The Power of Sleep: Your Key to Health, Wellbeing, and Recovery from Burnout
Sleep is a key factor in our overall health and wellbeing and is such an important part of healing from burnout. I’m typically a good sleeper but when I’ve experienced burnout or highly stressful seasons of life, my sleep is often impacted and I know I am not alone in this.
I recently listened to the series with Matthew Walker, a renowned neuroscientist and sleep expert, & Andrew Huberman and I found it absolutely fascinating so I wanted to dedicate an article to how important sleep is along with some of the interesting things I learned from this series.
I will discuss why sleep is crucial for your overall health and wellbeing, and how it plays a vital role in healing from burnout. I will also cover what is actually happening within your physiology when you sleep and I’ll walk you through 6 tips in how to optimize your sleep.
So, let’s start by asking, what is sleep? Why do we spend nearly a third of our lives doing something that seems so unproductive?
Sleep isn’t an inactive state, instead it’s a highly active period for the body and brain. Dr. Matthew Walker describes sleep as the single most effective thing you can do to reset your brain and body health each day. It’s during sleep that so many critical processes occur, influencing your physical and mental health, your ability to learn and remember, and even your longevity.
“Sleep is not the absence of wakefulness; it’s an incredibly active period for the body. It’s the time when we perform a variety of restorative functions that are essential for health and wellbeing.”
Okay so let’s dive into the science of sleep. Your sleep is divided into various unique stages.
Non-REM Sleep: This stage is further divided into three phases. The first is light sleep, where you transition from wakefulness to sleep. The second phase is characterized by slowing brain waves with bursts of activity known as sleep spindles. These are thought to protect the brain from waking up too easily and play a role in memory consolidation. The third phase, deep sleep, is crucial for physical restoration, muscle growth, and immune function. Deep sleep triggers a Parasympathetic state within your nervous system. Your cardiovascular system ramps down—it’s basically the best form of blood pressure medication. It also helps to regulate your metabolic system, specifically your ability to control blood sugar. Another crucial function of deep sleep is it’s ability to regulate our learning & memory functions. I will talk a bit more about deep sleep later in the episode.
REM Sleep: REM, or Rapid Eye Movement sleep, is the stage where dreaming occurs. During REM sleep, the brain super active. It’s firing away and is sometimes up to 30% MORE active than when you are awake. Wild eh? What I found super interesting is your brain actually paralyzes your body during REM sleep so that you can dream safely. So for example, you can be dreaming that you’re flying but your body can’t actually get up and try. How cool is that??
So not only does sleep contribute to these brain functions, sleep is also critical to our physical health. According to Dr. Walker, during sleep, our body undergoes a series of reparative processes. Our muscles repair and grow, wounds heal faster, and our immune system is strengthened.
Moving on to mental health, sleep plays an equally pivotal role. REM sleep, in particular, is essential for processing emotions and maintaining mental health. During REM sleep, the brain is busy processing the emotional experiences of the day. Without adequate REM sleep, you more prone to mood swings, irritability, and nervous system dysregulation.
Sleep is also fundamental for cognitive functions such as learning and memory. Our brain consolidates information we’ve learned during the day and integrates it into our long-term memory.
This is why pulling those all nighters to study before a big test or prepping for a big presentation doesn’t actually serve you. Your ability to retain and the recall the information the next day is significantly reduced. Trust me, I’ve tried this more times than I care to admit.
In my experience, burnout often leads to poor sleep, and poor sleep can contribute to burnout. It’s a vicious cycle. I cannot highlight enough the importance of restorative sleep in recovering from burnout.
So, how can you improve your sleep to reap these health benefits? I’m going to walk through 6 tips for optimizing sleep backed by Dr. Walker’s research:
Stick to a Sleep Schedule: Go to bed and wake up at roughly the same time every day (give or take 30 minutes), even on weekends. This helps regulate your body’s internal clock and will support your ability to get consistent sleep throughout the week. This is something I’ve put into practice over the last several years (with the odd exception here or there) and it has been an absolute game changer. I no longer use an alarm clock to wake up and just allow my body to naturally wake when it’s ready and I consistently wake up around the same time everyday now.
Create a Sleep-Inducing Environment: Make your bedroom a sanctuary for sleep. I highly recommend keeping your bedroom a work free zone. This helps train your body to know that when you crawl into bed, this is a place for relaxation & rest. I also recommend keeping your bedroom cool, dark, and quiet. I have to say since I’ve started keeping my bedroom cool at night my sleep quality has improved so much! Lastly, Dr. Walker recommends removing all clocks from your bedroom so if you wake up in the middle of the night, you’re not tempted to check the time. How often do you wake up and look at the clock and then you think okay I have to get up in 4 hours. Must fall back asleep. But then you get all in your head about what time it is and put so much pressure on yourself to fall back asleep and then you can’t! This has been especially true for me if I have to get up at a specific time to catch a flight or for a big meeting or something. Removing the clocks is a game changer!
Limit Exposure to Artificial Light Before Bed: Avoid screens and bright lights as much as possible in the evening and especially the one hour before bedtime. Blue light from your phone, tv or computer screen can interfere with the production of melatonin and can disrupt your circadian rhythm. Blue blocking glasses can be beneficial if you need to be looking at screens prior to bed but avoid these if at all possible.
Be Mindful of What You Eat and Drink: I personally like to stop eating around 3 hours prior to bedtime so that my body can focus on performing all of the restorative functions it needs to while I am sleeping instead of digesting a late dinner. I also try to limit fluids in the 1 to 2 hours prior to bedtime so I’m not having to get up to pee throughout the night. Having caffeine too late in the day can also negatively impact the quality of your sleep. Even if you don’t feel like it’s impacting your ability to fall asleep, it will impact the quality. I’m the girl that can have a espresso with dinner and fall asleep just fine but I now know the research shows this is not serving me so I’m much more mindful of caffeine intake later in the day. I typically just have one to two cups of coffee in the morning and avoid any caffeine after that. The last thing I will say on this topic is the impact of alcohol on our sleep. Even if you feel like having a glass of wine in the evening helps you fall asleep faster, or having several glasses of wine can ‘knock you out’ the actual quality of sleep you’re getting with alcohol in the mix is significantly reduced. Alcohol is a sedative but there is a difference between being sedated and getting proper sleep. Alcohol suppresses your REM sleep, impairs deep sleep, increases nighttime wakefulness, and can increase sleep apnea. I’m not suggesting you never drink alcohol, that would be hypocritical of me, but it’s good to be informed of how it will likely impact your sleep. If you know you want to enjoy a few cocktails on the weekend, maybe plan to have them earlier in the day instead of late into the evening. I also try to avoid drinking alcohol on the day prior to a flight. This way I ensure my body gets the proper rest and restoration it needs prior to putting it through additional stress on a travel day.
Exercise Regularly: Physical exercise is one of the most effective non-pharmacological ways to improve sleep quality. Physical activity enhances sleep efficiency, which means spending a greater amount of time in bed actually asleep, and also helps you fall asleep faster. Your deep sleep is also increased which is when your body repairs & regenerates tissues, builds bone & muscle and strengthens the immune system. Essentially, if you’re struggling with your sleep quality, try increasing your physical exercise throughout the day and see if this makes a difference. The last thing to note here is to be mindful of the timing of your exercise. It’s ideal to exercise in the morning or afternoon because if you’re doing vigorous physical activity close to bedtime, it may raise your body temperature and stimulate the nervous system which would likely negatively impact your ability to fall asleep quickly.
Manage Stress: Consistent, good quality sleep is critical in your ability to mange stress. Sleep helps regulate your stress hormones, process emotions, & stabilize your mood. It also increases your resilience to stress since a well rested brain is going to be better at handling daily stressors, problem solving and making informed decisions. The other super cool thing that happens when you sleep is your brain basically power washes itself. Any waste or toxins that have been collected throughout the day, including stress related by products, are flushed out. How incredible is that? I had no idea that happened until listening to this series.
If you do find yourself struggling to fall asleep, maybe your mind is overactive reflecting on your day or thinking about everything you have to do tomorrow. I can relate to this! A few things that I have found very helpful here are:
Practice an orienting, grounding or meditation exercise. For example a body scan is a great one as you’re laying in bed ready to fall asleep.
Reading a book in bed. Your eyes aren’t looking at a screen and your mind is simply focused on the words on the page. This can be incredibly helpful—especially if the book is boring. Don’t read a gripping thriller right before bed.
Journaling and/or writing a to do list for the following day and maybe even a plan of how you’re going to action those items. That way you have a record of everything you want to get done and you can go to bed not stressing that you’re going to forget something.
If you’re not sure if you’re getting sufficient sleep, a great way to check in is to ask yourself if you wake up feeling refreshed or tired. For example, if you wake up to an alarm clock every morning but feel like you could keep sleeping past your alarm, that is an indicator that you are likely not getting sufficient quality sleep. By the way, I would recommend trying to ease out of using an alarm clock everyday as soon as you’re able to regulate your sleep. We are the only species that terminates our sleep artificially. If you are naturally waking up at roughly the same time every morning, this means without an alarm clock, and you feel rested & refreshed you are very likely getting the sufficient quality sleep that you require.
I do want to say here that if you’re experiencing burnout, or going through an unusually stressful time in your life, you will very likely require more sleep that normal. So if you’re usually good on 7 hours of sleep, but you find that you are naturally sleeping more like 9-10 hours per night, that is totally normal and a great sign that your body is doing what it needs to do to heal & recover. It’s not a sign of laziness, so keep allowing your body the rest it needs.
So to wrap this up, there really isn’t any part of our health that sleep doesn’t improve. As Dr. Walker says: “Sleep is the golden chain that binds health and our bodies together.” Prioritizing sleep is such an vital component of improving your physical health, your mental wellbeing and your resilience to stress & burnout.
K xo
References:
Walker, M. (2017). Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. Scribner.
National Sleep Foundation. (2021). Sleep and Heart Health.
Harvard Medical School. (2018). Sleep and Mental Health.
Huberman Lab Podcast Guest Series Dr. Matt Walker