Strategic naps can help you recover from sleep deprivation
Jean Gaumy/Magnum Photos
Sleep researchers dedicate their careers to understanding how and why we sleep; so what do they do to get a better night’s rest?
It might be comforting to know that even experts aren’t always able to practice what they preach. “I think you’ll find a lot of sleep researchers aren’t very good at sleep,” he says Malcolm von Schantz at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
This article is part of a special series investigating key questions about sleep. Read more here.
But one thing many of them agree on is that consistency is key. Here’s what else they had to say:
MAKE A PLAN
“It’s about prioritization and planning. So I try not to have meetings before 10:00, for example, because I’m more of an evening person: I quite like to go to bed late and wake up late. So going forward I’m thinking about what’s best with my sleep timing, my circadian timing, how can I try to organize my schedule and support that?
Steven LockleyTimeshifter
CONTROL YOUR LIGHT
“In our house we pretty much turn off the lights when the sun goes down, and then in the mornings we turn on the interior lights as much as possible and definitely open the window shades as soon as the sunlight comes into the house. I think those are really important things. : minimize light at night, maximize light in the morning.”
Christopher DepnerUniversity of Utah
GET COLD
“Sleep science has shown that your body (temperature) needs to drop a full degree…
