It’s no secret that sleep is one of the most important things you can do for your health. Mountains of research over the past decade prove, time and time again, that a good night’s rest is essential for everything from cognitive function to heart health, mood, and more. Not getting enough or good quality sleep is linked to an increased risk of cancer My heart diseasetype 2 diabetes, stroke, and high blood pressure, not to mention the damage to you Cognitive function.
However, for many of us, getting good sleep is often easier said than done. Much of the advice available is probably familiar by now, if somewhat general: sleep for 8 hours, avoid bright light and anything stressful before bed, etc.
In reality, life is much messier. First of all, we don’t all need the same amount of sleep, our age, gender, personal habits and stamina all influence what we need individually. We all also have different lifestyles, including work and travel, which may cause us to need to adjust our sleep schedules on a regular basis. Getting good sleep is not just about recording the time we spend in bed, but we also don’t judge the quality of our sleep, as a result of being unconscious of doing the thing we are trying to evaluate.
All of this means that following guidance messages about sleeping longer can be frustrating. The good news, as we explore in this special issue dedicated to the topic, is that new research is revealing the benefits of a more holistic approach – some of the most important things you can do to improve your sleep don’t happen in bed, but rather regardless of how comfortable that bed is.
Your sleep is affected by what happens during the rest of the day, such as what and when you eat, 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 — plays a role in the quality and quantity of sleep you get, too.
What we need, then, is a 24-hour perspective on sleep. None of this changes how important our subconscious clocks are, but it does give us new opportunities to optimize them well before we put our heads down.
Explore key questions about sleep in our latest special series:
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