Repaying your "sleep debt"

Many people find it difficult to get enough sleep every night. Medical evidence suggests that for optimum health and function, the average adult should get seven to nine hours of sleep daily. Although each hour of lost slumber goes into the health debit column, we don’t get any monthly reminders that we’ve fallen in arrears. In fact, the greater the sleep debt, the less capable we are of recognizing it: Once sleep deprivation — with its fuzzy-headedness, irritability, and fatigue — has us in its sway, we can hardly recall what it’s like to be fully rested. And as the sleep debt mounts, the health consequences increase, putting us at growing risk for weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and memory loss.

In some cases, sleep debt results from insomnia or other underlying conditions that may require medical attention. But most sleep debt is due to burning the candle at both ends — consistently failing to get to bed on time and stay there until we’ve slept enough.

Fortunately, sleep doesn’t charge interest on the unpaid balance, or even demand a one-for-one repayment. It may take some work, but you can repay even a chronic, longstanding sleep debt.

Dr. Lawrence J. Epstein, regional medical director of the Harvard-affiliated Sleep Health Centers, has been treating patients with sleep disorders since the early 1990s and has successfully counseled scores of patients out of sleep debt. In The Harvard Medical School Guide to a Good Night’s Sleep, Dr. Epstein advises us to avoid regarding sleep as an indulgence or luxury. Rather, we should recognize that adequate sleep is just as important for health as diet and exercise are. To that end, he offers the following advice:

·         Settle short-term debt. If you missed 10 hours of sleep over the course of a week, add three to four extra sleep hours on the weekend and an extra hour or two per night the following week until you have repaid the debt fully.

·         Address a long-term debt. If you’ve shorted yourself on sleep for decades, you won’t be required to put in a Rip Van Winkle–like effort to repay the hours of missed slumber. Nonetheless, it could take a few weeks to recoup your losses. Plan a vacation with a light schedule and few obligations — not a whirlwind tour of the museums of Europe or a daughter’s wedding. Then, turn off the alarm clock and just sleep every night until you awake naturally. At the beginning, you may be sleeping 12 hours or more a night; by the end, you’ll be getting about the amount you regularly need to awake refreshed.

·         Avoid backsliding into a new debt cycle. Once you’ve determined how much sleep you really need, factor it into your daily schedule. Try to go to bed and get up at the same time every day — at the very least, on weekdays. If need be, use weekends to make up for lost sleep.

How much do you sleep at night? Do you wish you could sleep more?

Sleep can be as important to your health as diet and exercise, but for many people, falling and staying asleep isn’t easy. The Harvard Medical School’s Guide to a Good Night’s Sleep lays out a six-step plan to improve sleep and deal with common issues like insomnia, disrupted sleep, sleepwalking, and the many other chronic sleep conditions that affect more than 70 million Americans. Through lifestyle and environment changes, you can finally sleep soundly—without necessarily having to take a pill.

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