sleep

Sleep. The new buzz word. I hear it everywhere these days.  Bhutan has now declared itself a happier nation. Why is that? The Prime Minister claims it’s because its citizens are sleeping more. In fact 91.2% of Bhutanese citizens have declared themselves happy.  Funnily, those who are happiest are the monks. Probably because they never marry.  

The sleep connection to happiness goes further. Shocking. 23% of married couples do not share the same bed. But these couples claim that this is the key to their successful happy. And why? Because you get a good nights sleep. The tossing and turning (or even snoring) of a partner beside you disrupts the quality of your sleep. More and more of my married friends in my circles admit this.  I’m a bit selfish; I get the bed to myself anyway.  So now, instead of staying up all night finishing off your jobs, leave it all and get to bed. And its uninterrupted sleep that’s the key.

I feel quite naïve reading all this.  In my very first blogs I spoke about my changes to become a happier person, and I thought my 8 hours a night was ridiculous and I needed less sleep. If you’ve been following my blog, you realise I did a u-turn, and I realised how non functional I was on 6 hours sleep. I agree, sleep is necessary and key to a happy life.  But its scientific attributes are only beginning to become evident, the realities of actually how a lack of sleep is hurting us, even killing us.  It makes us more stressed, irritable, on a physiological level, it increases blood pressure, depression, muscular aches, obesity, headaches. So grab a pillow and a blanket and take a snooze – it will only make you happier.

phone-happy

I have lots of ideas for my happiness project, but the ideas are swimming around in my head and it was difficult for me to decide on what to write. It all came to a crunch when a very good friend of mine gave me an article in a magazine about happiness and all of a sudden it all became clear.....

So listen up, this is the happiness checklist according to Professor Happiness himself, Paul Dolan:

1) Don't spend on consumer items, spend on experiences. Money never brings people the satisfaction they imagine.

2) Know when to give up on a relationship. Tell them its over and there is no prospect of your ever going out with them again.

3) Surround yourself with people who bring you joy. Social contact makes us happy.

4) Never, ever make facebook your homepage.

5)Volunteer. A structured form of social contact based around being nice makes us happiest of all.

6) Minimise distractions. Multitasking makes you less productive.

7) Become a neophile, a lover of new activities.

I would add another 20 things to this list, but its a good start point and actually there is one that i want to focus on that kind of relates to my last post - number 6: Minimise distractions.

So how is my sleep going from my last blog. Badly. I am shattered. 7 hours are just not enough, and to be honest the last 2 days I have been sleeping 8 hours a night. I started to reflect upon the 4 hours that were proposed by highly effective people. Did they have a nap at lunch? Do they have a full on life with kids to care for, housework to do?  And what is the long term effect of so little sleep? So I decided to go back to my first golden rule, be me. I am going back to 8 hours of sleep.  When I am less tired, I am certainly happier.

And the phone? That is not going well either. I am having phone withdrawal symptoms. I feel some void in the night when I can't fiddle with my phone. But I have actually come to realise that my phone is point number 6, the biggest distraction in my life.  Given that I was so reluctant to get a smartphone because I am NOT a neophile, now I have had one for a few years, I am obsessed with it. Not good. So for the nights: Phone - you are still banished to the outer realms of my living room.

My phone is a distraction both in day and night. Although we have strict rules at home about phones at dinner time (a total no no), I do find myself leaping at its beckon call everytime it beeps. Really, do I need to know ever single email as it arrives? Or facebook like?  I am a slave to my phone. The distraction it induces prevents me from doing other things. So, new rule. At work, the phone is staying in the bag. Work colleagues, you are not testament to this. If you need to contact me between 9am-5pm, use my good old fashioned office phone!!

Sleeping your way to happiness

Its been a week since my last blog. I've been on my summer holidays and I did manage to switch off from work and home... however I did have a lot of time to think about my happiness project, and what aspects I should tackle first.  So here I am back blogging on happiness, and its now time to implement some simple changes that should make me happier.  So the first issue is sleep, and I have taken it upon myself to read what others feel about sleep and happiness.

There is no doubt that a lack of sleep makes you more irritable, lethargic and unhappy.  Ask any new parents. However, upon my investigation into sleep, particularly of influential and substantial people in society, I was surprised what i found. Did you know that Napoleon, Margaret Thatcher and Florence Nightingale only ever slept 4 hours a night?  And if we sway towards people I might have a bit more respect for, scientists, this is what I find:



Really?  4 hours... So I started to delve more into the concept of sleep. Does it really help us recover from the days activities? Well apparently, sleep only saves 50 Kcal - which is about the same as an apple, that is not really the reason we need sleep.  But reading on... sleep does play a big part in brain development, being able to think flexibly, speak clearer, remember and recall things. So it is needed.

 However, reading on, there appears to be a fine line between too little and too much sleep. Because over sleeping also leads to lethargy and depression. Its a delicate balance you have to find.

I started this blog thinking that to be happier, I need to sleep more. However I am ending this blog thinking that is not more sleep I need, its probably less sleep I need, but good quality sleep. Because if I slept more, I would have less time to do all the stuff I need to do. Nope, its not more sleep I need, its less.

I get about 7-8 hours of sleep a night. I do know that the last thing I do before bed is fiddle with my phone, and the first thing I do when I wake up is fiddle with my phone. Beeping phones in the middle of the night must be effecting the quality of my sleep. So task 1 for happiness - leave the phone downstairs before going to bed.  The lights and sounds its generating are certain to effect my sleep.  And second task - lets see if I can survive on only 7 hours of sleep a day (1 hour less) and still be alert and happy.  So I need to make sure before bed that I have a comfy bed to sleep in, the window is slightly ajar to get some fresh air in and the door of the bedroom is closed to prevent interruptions. I will let you know how I get on :0)