Ingredients of Sleeping Well: QQRT

Sleep is one of our greatest and most affordable insurance policies for well-being.

In a study in which participants, serving as their own controls, were evaluated after adequate sleep and deficient sleep, 711 genes were measured to be distorted in their expression in the condition of sleep deficiency.? About half were upregulated in activity, such as those related to cellular stress and tumor growth, and about half were downregulated, such as those related to the immune system.? We know from this, and various other measures, that sleep is one of the most influential lifestyle behaviors that can move the needle on almost any aspect of brain and body health.

I have recently been listening to Matthew Walker again as he so passionately shares on sleep wellness.? Today’s message comes from a podcast series episode, ‘Dr. Matt Walker: The Biology of Sleep & Your Unique Sleep Needs | Huberman Lab Guest Series’ at https://youtu.be/-OBCwiPPfEU?si=EfZ8b4r-0L6LHmwy ?What I share here is accurate of what is verbally shared within this podcast episode, but may be missing helpful details of the studies mentioned.? Of note, a consideration of quantity, quality, regularity, and timing (QQRT) can be helpful in determining how well we are sleeping.

Quantity has been a topic of discussion for years, and most people are aware that 7 to 9 hours of sleep is recommended for adult humans.? Coming into our awareness more recently as equally important is the quality of those hours of sleep.? Have you slept continually throughout the night or were your hours of 'sleep opportunity' fragmented by awakenings?? We could also get to know the quality of our sleep if we were to measure the brain waves of our sleep phases.? The deep powerful waves intended by our deepest Non-REM phases of sleep are most helpful in clearing away byproducts of metabolism and other functions of restoration that sleep provides. Thus, truly restorative sleep is more than hours in bed, but also a consideration of how deeply and completely we flowed through our sleep cycles.

How about regularity?? Some of the best advice about getting truly restorative sleep is to go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day.? You see, our brain and body is trying so very much to follow a predictable pattern from day to day, known as our circadian rhythm, an essential influence of our sleep and wake cycles.? In a study in which quantity of sleep and regularity was measured, the degree of sleep schedule regularity had twice as much impact on dying from all causes during the study than quantity of sleep, giving evidence to support why regularity of a sleep schedule from day to day may be of highly significant importance.

And then, there is also timing.? Where does your brain and body's preferred time for sleep fall within the twenty-four hour clock of each day?? Are you a morning person or a night owl?? Known as our chronotype, there is at least some genetic determination of this variation from person to person. And, healthy sleep also depends on sleeping in line with the rhythm of the internal clock of our circadian rhythm.? Should we deviate from this pattern, we may experience significant impacts to the quantity and quality of our sleep, a showing of how this is all inter-related.

Quantity, quality, regularity, and timing are a nicely comprehensive outlook into our sleep wellbeing.? ‘Sleep really is the tide that raises all the other boats of health,’ Matthew Walker has said.? And, as he shares, when it comes to maintaining life, nature has made no mistake in preserving sleep through the years of evolution on Earth.

For more on what sleep offers us and how to develop a practice of truly restorative sleep, I have previously shared...’Sleeping for Emotions and Creativity’ at Sleeping for Emotions and Creativity | LinkedIn, 'For a Good Night's Sleep' at For a Good Night's Sleep | LinkedIn and 'Sleep is Fascinating: Imagining Eight Hours of Sleep' at Sleep is Fascinating: Imagining Eight Hours of Sleep | LinkedIn