Do you find it difficult to fall asleep, tossing and turning throughout the night and then left feeling tired the next morning? Keeping a regular sleep routine isn’t always easy but is important to ensure your body’s internal clock is properly set and maintained. A consistent sleep schedule also ensures your body and mind are able to heal fully, supporting your immune system, boosting energy levels and providing mood regulation throughout the day.
Why Sleep is Essential
Sleep is important for every system in your body. Having a regular sleep schedule helps provide the time needed to clear away harmful debris, strengthen memories and prepare the mind for complex thinking. According to Matthew Walker, author of Why We Sleep, missing out on too much sleep frequently can harm these processes, causing one to have poor focus, brain fog, and mood issues—especially when both deep sleep and REM sleep suffer.
Why Consistent Sleep Matters
Sticking to a regular sleep schedule is necessary for consistent energy and better overall health. Here’s why consistent sleep matters:
- Melatonin and Adenosine
Having a consistent schedule of going to bed and waking up at the same time each day establishes a pattern for your brain. The brain releases the right amount of melatonin at the right time. Similarly, adenosine builds up during the day and is timed to make you sleepy at the right time at night.
- More Energy and Productivity
Research shows that those who keep a steady schedule of going to bed and waking feel more alert and are more productive during the day [1].
- Impact of Irregular Schedules
When you skip a regular scheduled sleep time it messes up your circadian rhythm, which gets confused. This causes melatonin levels to be lower, which makes it more difficult to fall asleep. You also may feel more tired during the day and see your energy levels fluctuate. Overtime, your deep sleep may be affected, leaving you less refreshed and alert.
- Aligning Body Chemistry
With regular sleep your body’s chemicals, including melatonin and adenosine, become synchronized. This helps you reach deeper, better quality sleep leaving you feeling more energized in the morning.
Keeping to the same bedtime and wake up time helps your body align its internal clock with the chemicals that keep it in check, resulting in more alertness, a better mood, and greater cognitive function.
Top Health Problems from Not Getting Enough Sleep
1. Weaker Immune System:
Going to bed at irregular times can mess up your body’s circadian rhythms, making it harder for your immune system to repair and reset [2]. This makes you become more vulnerable to illnesses and will take you longer to get well when you are sick. Keeping to a consistent sleep schedule helps you stay healthy.
2. Higher Risk of Chronic Diseases:
If you don’t get quality sleep you can increase your risk of heart problems as well as other chronic health issues [3]. Inconsistent sleep patterns can also put extra stress on your body’s vital organs, making it more difficult for them to work efficiently. This happens because without enough quality sleep, your blood pressure can stay elevated, and your heart rate may remain higher. Also your body’s ability to repair damaged tissues is reduced. Over time, these factors strain your cardiovascular system, and result in other related conditions. Making sure you get enough quality sleep helps protect your heart and your overall health.
3. Mood Swings and Mental Fatigue:
Getting poor quality sleep negatively affects mood regulation which causes irritability and reduces one’s patience [4]. If poor sleep continues, over time one’s mental focus suffers making it difficult to stay on task.
4. Slower Recovery After Physical Activity:
Sleep helps your body repair itself. With poor sleep impacts your muscles’ ability to rebuild. If you don’t get consistently good sleep it will make it hard for your body to heal efficiently.
5. Reduced Cognitive Function:
A regular sleep schedule helps your brain manage memory, reaction times, and logical thinking, particularly in deep sleep and REM sleep [5, 6] . Without a regular sleep schedule you are less likely to get the full amount of sleep required for this. Furthermore, once these functions are degraded your problem solving skills and creativity may also be affected.
Sleep Stages With a Regular Sleep Routine
There are distinct stages of sleep, each having an important role for physical and mental repair and restoration. These stages are divided into non-REM sleep and REM sleep. The following shows a typical sleep cycle and the amount of time ideally spent in each stage. Please note that as you age your sleep quality and quantity deteriorates making it more important for those over 50 to focus on getting and maintaining the best sleep they can.
1. NREM Sleep
This is the stage where the restorative part of sleep occurs, particularly during deep sleep. This stage is subdivided into three stages:
- Stage 1 (Light Sleep): This is the transition between wakefulness and sleep, lasting about 5-10 minutes and accounting for roughly 5% of total sleep time.
- Stage 2 (Deeper Light Sleep): This stage is when your body begins to relax further, and brain activity slows. It makes up about 50% of total sleep.
- Stage 3 (Deep Sleep): This is the most restorative stage of sleep, crucial for muscle repair, immune function, and overall recovery. Deep sleep typically accounts for about 15-20% of your total sleep time.
2. REM Sleep
- REM sleep is when most dreaming occurs. It is also involved in memory consolidation and emotional regulation. REM sleep usually makes up about 20-25% of total sleep time and becomes more plentiful during the second half of the night.
How Much Sleep Do You Need?
Most adults need 7-9 hours of sleep each night. This translates to:
- 1-1.5 hours of deep sleep
- 1.5-2 hours of REM sleep
- The rest is spent in light sleep (Stages 1 and 2).
Making sure you get enough sleep in these stages is necessary for feeling rested and having good health. Irregular sleep patterns or an insufficient amount of sleep can impact this balance.
DID YOU KNOWMore than one-third of adults sleep less than seven hours per night, on average. Also a 10% increase in body weight may make you six times more likely to have sleep apnea [7]. |
Recognizing Your Limits
While you may intend to work late and wake up early you can’t ignore your body’s needs. Paying attention to your body after prolonged fatigue, for example, can protect you from many of the health problems due to a lack of sleep. Staying up late the occasional night might be okay, but making it a habit can reduce your stamina and mental alertness over time.
Conclusion
Keeping a consistent sleep routine throughout the week doesn’t just help improve the quality and quantity of sleep over time but protects your physical and mental health. Having enough rest ensures your immune system, mood regulation, and focus are ready to better handle daily challenges. Therefore, hold to a consistent sleep schedule and help yourself out by setting a ‘go to bed’ and ‘wake up’ alarm to remind you. Reclaim your nights today and regain your edge for the future.
Check out Why You Need to Stop Mouth Breathing While Sleeping Now!
