Not Just a Man's World

My sleep has been a bit up and down recently.  When things are less busy at work and I’m chilled I can climb into bed, read for a bit and then happily be asleep within minutes of putting out the light.  Unfortunately, when I’m stressed and busy I find that my ability to go to sleep and the quality of the sleep that I get are hindered.  I toss and turn for ages before I can get to sleep and I wake still feeling tired.

In February I wrote a post about why sleep is beneficial for us, the different types of sleep and the different ways in which they help us to recover, both physically and mentally.  Recently I had a rash of posts appear in my daily RSS feeds about sleep so I thought that, with the recent stress I’ve had a work which has detracted from my own sleep quality and recovery, it was time for an update and some more information about sleep.  And of course some gratuitous photos of the cat – asleep.

Cat-napping or something deeper?

• Mark Sisson kicked things off in my feed-reader with a series of posts.  The first was a post asking some general questions about sleep and contains an interesting tip on how to really lengthen the spine out to sleep.  However, the core focus of the post is bedding.  Do we need all these soft accoutrements to get some good sleep?  I know that after a week of sleeping outdoors with only a thin roll-mat I start to get sore on the last few days (unless we’ve found soft forest floors and mossy spots to pitch each night).  Mark seems to conclude that the bedding is, while not primal, not a bad thing either.  He observes that his dog by preference will choose to lie down on something soft but will also be quite happy on a hardwood floor.  I’ve similarly noticed that our neighbours cat will happily sleep on the gravel along the outside of our house (turning round when he wants to change side so that he can continue to have his back lying along the wall) but if there is an opportunity of a soft chair in the house it will get preference.  If there’s the chance of a warm lap then even the soft furnishings get given short shrift.  He revisited the issue of bedding a couple of posts later.
  

  Jake's preference is for something soft - even the post pile on the kitchen table is better than the floor

• Mark quickly followed this up with another article looking specifically into the issue of sleep posture.  I know that when I’m relaxed I can sleep quite happily on my back.  As my stress levels increase I naturally move onto my side (either side) and, at the height of misery and exhaustion, I find I can only get to sleep on my stomach, clutching a stuffed seal that my Mum made when she was pregnant with me (because I would just irritate Chris if I clutched him that hard).  As a baby I was put to sleep on my stomach which I think is probably why this is the position I return to when I’m feeling most exposed in life.  The only problem is that sleeping on my side makes the underneath shoulder ache and sleeping on my front gives me neck-ache.  Mark’s article is mostly focussed around a study by Michael Tetley and it is well worth revisiting the original article rather than just relying on Mark’s article.  I must say that I am seriously tempted to try out a few of those postures next week while I’m wild-camping my way across Yorkshire in order to avoid the customary stiffness and sore shoulders that tends to accompany the last few nights.
  

  The more appendages you have, the harder it gets to find a sleep posture that works - or so it seems...

• The NephroPal blog had a great post about the impact of our artificial light on both us and other wildlife (can I call humans ‘wildlife’?).  It covers the impact of the artificial light on humans and how it affects our own sleep patterns – something that I touched on in my summer sleep cycles post.  More interestingly though, it also covers how other wildlife, like migratory animals are being badly affected by our artificial lights.
  

  Even the cat objects when there's too much light

• Some recent research found that 30 minutes of daily meditation in the form of meditative yoga helped insomniacs to sleep more soundly.  Perhaps meditation is what the cat does when he gets into his Zen-like state of purring and then slowly settles into the position known as “ultimate relaxation”!
  

  The tail flick adds a good rhythmical aspect to meditation and the back paw is a good head rest

   

• Seth Roberts wrote up some fascinating stuff about historical sleep patterns – apparently some people were trying to persuade us all that it is natural to sleep in two batches with a period of quiet wakefulness in the middle, based on historical information about Western European humans.  Seth reckons this is more to do with the poor diets of people in the last few hundred years than a sign of our true ancestral heritage (eg. looking back to our Paleolithic ancestors) since he’s found that he sleeps better than ever since he increased his animal fat intake.  My take-home point?  If you’re sleeping poorly, in addition to the usual “get some non-screen relaxation in before bedtime and get rid of the lights and noises in your sleeping room” also try eating more fatty meats.
  

  Sometimes it can be difficult to get comfortable of course

• And finally…  I have found an article that beautifully brings everything together.  Written by Professor Jim Horne who runs the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University, just around the corner from here.  Professor Horne starts out by explaining why a walk is so much better at giving you a good night of sleep, rather than a tough workout.  It’s partly to do with the mixed and varied messages that your brain in getting at the end of the day, rather than the physical side of things, and ties in with the idea that sleep is as much about mental recovery as it is about physical recovery.  He also gives a bit of science behind why I seem to pass out within seconds of lying down if I’ve had a long hot bath as the last thing I did in the evening before crawling into bed.  Overall this article is short but fascinating and if you only read one of the articles that I’ve linked to on this post, I would make it this one.

My two favourite creatures catching a sneeky moment of shut-eye together

On that sleepy final note, I’m going to put the cat out, who is lying on the sofa next to me doing a very good version of ultimate relaxation, and have a clearly-well-justified hot bath with the last hour of the day before I crawl into bed.  At least I don’t have a tail to keep me awake…

Sweet dreams!

Related posts:

1. Blog-watch: latest sleep round-up
2. Lessons learned: sleep
3. Lessons learned: summer sleep cycles
4. Impact of artificial light on sleep