The Importance of sleep

This wasn’t originally the order I was planning on putting this post up, but with daylight savings time having just passed ( why do we still have daylight savings time? I thought we passed a bill to eliminate it), and having had two particularly bad nights of sleep in a row. I thought this would be a good time to talk about the importance of sleep. Just to give an example of how debilitating lack of sleep can be, to a person with disabilities, I was planning to write, edit, and upload a post two days ago, but the last two days were spent in a haze barely able to function, I didn’t even have the energy to sit at my computer and write about my life ( a somewhat easy topic for me to write about.), 

Sleep for me is one of the most impactful things that determines if I’m going to have a good day or not. If I don;t sleep well the odds of me having a good day plummet. It can be so debilitating as I spend the entire day walking around as if I’m a zombie. No amount of caffeine can seem to wake me up, but utilizing caffeine, on a day where I did sleep well, can vastly improve my fatigue and mental clarity. That being said, caffeine can be a double edged sword.  Drinking caffeine too late in the day will definitely impact your sleep. (I’m sure this isn’t new information to anyone) For me I found that drinking caffeine after 2pm makes it incredibly difficult for me to get to sleep that evening, so I try to stop drinking caffeine by noon each day. 

One of the other things that can make it difficult to fall asleep can be taking naps too late in the day. I love naps, and I’m lucky enough to be able to take them pretty frequently. That being said, taking naps too late in the afternoon makes falling asleep incredibly difficult for me. I try to not take naps after 3-4pm. It can be difficult dealing with fatigue after 3, and sometimes I just have to lay down for a nap, but I try to force myself to stay awake after 3, for the benefit of my sleep during the night.

The final thing I wanted to talk about is the impact using things that have screens close to bedtime has on your ability to fall asleep. This is something I do more frequently than I would like to admit, Whether it’s watching highlights from Formula 1 races, or just binging some content from any of the content creators I follow on youtube, using screens so close to bed drastically decreases my ability to fall asleep. I’ve recently been trying to create a buffer zone between when I go to sleep and when I stop using screens. I picked up some large print paperback books to at least give me some stimulation without screens. The other thing I’m starting to do Is put my phone somewhere, out of reach, so I;m not tempted to check if I’ve gotten any new messages. I will admit this isn;t going as well as it could be, as i’m still struggling to disconnect from my phone, and do still occasionally check messages. Which instantly shines a bright light directly into my face, making it very hard, if not impossible,  to fall asleep directly after. 

One of the most useful tools I use to gain insight into my sleep is my Aura Ring, It’s a smart ring that allows me to see things  like, the different cycles in my sleep, how my body temperature was throughout the night, how long did it take me to fall asleep; and it allows me to note things i did, like eat late, looked at a screen right before bed, or drank alcohol. That is one of the biggest things I’ve found that affects my sleep, alcohol. Even if I have just one drink, alcohol completely tanks my sleep score, the score that occur after my sleep data is uploaded from the ring to my phone, It isn’t just the score that goes down, I;ve noticed an actual effect on the way I feel the next day. When I drank I would notice that the next day I would be in a little bit of haze. I could still accomplish things, but in no way was I feeling my absolute best. This, among other reasons, made me decide to give up alcohol for my health.THe insights I’ve been able to gain into my sleep, and other areas of my health, have made me recommend using sleep trackers to a wide variety of people. It doesn’t have to be the exact one I use, but having the data is going to be able to help you make more informed decisions on what is going to help you the best.

This is just a teaser for the next post, I’m going to be attending the Ski for MS event put on by the wonderful people at Can Do MS. Im so excited for this event. One of the things that I lost when I was diagnosed with MS was skiing, For the first time in over a decade, I’ll be skiing thanks to Can Do MS. I’m just so excited.