Real Simple Real Simple The Power of Sleep

FEW THINGS IN LIFE feel as good as your head hitting the pillow after a long day. It also does the body—and mind—good. “Sleep is an incredibly important foundation of health,” says Kien Vuu, MD, assistant clinical professor of medicine at UCLA and author of Thrive State. Maybe because sleep is one of our most natural functions, people often don’t give it the consideration it deserves. You probably do it on autopilot most nights: Wash face, brush teeth, lights out. (Hopefully, “scroll social media” isn’t on that list too—if it is, you’ll find solutions ahead.) Prioritizing sleep is right up there with eating well and exercising when it comes to staying healthy and helping your body ward off disease. When we don’t get enough shut-eye night after night, our body pays the…

BACK WHEN HE WAS in medical school, W. Chris Winter, MD, attended a lecture on “garbage disposal” in the human body. “I remember we learned about this awesome thing called the lymphatic system, which helps get rid of the toxins and waste that build up in our bodies,” he says. “We also learned that the brain doesn’t have anything like the lymphatic system.” It turns out that was wrong. Winter is now a neurologist and sleep expert based in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the author of several books about sleep, including The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child. He says that in just the last decade, researchers have identified something similar to the lymphatic system that clears waste from the brain and central nervous system. It’s known as the glymphatic system, and…

WHETHER IT’S A COLLEGE student pulling an all-nighter, a sleep-deprived new mom, a truck driver trying to stay alert for the long haul, or a club kid on the party circuit, people have their own good reasons to want to stay awake. The desire for more waking hours is hardly new. Benjamin Franklin opined that “in the grave will be sleeping enough.” R. Buckminster Fuller, who was described by Time magazine in 1943 as a “futurific inventor,” saw sleep as a waste. “Two hours of sleep a day,” said Fuller, “is plenty.” Which may not be so far from the truth—though only for a select few. Ying-Hui Fu, PhD, a professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, first identified a genetic mutation responsible for an unusually abbreviated sleep schedule.…

WHILE WE TEND to focus on the number of hours we’re in bed, remember: The purpose of sleep is to restore your mind and body, so getting high-quality zzz’s matters as much as quantity. There are four stages of sleep that a person usually cycles through between four and six times a night. Each cycle lasts roughly 90 minutes. It starts with non–rapid eye movement (non-REM or NREM) sleep. The first stage is the lightest sleep, when you’re nodding off. Your brain activity begins to slow and your muscles relax and might twitch. It typically lasts just a few minutes. Then you enter the second stage of light sleep, where you may be able to respond to someone speaking to you or claim you’re not really asleep. Breathing, heart rate, and body…

FOR A GREAT DAY, start with a morning routine that stacks the deck in your favor. “We want to use the strongest tools that work the fastest to help set our brain to a motivated and productive mode first thing,” says Wendy Suzuki, PhD, a neuroscientist and author of Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion. Creating a wake-up routine can also help you tap into the benefits of ritual: Research finds that people who perform repeated behaviors that have meaning attached to them feel more in control and can better cope with anxiety and stress. To build the perfect mindset to fuel your next 12 hours, try any of these strategies. Look on the Bright Side Open your curtains or blinds immediately after getting up, and have your…

AVOID HITTING SNOOZE Studies show you’re better off just setting your alarm for later or getting out of bed when it goes off than using the snooze button. Why? When you go in and out of sleeping and waking up, it worsens what’s known as sleep inertia—the groggy feeling that comes from jolting yourself out of sleep. DO WHAT YOU LOVE Ever notice on days you have something exciting planned, it’s easier to pop right out of bed? Re-create that feeling on a daily basis by doing something you enjoy in the morning: Read, put on your favorite songs, do a crossword puzzle, or treat yourself to a flavored coffee drink, for example. NIX WEEKEND LINGERING Instead of adjusting your sleeping pattern to what’s on your calendar, find a regular one that works for your…