#13. Sleep and our complicated relationship with it Monday, September 21, 2020 Every one of us knows a dozen facts and platitudes about sleep: how many hours we need, its effect on cognitive function, its connection to this or that medical condition. 100% consensus: sleep is essential for health, quality of life, and life itself. I've never met someone who harbors ill feelings toward slumberland. Nobody thinks sleep is secretly harmful ("you backstabbing weasel!", they shout right into sleep's face, so loud the neighbor is compelled to call the cops). We adore sleep. And yet, for some reason, so many of us maintain a rocky relationship with it. Every night, we find it there, in bed, where it always is, doing its best to seduce us. Gently calling out to us. And what do we do? We ignore its efforts. We lie on the mattress, right beside it, inches away, watching television. Or scrolling through social media. Or crushing some candy. It seems reasonable to wonder: what in the world are we doing? Maybe we're at a point where we take sleep for granted. I mean, we've been doing it for a really long time. If humanity has a pastime, this is it. Step aside, baseball; we've been sleeping as long as we've been a species. Generation after generation, millennia after millennia, everyone always ever. No vacations, no sabbaticals, no divorce. A third of our life is spent in that magical matrimony. Yet somehow, few of us seem to be all that good at it. Most appear inexperienced and ill-informed. But we all know the consequences. This may be the only genuine "hell hath no fury" situation. Our minds, moods, and metabolic processes are doomed without it. Not to mention our immune systems, cardiovascular health, muscle recovery and functioning, hormonal balances, and ability to withstand the temptation of a cookie (Hibi, 2017; Kim, 2015; Leprout, 2010; Vitale, 2019). Perhaps it's time to rekindle our strained and complicated relationship with sleep. Here are some tips to get us started: Tip 1) Try to go to bed and wake up around the same time every night and morning (respectively, unless you work graveyard, which, if you do, you should try to stop). Settling into a circadian rhythm will help you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and perform better the following day (Phillips, 2017). Tip 2) Light matters. When you wake up, try to get some sunlight. When you go to bed, try not to. Reduce light exposure as much as you can. Close your curtains. Turn off all of your glowing electronic devices (e.g., phone, television, bedroom hologram of Margaret Thatcher, etc.). And if you have LED lights twinkling somewhere nearby, turn those off too (Walker, 2020). Tip 3) What we eat, drink, and inhale matters. It's best to avoid caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine as the day grows late. Each of these can ward off the slumber fairy like garlic to a vampire (Garcia, 2015). Garlic itself seems to be okay, unless spicy foods are too agitating to your insides (Edwards, 1992; Platel, 2004). For most of us, though, the big disrupters are caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine.