The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep is Broken and How to Fix It

With cutting-edge sleep science and time-tested techniques, The Sleep Solution will help anyone achieve healthy sleep and eliminate pills, pain, and fatigue.
 
If you want to fix your sleep problems, Internet tips and tricks aren’t going to do it for you. You need to really understand what’s going on with your sleep—both what your problems are and how to solve them.
 
The Sleep Solution is an exciting journey of sleep self-discovery and understanding that will help you custom design specific interventions to fit your lifestyle. Drawing on his twenty-four years of experience within the field, neurologist and sleep expert W. Chris Winter will help you…
 
• Understand how sleep works and the ways in which food, light, and other activities act to help or hurt the process
• Learn why sleeping pills are so often misunderstood and used incorrectly—and how you can achieve your best sleep without them
• Incorporate sleep and napping into your life—whether you are a shift worker, student, or overcommitted parent
• Think outside the box to better understand ways to treat a multitude of
conditions—from insomnia to sleep apnea to restless leg syndrome and circadian sleep disorders
• Wade through the ever-changing sea of sleep technology and understand its value as it relates to your own sleep struggles
 
Dubbed the “Sleep Whisperer” by Arianna Huffington, Dr. Winter is an international expert on sleep and has helped more than 10,000 patients rest better at night, including countless professional athletes. Now, he’s bringing his experiences out from under the covers—redefining what it means to have optimal sleep and get the ZZZs you really need...

INCLUDES TIPS, TRICKS, EXERCISES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS 

“I call Dr. Winter a sleep whisperer. Through his work with top athletes, he’s found an amazingly effective way to show that sleep can be the ultimate performance enhancer—in sports, at work, and in every aspect of our lives.”—Arianna Huffington

“[Winter’s] well-written explanation of what sleep is and what can disrupt it shows how to make the most of the sleep you do get.” —Library Journal (starred review)
 
“Until I met Chris Winter, I slept like a baby: I woke every two hours and cried. Then Dr. Winter helped me develop sleep rituals that knocked me out. He was my sleep solution; this book will be yours.”—Peter Moore, New York Times Bestselling Coauthor of the The Eight-Hour Diet and Former Editor of Men’s Health
 
“Dr. Winter has spent his career bringing attention to the benefits of sleep, and for the first time, this book brings it all together. He has written an important resource for those of us in the field of professional sports as well as ordinary people who aren’t experiencing the full benefits of sleep. His professional experiences and research have assisted with bringing to light the impact sleep has on our athletes within their sport.”—Ben Potenziano, Assistant Athletic Trainer, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Former Strength and Conditioning Coordinator, San Francisco Giants
 
 “Chris is world-class in his field; he is incredibly pragmatic in his application of medicine to real-world, high-performance settings.”—Mark Simpson, Director of Performance, Los Angeles Clippers
 
“A fresh, comprehensive look at the vital nature of good sleep and its relation to our thriving wellness.”—Herm Schneider, Head Athletic Trainer, Chicago White Sox
 
“Dr. Chris Winter’s new work, The Sleep Solution, is a jewel of a book for anyone who has struggled with sleep issues.”—Ron Adams, Veteran Assistant Coach, Golden State Warriors
 
“Dr. Winter is our go-to sleep specialist. In The Sleep Solution, you will find much of what he has shared with our athletes as he has helped us navigate the rigorous NBA schedule.”—Donald S. Strack, DPT, ATC, Director of Medical Services, Oklahoma City Thunder
 
“In the baseball industry, the travel, change in time zones, and just sleeping in a different bed are not easy. I have leaned on Dr. Winter many times. Thank you, Chris.”—Ron Porterfield, Athletic Trainer, Tampa Bay Rays

Dr. Winter is a board-certified and internationally recognized sleep medicine specialist, as well as a board certified neurologist. His unique way of explaining sleep has made him a highly sought after speaker and consultant for professional sports organizations with clients including the San Francisco Giants, the New York Rangers, and the Oklahoma City Thunder. He also regularly consults with United States military groups as well as business and large corporations. In addition to his consultative activities, Dr. Winter has a large media presence. Since 2008, Dr. Winter has served as the Men’s Health magazine Sleep Advisor. He regularly blogs for The Huffington Post, and has written or contributed material to a wide variety of print outlets including Women’s Health, Runner’s World, Triathlete, and Details. He has made many television appearances, including on Fox News, and has been heard on radio programs from New Orleans, to London, to South Korea.

