Building on a previous post about using basic needs as a coping mechanism, I am very interested in research on happiness. Considering some of the dark episodes I've had in my life, I get a little angry when people think my buoyant optimism comes naturally. Happiness can take effort and work, just like any other goal worth pursuing.
In the hierarchy of health, sleep is king. Like many other things in life, happiness starts with basic needs being met. It's much easier to be happy when you sleep well, eat well, and get a moderate amount of exercise. Specific needs may be different for different people. I need a fair amount of sleep, and boy howdy, everything in life is easier when I get it. Thinking is faster, and clearer, mood is better, and productivity soars.
But it takes more than going to bed at a regular hour (even though that's still important). Here are the things that work for me:
- Sticking to a schedule: We've all heard this, so why don't we stick to it? It's hard to implement, but it really does work. I get tired around the same time every night, and getting up during the week is far easier if I didn't sleep in all weekend.
- Get away from the screens: There's interesting
research about the effects of light from computers and smart phones.
The over-simplification is that the wavelength of light given off
from these screens is similar to sunlight. This light stimulation is
enough to stop all the night-time hormones from kicking in and
helping you wind down for the night. Remember that we evolved to be
in tune with sunlight, so by playing on the phone in bed the same as
telling your body that it's daylight and not time to sleep yet.
However, I'm in grad school and you might have a similar obligation
that means turning off the computer hours before bed isn't an
option. Instead, I got these super fashionable amber-colored
glasses (About $15 in late fall of 2013):
Yes, I look pretty fantastic there. Sex appeal aside, these things have been amazing. Supposedly, they block the wavelengths of light that keep you awake, and let your body send out all the sleepy-time signals. I noticed that I get drowsier earlier, and fall asleep faster.
- Daytime light exposure: The other side to this is
getting enough light during the day. I work in a lab with no
windows. During the winter it's usually dark when I'm walking in,
and dark again when I'm walking home (yay, Northeast winters). This
means that unless I make a conscious effort to go for a walk or get
near a window during a break, I get zero light exposure. My sleep
took a significant turn for the better when I started taking a 10
minute break in both the morning and afternoon to get near a window,
and usually a brisk walk right after lunch.
- Exercise: This is another obvious, but easy to forget
item. Don't sit at a desk all day. Get up and move when you can. At
least stretch once in a while if nothing else. Movement during the
day always helps me sleep better at night. Even simple activities,
like an afternoon walk, work well.
- Light while sleeping: I'm not 100% sold on this one,
but experts that I generally trust say it's important. We live in a
very electronic world. Clocks, phones, computers, TVs, etc all have
little lights that are shining on us all night. Just for the fun of
it, try covering them up or turning them all off. Every pinprick of
light you can see from your bed and see how you sleep. I found some
improvement.
- Light while waking: Once upon a time, in a land far
way, I used to live somewhere that got sunlight. Waking up in the
morning with a large, East-facing window was easy and felt natural.
Now that I'm in the Northeast, if I waited for sunlight to wake up,
I'd sleep until June. Instead, I invested in a sunrise
alarm clock (about $80 in summer of 2013). This is the most
expensive clock I ever bought, and it's been worth every penny. It
gradually gets brighter during the 30 minutes before the alarm
itself goes off, up to a final brightness that you set. The alarm is
either wind chimes, or bird chirping. The gradual brightening of the
room makes those gentle sounds enough to wake you up. Waking up in a
brightly lit room to birds chirping is so much nicer than waking up
to a pitch black room with an alarm beeping angrily at you. I can't
recommend this thing enough.
