San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Breaking pandemic sleep patterns.
pandemic wasn’t the only major life change that wrecked Stephanie McKee’s sleep schedule.
Six weeks after she was sent home to work remotely, the 36-year-old gave birth to a son, Owen. For eight weeks, McKee was on a new baby sleep schedule: “It’s been several months of catching naps,” she said.
She and her husband were still working from the house when it was time to return full time to her sports marketing job. And in McKee’s case, she was often doing everything from her bed.
Typing on a laptop, virtual meetings, checking emails on her phone, watching TV, breastfeeding the baby — all from a mattress she purchased with her husband in late 2019. It’s comfortable, she said, but she knows it will be a difficult transition back to an office setting in the coming months.
“I would be on my computer getting as much as I could done while he was sleeping safely in his bassinet, so I was pretty much up all the time,” McKee said. “If I could, I would close my laptop and sleep for 30 minutes to a hour depending on his sleep schedule. It’s all such a blur.”
Sleep disruption has been a major problem during the pandemic months, said Dr. Jefy Mathew, a sleep and circadian rhythm disorder specialist at St. Luke’s Health-The Woodlands Hospital.
Our bodies follow a natural rhythm set by the sunrise and sunset, Mathew said. When our bodies lose the sense of time and routine, disordered sleeping can develop.
And a year of cloistering at home brewed the perfect shift for this kind of disruption — similar to the changes felt by new college students or retirees.
“Kids leave high school and go to college and have the freedom to set their schedule however they want,” he said. “A normal wake-up time doesn’t apply to people after they retire from their jobs or people working from home during the pandemic. All those cues and routines are gone, and it throws everything out of whack.”
Poor sleep is not a new phenomenon for Americans, according to the National Institutes of Health.
In September, the NIH found that if people could improve their sleep schedule or the overall quality of their sleep, increasing
the number of uninterrupted hours of REM sleep, they could better cope with the stress of the pandemic. Plus, better sleep helps prepare our immune system to defend the body.
The NIH found that many people are sleeping less or longer than they need do, which can make them feel groggy, unfocused and irritable throughout the day.
A third of U.S. adults reported sleeping less than seven hours a night, which is the recommended amount for a fully functional adult, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Victor Ajpacaja, a sleep expert at Mattress Firm, said America is a superbusy, hypercaffeinated world. But sleep is the most important thing people can do for their health.
In a health hierarchy, sleep is categorized higher than nutrition and exercise, Ajpacaja said. Without effective sleep, the body can’t fully optimize good food or workouts.
“People oftentimes don’t unThe
derstand that sleep is imperative to everything in daily life,” Ajpacaja said. “It’s something we should innately know, but we abuse the privilege of being able to sleep. We’re not doing it right because of our modern living.”
Beds are for sleeping and not much else, Mathew said.
Out of necessity, many Americans have been online more often during the pandemic, which puts them in front of a screen for several hours a day, he said.
Television-watching, phone scrolling, even reading a paperback book in bed tricks your brain into thinking that the bed is for any kind of activity.
Phones, tablets, computers and TVs give off light that is absorbed by a person’s retinas in the back of their eyes. That light can confuse the brain’s pineal gland, tricking it into producing less of the sleep hormone melatonin.
Giving up electronics in bed is tough, new mom McKee said. She admits to constantly checking email, but come the next morning,
the 30 minutes she spends on her phone is time she wishes she had spent sleeping.
“Part of being connected is not having a good routine to disconnect,” McKee said. “I always feel like I need to be on. Part of it is good and responsible to stay on top of work. But I do it to an unhealthy level, and it prohibits the sleep I could be having.”
For people suffering from insomnia or disordered sleeping, the next few months should be focused on ditching bad habits, like eating in bed and late-night phone scrolling, to achieve seven-plus hours of sleep each night, Mathew said.
Setting a fixed wake-up time and spending time outside in the morning is crucial to effective sleep, Mathew said. And avoid napping, because any sleep during the day will take away from the zzz’s at night.
If you can’t fall asleep, it’s OK to go to another room but don’t pick up a book that you actually like. Mathew recommends reading a book or presentation that you find particularly boring so
you don’t get engaged. When you’re drowsy, go back to bed.
Sleep aids or medications are not advised, Mathew said, because they sedate the body. That’s not actual sleep and can leave you feeling groggy and irritable, he added.
Stay active during the day, and try to exercise early. By exposing your eyes and bodies to light in the morning, your circadian rhythm has the best chance to be on track for bedtime, he said.
Do not consume caffeine eight hours before you plan to be asleep, and don’t eat fewer than three hours before bedtime.
Also, sleep hygiene isn’t necessarily about going to bed at 9 p.m. If you’re a night owl, stay up until you’re naturally tired.
“You’re just going to contribute to the insomnia if you’re awake in bed rather than asleep,” Mathew said. “Be that night owl, power through, stay busy and clean the house. Try to get yourself naturally exhausted and sleepy.”