Paying Back Your Sleep Debt

Vinnie has no trouble paying back his sleep debt…assuming he has any sleep debt….

Hell is sleep debt anyhaus Kim?

That was my original title, but given that many of you on this list are not from Western Pennsylvania - what that translates to is - what is sleep debt anyhow Kim?

(If you're opening this when it comes to your inbox, first of all thank you, and second of all, you're probably already sleepy from lunch, and also because this is the time of day when we get sleepy.

Often in my continuing education as a fitness professional, I'm reminded how important it is to coach sleep. And I've written posts in the past on the importance of sleep as it relates to overall health and fat loss. But when it comes right down to it, the question remains of what is good sleep? How do you know if you're getting good sleep?

And what can you do if you're not getting enough sleep or enough quality sleep?

These questions are all much bigger than me, and if you really want to dig into it, the book "Sleep Solutions" by Dr. Chris Winter is an excellent read (he's funny, but it might still make you sleepy to...you know...read about sleep - I'm literally yawning as I write this).

If that kind of task seems a bit too overwhelming because of the 64,000 demands you have in your life right now, I'll do my best to hit some of the some of the high points i n my upcoming posts. One of which is understanding that sleep debt is really a thing, which means that you really can catch up on sleep.

To a point.

Essentially, we all have a certain number of hours we need to sleep per night. Eight hours is a myth. Everyone is different in terms of how much they need, but we'll ballpark it at 7-9 hours for most of you reading this.

Let's say that you are trying to plan your parents' 50th wedding anniversary, but they are being really difficult because they don't want a party and they don't want to go anywhere and so you stay up late one night to chat through options with your little brother.

I mean I'm just spit-balling here.

So you go to bed at midnight, instead of your normal 10:00 time. But you still get up at 6:00 am. You have two hours of sleep debt. And if you follow that with a night of binge-watching Ozarks on Netflix and stay up until 11:00, you now have three hours to repay.

If you've raised five kids and have had chronic sleep debt for years, that's a different conversation. Ping back sleep debt is a bit more short term than that, so try to think of it on more of a short-term weekly basis..

So what can you do if you have sleep debt? You can absolutely pay it back. How?

Take naps, but make them short naps.

If you want to read something interesting, look up nap-a-cinos by from the book "When," by Dan Pink. He suggests having your pick me up caffeine (if you do that in the early afternoon), and then immediately lay down for 21 minutes, but no longer than that. Upon getting up, you’ll have both gotten some rest (and maybe even some sleep) and the caffeine will just be kicking in.

Winters also recommends short naps, no longer than 25 minutes, which is enough to get some rest, but also not so long that you feel worse after the nap, or you have trouble falling asleep at night, especially if you are prone to such things.

It’s also important to note that while you can catch up on sleep to a point, you can’t store up sleep for that crazy weekend in Vegas. If you don’t sleep there, you’ll just have to pay it back later (hopefully we’re still just talking about sleep…)

So don’t be afraid to take short naps, early in the day, in a cool, dark, quiet place to pay back your sleep debt.

My new boss has been really good about this…;-)