my mind for sleep, and (ii) it also fed my mind with interesting thoughts and profound ideas before falling asleep. Instead of having a dream about how many points Kobe scored the previous day, my dreams were filled with contemplations about profound theories from books I’d just read like Outliers.

In closing, the most important lesson I can give to you would be to avoid the internet before going to bed.

Further Sources, Resources and Recommended Readings:

• On Sleep and the Mind
• Normal Sleep in Adults, Infants and Elderly
• Fascinating visualization and explanation of Polyphasic Sleep
• Web MD Sleep Foods

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