QUESTIONS TO KNOW IF YOU ARE ROUTINELY GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP–AS DESCRIBED BY DR. MATTHEW WALKER PHD’S BOOK “WHY WE SLEEP”
It is amazing to me how the lack of sleep impacts not only our musculoskeletal system but how the chronic lack of sleep adversely affects the other systems in our body. As a result of the chronic condition of lacking both quality and quantity of sleep, we can increase our risk to other medical problems such as diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and dementia. Below are a couple questions that Dr. Matthew Walker PhD proposes that we all can ask ourselves in order to self-assess if we’re getting enough sleep:
- When you wake up, do you feel that you can fall back asleep at 10:00AM or 11:00AM?
- Can you optimally function without caffeine before noon?
If you said, “yes” to the first question and “no” to the second, then according to Dr. Walker, you may not routinely be getting enough sleep.
Dr. Walker also suggested further questions to consider:
- If you didn’t set an alarm clock, would you sleep past that time?
- Do you find yourself in front of your computer screen reading and rereading and, perhaps, rereading again the same sentence?
- Do you sometimes forget what the last few traffic lights were while driving?