Chapter 12

Sleep Schedules: I’d Love to Stay and Chat, but I’m Late for Bed

I have been asked frequently over the years the following question: “What is the single most important piece of advice for achieving your best sleep?” To me, it’s easy: pick a wake up time and stick with it!
When I ask you, “What time do you wake up in the morning?” the answer should be one simple time. If your answer to that question is, “I get up at 6:45 and usually go to the gym or run outside,” you get a gold star.
However, you probably have a problem if you answer something like this: “I usually go to bed at 11:00 except on the weekends when I go out with my friends and we stay out until 2:00 or 3:00 easily. I’m usually up around noon . . . no later than 2:00 p.m. on those days. On Tuesdays I try to go to bed early, like 9:00 because on Wednesday, I have to get up early for this boot camp exercise class. On those days, I go out to my car at lunch and sleep for forty-five minutes. I feel pretty beat by the end of the week and often fall asleep early in the evening. If I do, I struggle to stay asleep and often have trouble falling asleep later. It’s really hard to get up for work on Monday . . . I’m often late. Every now and then, no more than once a month, I’ll use a sick day and stay home from work so I can sleep all day . . .”
Wow, I blacked out there a little bit from acute boredom during that long explanation. But I have to tell you, that was a real patient story. Optimally, an individual should have a consistent bed time and perhaps more important a consistent wake time. Unfortunately, this isn’t usually the case with individuals who have sleep problems. Sleep times can vary wildly in these people and they sadly do not seem to recognize that this haphazard lifestyle is a big part of their problem. In fact, they strangely often see it as working toward a solution.
Some people are in complete control of their sleep schedule. No matter what happens in their lives, they are up at 6:00 a.m. and soon after in the gym getting their BodyPump class on. These individuals are dogs who wag their tails (the dog is in control, and it wags its tail). Other individuals get up and exercise if their evening goes perfectly to plan, but if their sleep is problematic one night, their schedule goes down the tubes. If it takes them an hour or two longer than normal to fall asleep, they ditch their exercise plans and sleep in. For these individuals, their wake time depends on their sleep quality. They are not in control, so instead of the dog wagging its tail, for these individuals, the tail wags the dog. I call them “dog waggers.” Their sleep schedule is dictated by their sleep successes or failures.
Here are some examples of dog waggers:

“I went to bed early last night because I had a rough night of sleep at my girlfriend’s apartment the night before.”
“My alarm went off at 6:00, but since I couldn’t fall asleep until 3:00 a.m., I hit the snooze and called in to work later saying I was sick.”
“My wife was driving me crazy because I masked the basement last month but haven’t painted yet, so I just did it . . . stayed up most of last night to do it. I took a huge nap when I got home from work, now I’m wired.”

When an individual sleeps in this way, all kinds of bad things are happening. You are teaching your body to sleep only when it’s exhausted. Like a cow grazing for food, you’re grazing for sleep. If you are independently wealthy and have no need to work, congratulations! Maybe the schedule of the world doesn’t apply to you and you can keep up your freewheeling schedule as long as you wish. For the rest of us, the world is full of appointments, deadlines and plenty of times we need to be awake.
I joke with my patients all the time that if I can’t fix their sleep problems, they should enlist in the military. The army is such a wonderful environment for sleep. They do everything sleep related perfectly. Their wake up time is precise. Fall out at 5:00 a.m. Tired? You’ll get over that quickly as you and your platoon head out for physical training. Change for breakfast at exactly the same time every day. Activities, more exercise, lunch, dinner, and finally back to bed so you can get up and repeat the exact same schedule the next day. Within a few days of boot camp, you will have all sorts of wonderful and exciting problems . . . falling asleep at night will most likely not be one of them. I always think about these soldiers when a patient tells me he has trouble settling at night because his “mind won’t shut off.” I imagine after a day of engaging in grueling exercise, being screamed at and belittled, and missing your family as you wonder what in the hell you’ve gotten yourself into, you might have some thoughts racing through your mind. But still, these men and women sleep.
So when should you go to bed? When should you wake up? I think you see by now why we have to start with the latter. You need to select a wake time that works for your life. If you have to be at work by 9:00 and your commute is thirty minutes, getting up an hour earlier might work for you. Unless you want breakfast or maybe a shower? Unless you want to exercise or maybe you have kids who need to get up for school? The point is to pick a time that’s realistic. And be sure to include time to actually feel awake.[72] Nobody opens her eyes and feels like Mary Sunshine in the morning, at least nobody over three. So be sure to give yourself some time to go from groggy to human.
One more important detail: There is no such thing as a good or bad wake time. Yeah, depending on your whether you are a night owl or a morning lark, one schedule might work better than another. Are you a morning person? Getting up at 6:00 might be better than noon. Always been a real night owl? That 5:30 a.m. wake time to meet some friends for a bike ride might not be ideal. Brain schedule aside, I’m not here to judge. People in the South talk about sleeping in like they talk about sex: in embarrassed whispers. There is nothing wrong with being a night owl. It’s not a sin.
Establishing a consistent wake time is the most important first step in setting your schedule and solving your sleep issues. Once you’ve picked a wakeup time, the big question is, “How much time do I need to sleep?”
Did you know the average individual eats seven Chips Ahoy! cookies upon opening the bag? Okay fine, I made that number up. But let’s go with it. Now let’s imagine we went to the mall and selected 100 random “average” individuals and gave them each seven cookies. Does that mean every individual would clean his plate? No. Some would eat fewer cookies while others would demand more. Should those who eat less worry about it? No.
We all need different amounts of sleep. Don’t get hung up on magazine articles that demand you sleep eight to nine hours every night for you optimal health. There is a good chance that whatever number they are throwing out at you is not ideal for you specifically.
 



[72] It’s amazing to me how many people judge the quality of their sleep by how they feel immediately upon awakening. I personally feel like Han Solo after he’s been released from that block of carbonite. But a few minutes later, I feel like myself.