Sleep for good health, looks
Mar 27, 2012
It’s been a long day; the clock hands are approaching midnight. You set the alarm for 5:00am and immediately drift off into deep slumber. However, in what seems like a few minutes later, the deafening alarm cuts short your dreams. It is already 5:00am, but you feel like you have not slept enough.
By Vicky Wandawa
It’s been a long day; the clock hands are approaching midnight. You set the alarm for 5:00am and immediately drift off into deep slumber. However, in what seems like a few minutes later, the deafening alarm cuts short your dreams. It is already 5:00am, but you feel like you have not slept enough.
Between rising early for work, meeting your deadlines, dropping off the children to school and picking them up, doing chores that the maid has stubbornly refused to perfect and finally getting into bed, you barely sleep.
Perhaps, you adjust to the cycle robotically, jumping out of your bed each time the alarm goes off, even after four hours’ sleep and keep awake all day.
However, not all is well. Rose Okot, a general physician at Mulago Hospital, warns that lack of sleep not only makes you look and feel at your worst, but can also lead to ill health.
“Adults require at least eight hours of sleep. You can tell when you are not getting enough sleep. Irritability and moodiness are among the first signs.”
She warns of less concentration at work.
“You may fall into micro sleeps of about five or more seconds during an activity, which may make you seem unprofessional. The need for more sleep is the body’s natural way of alerting us that you do not sleep enough.”
Okot says during sleep, the body repairs its cells and also fights infections.
She says: “Insufficient sleep, therefore, makes one more susceptible to colds, flu and other infections.”
Other signs of insufficient sleep include depression, anxiety, irritability, mood swings, reduced ability to deal with stress, forgetfulness and poor judgment.
Until one gets enough sleep, they usually do not realise how much the lack of it has affected them. Clare Nabwiso, an auditor, says it was only when she started getting enough sleep that she realised how restless she had become. “Due to my busy schedule, I would sleep for only four hours and I always felt run down. But now that I sleep for six hours, I feel much better!”
When deciding on the nursery school for her son, no one advised her that it should be close to or on the way to her workplace. In order to drop him off at school and reach work by 7:30am, she had to leave Gayaza as early as 5:30am. Luckily, her mother would help her pick up the boy.
After leaving work at 5:00pm, she had to teach university students up to 9:00pm, before rushing to her mother’s home to pick her son.
“I would get home exhausted after 10:00pm, yet I still had to prepare dinner, as well as my son’s snacks and clothes for the following day. My maid only came in twice a week.
“Soon, I became physically and emotionally exhausted. People said I looked tired and haggard. Someone joked that had she not been my former classmate, she would have sworn I was much older. At work, I felt constantly run down,” she recalls.
“Call it vanity, but hearing the word older made me realise I had to change my lifestyle. I was advised to sleep more.”
She moved her son to a school near her workplace and employed a full-time house maid such that she did less housework when she returned home.
“These changes enabled me get two extra hours of sleep. I sleep almost as soon as I get home and because my son’s school is near my workplace, I get up at five and reach work on time, after dropping him off. I feel more refreshed and cheerful.”
So, have you been feeling crappy lately? Maybe it is high time you slept more.
Phoebe Bisaaso, a counsellor with WADE Ministries, notes that for sufficient rest, women should delegate some of the responsibilities that delay their going to bed or force them to get up earlier than needed.
“Assign various tasks to family members. Young children, too, can do some chores such as picking up their toys or setting the table. Older ones can prepare their own uniform and books for the following school day, after all they are also being trained for a responsible adult life in the future,” she says.
Unlike Nabwiso, whose lack of sleep was due to a tight schedule, Okot notes that sometimes not getting enough sleep may be due to other factors such as stress or insomnia. Insomnia is a condition where one finds it hard to fall asleep or stay asleep.
She warns: “Sleeplessness due to stress will persist for as long as the cause of stress has not been solved.”
How to sleep comfortably
Stick to a particular sleep schedule. Go to bed and get up at the same time daily. This consistency supports your body to develop a cycle and get used to it.
Limit drinks before bed time as this minimises trips to the bathroom. You may have a hard time falling asleep again. You should also avoid drinks with nicotine, caffeine and alcohol as these cause insomnia.
Create an ideal environment in your bedroom for sleeping. Turn off the TV or radio and ensure the lights are off.