Want health in your old age? Get some sleep tonight

Lots of health. That’s what many of us hope we’ll be blessed with, especially as we age. We want to spend our later years healthy enough to spend time with family and friends and to enjoy trips and hobbies.  

One way we can help ourselves stay healthy is deceptively simple: sleep.

“Sleep is very important in terms of healthy aging,” says Jennifer Martin, director of the Benjamín León Jr. Family Center for Geriatric Research and Education and professor at the FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. “Sleep is actually at the center of a lot of health behaviors we know about -- like diet and exercise -- that help people as they age,” Martin says. “When you’re not sleeping well, it’s really challenging to maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle.”

For younger folks, sleep is still essential. Even if you feel that you can bounce back quickly after pulling all-nighters for exams or that you can function relatively well with only a few hours of sleep as you navigate the demands of student or professional life, you still need to prioritize catching some z’s.

Lack of sleep can affect your memory as well as your ability to concentrate, learn, self-regulate, make good decisions and more. Some research findings also link chronic sleep deprivation with an increased risk of having a stroke and developing conditions like heart disease, diabetes and even Alzheimer’s disease, especially as we age.

If you haven’t been getting enough sleep, Martin, whose research focuses on both sleep and healthy aging, says it’s never too late to get on the right track.

Here are her top tips for getting good quality sleep.  

1. Plan your schedule around your sleep time.

Pull out your digital calendars or physical planners. “Carve out seven and a half hours to schedule your sleep first,” Martin explains. “Schedule everything else around that.”

Block out your sleep time, and hold yourself to it. Martin says this is one of the key strategies she suggests for busy professionals and students juggling exams and tight deadlines.

She knows it’s easy to fall into the “I-sleep-less-so-I can-accomplish-more” trap. Don’t fall for it.

“It’s a myth that sleep-deprived people are more successful,” Martin says. “Short-changing sleep over the long run is not good for your health. I’ve never worked with anyone who became less successful when they started sleeping better. The opposite is true. People are more successful when they are well-rested because they are more efficient.”

Exactly how much sleep do you need? “Adults need seven or more hours at least six days of the week,” Martin says. “The best way to do that is to have a routine. Have a time you get up in the morning and a time you go to sleep every day.”

The good news? You can have a “cheat day” of sorts. If you stay up a bit later on Saturday nights or sleep in on Sundays, that’s okay, Martin says. Just make sure you return to your normal sleep routine for the rest of the week.

“I always say that you can’t have cake every day, but you can have it on your birthday,” Martin says. “It’s the same with sleep.” You can change it up a little once in a while, but don’t go to sleep too late or sleep in for too many hours, or it’ll be like having jetlag every Monday morning, she says.

2. Keep your phone out of arm’s reach at night.

“If you put your head on your pillow and stick out your arms, you shouldn’t be able to reach your phone,” Martin says. “Simply having it out of arm’s reach at night makes all the difference.”

The point: Do not scroll on your phone in the middle of the night.

If you can grab your phone in the middle of the night and scroll, your brain will begin to wake up, and your attention will be hooked by headlines (or Instagram posts or videos of cute cats). Before you know it, sleep is impossible. 

Reduce unnecessary distractions by taking the TV out of the bedroom and avoid using a laptop or other screens before falling asleep, since blue light tricks your brain into thinking it needs to be awake.

3. Limit other factors that could ruin your sleep, especially if you must wake up multiple times every night.

For parents caring for their babies or caregivers helping family members, it’s not always an option to sleep uninterrupted through the night.

“Some people don’t have the luxury of a good night’s sleep every single night,” Martin says. “But you can make sure that you don’t compound your caregiving responsibilities by doing other things that could ruin your sleep. Avoid staying up when you don’t have to and avoid things like doomscrolling late at night.”

You can also work to manage the things that you can control. One example: caffeine consumption.

“There’s a lot of caffeine consumption later in the day in Miami,” Martin says. “This can be a sleep thief. When we are younger, we metabolize cafecito quickly. When you’re 30, it might be fine, but when you’re 75, it might make it harder to fall asleep. Try to eliminate caffeine about 10 hours before you go to bed.”

You should also pay attention to other factors like noise and light in your sleep environment.

“The place where you sleep should be comfortable, quiet, dark and cool,” Martin says. “You should sleep on a surface that’s physically comfortable. Sometimes for older people, it’s as simple as adding a couple of extra pillows to make your body feel more comfortable.”

4. Understand that sleep rhythms change with age.

This is a key aspect of the sleep discussion. “Young adults might find it easy to stay up late and sleep in,” Martin explains, “but many people find that harder to do in their later years.”

She says this is a normal biological change. “As people get older, it is normal to get less deep sleep and wake up more easily during the night,” Martin says. “It makes the sleep quality feel worse. Starting in your young adult years, you just gradually get less and less time in deep sleep. This means you are more likely to be awakened by things in your environment.”

Trouble sleeping in the morning hours, which is common among older people, has to do with your circadian rhythm, which is your body’s inner clock. This clock, which is a small cluster of nerve cells in your brain, regulates when you feel sleepy or ready to wake up as well as other things like eating and digestion schedules.

“As we age, our internal circadian rhythm often won’t let us keep the same sleep schedule we had when we were younger. You’ll probably go to bed earlier and get up earlier.”

If you find yourself getting up earlier in the morning, Martin recommends embracing it. If the disruption in sleep schedule is a real problem (for example, you get up at three in the morning every day can can’t get back to sleep), she recommends you talk to your doctor. Otherwise, if your circadian rhythm is pulling you to become more of a morning person and you get a little extra early-morning sunshine in your life, Maritn says, it’s okay. It’s a normal biological change. Listen to your body.

5. Choose one thing you can do to improve your sleep every day.

“Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good,” Martin says. “Trying to get perfect sleep can make people very anxious. I recommend people do one thing that can make it easier to get more sleep. Try it for a few weeks, and see if it helps.”

Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed or start overthinking sleep. Just keep it simple: do one positive thing to help yourself sleep better.

Maybe you want to start out by placing your phone far away from your bed. Or you want to schedule all your events around your sleep time. Or you decide you’ll stop drinking coffee or soda earlier than you normally do.

All you need to do is commit to improving your sleep little by little. Before you know it, your body will start feeling the benefits of a good night’s sleep.