Recovering from Sleep Debt

Studies have shown that cutting your sleep short by just 2-3 hours a night can result in sleep debt. Chronic sleep deprivation can not only negatively impact your ability to perform daily tasks, but also contribute to poor motor and cognitive skills and increased risk while driving or operating machinery. Sometimes, due to our schedule and life’s demands, having some sleep debt is unavoidable. Here’s what you can do to begin recovering from sleep debt:

Sleep deeply

To recover from sleep debt, you have to sleep! But, it isn’t about the number of hours you get. Instead, it’s about the quality. Sleep debt can only be recovered through high quality, restful and restorative rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep.

Practice sleep hygiene

Say good-bye to scrolling through your social newsfeeds, drinking a glass of wine (or two) and working out before bed. Activities that involve blue light, alcohol and adrenaline will prevent you from getting the sleep you need. Exposure to blue light restricts melatonin production, while alcohol consumption will reduce REM sleep. And of course, adrenaline will keep you energized and alert.

Make sleep a priority

Take your sleep as seriously as you do work. Make room for enough hours of quality sleep in your schedule and give yourself ample time to prepare for bed. That means tying up loose ends from the day and finishing up emails before heading to bed. Try your best to schedule sleep at the same time every day.

Dedicate your time in bed to focus on you, your health and preparing for a new tomorrow. When you get enough sleep, you’ll be ready to take on anything!

Need some help figuring out how to improve your sleep? Give our FusionSleep office a call to schedule an appointment with one of our board certified sleep specialists. Call (678) 990-3962.