I'll sleep when I'm dead? Why I am changing my tune and prioritizing sleep in 2023.

The well-known song lyrics turned mantra, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” used to resonate with me. I embraced the go hard at all costs mentality and work hard, play hard lifestyle. I would burn the midnight oil frequently and take pride in putting in a large number of work hours while juggling an active social life, especially in my 20s. I put sleep on the back burner.

Although there is certainly something to be said about a strong work ethic and capacity to produce, my approach was flawed. As Matthew Walker, PhD lays out in his enlightening book, Why We Sleep, the paradox of the sleep when you die approach is that evidence shows that lack of quality sleep often leads to an earlier onset of disease and death as compared to people who have adequate sleep habits. Here I was thinking that I was maximizing my time on this planet (who wants to waste seven to nine hours a day?), when in reality I may have been cutting it short. Walker, who strongly recommends a full eight hours per night, succinctly sums it up as “the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life.” And for those of you who are reading this thinking you are in the rare group of natural short sleepers with a mutant gene that fully function on four to six hours of sleep, you are probably not. It is estimated that only one to three percent of the population has the trait.

Maybe a more appropriate motto to live by that encapsulates working smart, maintaining high productivity, and implementing sound systems and habits is “optimize and streamline for success.”?How can we optimize and streamline for success? There are several components at play, but I have learned that the foundation is quality sleep. In Why We Sleep, the author and neuroscience professor outlines why quality sleep is the key ingredient to durable performance (i.e., focus, productivity, critical thinking, memory, creativity, mood, immune response, nutrition, and overall health and wellness). ?Sleep is the foundation, and exercise and nutrition are examples of critical pillars stacked on top impacting health and performance.

As I wrap up my 39th year, the same age my mother passed away from cancer, I have become somewhat fixated on health and pursuing peak performance, and it ultimately led me down this rabbit hole on the subject of sleep.?A catalyst for the deep dive into studying sleep specifically was a recent discussion with a health coach around maintaining consistent energy throughout the day without the crutch of caffeine. I was encouraged to start tracking sleep quantity and quality nightly via a Garmin watch. Although the device is not known to be perfectly accurate, there were some obvious trends in my sleep patterns. The results from the first three weeks of tracking showed that my sleep quantity and quality were poor. I was averaging fewer than seven hours of sleep, and my deep (stages 3-4 of sleep cycle) and REM sleep (stage 5 of sleep cycle) were well below the suggested targets.?My Garmin sleep scores were registering at a disturbingly low average of 66 out of 100.

I was getting into bed in time to achieve the initially set minimum target of seven hours of sleep (adequate sleep opportunity time); however, I wasn’t actually sleeping the entire time. By measuring actual sleep time, the data showed that I was averaging 30 minutes of awake time during the period, which consisted of time to fall asleep and intermittent waking throughout the night. ?To maintain a consistent wake-up time of 4:45 am, adjustments were needed to my bedtime. Additionally, developing an evidence-based nightly routine and habits to improve sleep efficiency and deep and REM sleep were crucial. Equipped with the first three weeks of data, it became evident that I needed at least seven hours and fifteen minutes of actual sleep to hit the lower end of the sleep quality target ranges for deep and REM.?Pretty simple, but powerful.?

My poor sleep quality experience also prompted enrollment in a sleep study to see if there were any other issues negatively impacting my sleep.?It turns out that I have a mild deviated septum and narrow nasal passages, which are restricting nasal breathing during sleep.?I tested a temporary solution called a Mute nasal breathing device last night that opens the nasal airway, and I had one of the top sleep scores since measuring sleep activity.?I am early on my journey to improving sleep, but I am optimistic that getting sleep right will be a game changer.?

Most people would agree with experts that sleep is vital, yet some take it for granted.?According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than one in three people are chronically sleep deprived.?In business, we are all about measuring what matters.?I would argue that we should extend this to our personal lives.?Do you know how much actual sleep you get on average or do you ballpark it based on sleep opportunity time like I was doing?

Undeniably, there will be days when kid activities, social activities, work, hobbies, travel, deadlines, etc. disrupt our shuteye. That’s life.?We don’t want to be too rigid; however, adjusting our mindset and behaviors to schedule other priorities and discretional activities around sleep (making sleep a top priority) might just help us obtain more consistent, quality sleep over the long run.

Listening to the audio version of Why We Sleep was a wake-up call (did you notice what I did there?). ?Investing in our health, now, puts us in a better position to realize our professional and personal goals. With this in mind, my overarching goal of 2023 is to improve sleep.

I only touched the surface of the subject, and I recommend checking out Walker’s book to learn about the myriad benefits of sufficient sleep and tips to improve sleep quantity and quality. The book is educational while also downright frightening if you have been a chronic under-performer on sleep like me.

Wishing you sweet dreams in 2023,

- Jon Calvin