INTHEBLACK December 2021 - Magazine - Page 55
EXPERT TIPS FOR
BETTER SLEEP
• Keep a regular bedtime
and wake time each
day, even on weekends.
Routine is key.
• Limit your screen time
and give yourself a one
hour “no tech” buffer
before bed.
• Take care of your
body – keep up daily
exercise and avoid
using alcohol as a
sleep aid.
• Take care of your mind,
and try to resolve any
issues long in advance
of bedtime. If you are
still feeling anxious or
worried at bedtime, try
some gentle stretching,
yoga or mindfulness.
• Keep your bedroom
reserved for sleep – as
much as possible avoid
working, watching TV
or using your laptop in
your bedroom.
• If you wake up during
the night and can’t fall
back asleep, get up and
do something relaxing
in dim light until you
feel sleepy again.
SLEEP SELFAS S E S S M E N T
Do you feel tired when
you wake up?
Source: Dr Melinda Jackson, senior lecturer in psychology, Monash University
Does it take you more
than 30 minutes to fall
asleep at night?
Do you wake up during
the night and have
trouble going back to
sleep?
the costs of interventions to reduce the burden of a
condition,” Streatfeild says.
The report team, which also included Rajaratnam,
looked at the economic and health impacts of three
particular sleep-related disorders: obstructive sleep
apnoea, insomnia and restless leg syndrome, which
collectively affect about one in five Australians.
The report then considered the costs impact of
sleep disorders, such as absenteeism, early retirement,
presenteeism, need for informal caregiving, work
accidents due to fatigue and premature mortality,
as well as the loss of quality of life.
“It is a challenge to measure productivity in
knowledge-based industries objectively,” Rajaratnam
concedes, “so we rely on measures such as situationally
relevant metrics or self-reported estimates of
productivity, peer ratings, or the use of surrogate
measures such as using cognitive tests to see how much
sleep deprivation is impairing their aspects of cognitive
function.”
WELLBEING OVER WEALTH
While governments and corporates focus on the figures,
they are only part of the picture, experts agree.
“Economists focus on the profit and productivity
loss,” Mitchell says, “but what we’re really talking about
is real issues affecting real people due to undue stress
and lack of sleep.
“The government has a focus on profitability and on
looking at sleep as a diagnosable issue, but in reality, if
you don’t detach from work and don’t sleep well, your
quality of life will suffer,” she says. “You can cope with a
lot if you have the opportunity to recover, and sleep
is critical to that recovery process.”
Krupka points out that “economic arguments don’t
always make sense, either”.
“Plenty of evidence shows that working less, being
less busy and sleeping more are the best ways to
actually be more creative, productive and efficient, yet
we continue to think that only programs driven by
economics arguments will cost less.
“It’s culturally intolerable for us to be bored, to do
nothing, yet if we don’t rest and sleep, we become much
more reactive, and it becomes much harder for our
bodies to tell the difference between what is urgent –
everything becomes anxiety provoking.
“Like the road signs say, only sleep cures fatigue,”
she says.
Do you feel that your
sleep is affecting your
daytime functioning
(alertness, job
performance, etc)?
Have you or others
noticed you are more
irritable or emotional?
If you did not set an
alarm, would you sleep
past your set wake-up
time?
Are you using sleep
medication or over-thecounter sleep aids more
than you would like?
Do you snore heavily or
suffer from sleep apnoea?
If you answer “yes” to
more than four of these
questions, you may be
sleep deprived.
intheblack.com December 2021 55