Why are we always trying to snooze our body clock?

Our 11-7 is just as important as our 9-5. So, why are we always trying to snooze our body clock? Calling it a night early and hoping to fall asleep instantly? A girl can dream. It’s 1:30 A.M. The lights are off and you’re comfortable in your bed. The second your head meets the pillow, your thoughts begin racing: The presentation tomorrow could go horribly wrong, I don’t feel prepared. What was the name of the octopus that predicted the FIFA World Cup? (It’s Paul if you were wondering). Or, the significant question that stays at the top of your mind: Why can’t I fall asleep?

How much sleep do we need?

The recommended window of sleep an adult typically needs is 7 to 9 hours (although, the quality of sleep matters too). We don’t even need a watch – a person’s internal body clock cycles every 24 hours, in line with our circadian rhythm. This makes us feel like powering down when the light outside dims. While this suggests we naturally know when to sleep, the research suggests otherwise. Around 55% of 39,000 people surveyed by LocalCircles in India reported that they get less than six hours of uninterrupted sleep. This begs the question –

Why are we neglecting our sleep?

There isn’t a straightforward answer. For some, work-related stress keeps them up (or wakes them up early). “If I have a very pressing deadline the next day and I have to get up and start working on it, or there’s a deliverable due that is difficult to achieve, or if there’s a client call that we are expecting to be very difficult, that leads to me not sleeping. I keep thinking about it,” said Sana, a Senior Manager. Her anxiety diagnosis amplifies this. “Sometimes, those anxiety attacks lead to me not getting sleep.” Breathing exercises, talking to friends, and listening to music have helped her navigate this, and so has physical activity. “Even if I don’t get sleep that night, I make sure that I get up and go for a walk or run. Then, I feel a little better and energetic the next day.” When she doesn’t sleep, she feels anxious and stressed.

For others, work stress can seep into their dreams, too. Tara, a Senior Associate, gets happier dreams during the weekend. Talking about her recent weekday dream, the setting: a meeting at a client’s office, she said, “you get those restless dreams, that incomplete feeling – that something’s missing, something’s pending.” Her mindset (and dreams) evolves during a typical work week. She added, “I look forward to waking up on the weekends, but that’s not my attitude to weekdays. The dread of the day is there, and there’s difficulty in waking up because I don’t want to start it.”

Heard of ‘revenge bedtime procrastination’?

Another explanation for your poor sleep habits could be ‘revenge bedtime procrastination,’ a phrase that has been recently doing the rounds on social media (again). Have you tried stretching your window of time in a day, watching multiple episodes of a TV show when you already have less than 7 hours before your time to wake up? Or scrolled endlessly through your Instagram ‘For You Page,’ or found yourself going down a rabbit hole about survival tactics in the wilderness, when you could be catching much-needed Zs instead? Well, it seems like this may be more common than you think. In 2020, Dahpne K. Lee described it as ‘a phenomenon in which people who don’t have much control over their daytime life refuse to sleep early in order to regain some sense of freedom during late night hours.’ With our busy modern lives, this can feel necessary. But we forget that we’re actually stealing from the next day as well.

So, is your Me Time hurting you?

During an internal mental health session for Weber Shandwick’s staff across Asia, sleep specialist Maryanne Taylor, a consultant at The Sleep Works said “revenge bedtime procrastination is a common issue that can significantly compromise your sleep and overall well-being. I understand that it can be challenging to balance work and personal life while still getting enough sleep. Breaking the habit takes time and consistency.” Kavitha, a Senior Associate, would agree. A lack of sleep made her feel bloated, lethargic, and unhealthy, and made the next day a lot tougher. “I function better when I’m fully recharged.” From Maryanne Taylor to the researchers at Michigan State University’s Sleep and Learning Lab, the jury’s out: there is no substitute for sleep.

So, are you a night owl, early bird, or just trying to be both? Well, you can get more than just the worm when you get enough sleep. When you were in school and had an exam, did anybody ever tell you to sleep on time instead of staying up and cramming? Well, they were right:

While you sleep, your brain stays hard at work.

In fact, human memory is consolidated as we sleep. Sleep also sharpens our attention, helps us regulate our emotions, improves our work performance, helps us think more flexibly (and creatively), and reduces the risk of disease. On less sleep, we’re more likely to make mistakes, be less efficient and poorer communicators, and more likely to snack on junk foods. For Sana, less sleep also meant delayed periods, which especially affected her as someone living with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). We even even make riskier decisions when we’re sleep-deprived. When you’re making an important choice and someone suggests you ‘just sleep on it,’ listen to them. Everyone – right from our leaders and higher-level executives to entry-level employees – needs to sleep well to perform (and sleeping is actually productive just in case you thought otherwise). There is also the other side of the sleep spectrum, the lucky ones who manage to prioritize their sleep. Why do they do it? How do they do it? When I asked Mahima, an Independent Contractor, she traced her habit of sleeping well to her childhood. “I always played sports, so I had to wake up early for practice. My routine became a lifelong habit. Sleep can give your body time to recover, repair, and help you build muscle.”

Now, for those of us that haven’t picked up this habit, how do we get a good night’s sleep? People have all sorts of must-haves – perfect silence, a dark and cool room, two pillows behind their neck, an eye mask, an audio clip of rain sounds. While some unwind with a dose of screen time before bed, others digitally detox. “Until recently, I was having some difficulty disconnecting from social media and I would mainly unwind watching Netflix or YouTube,” said Kavitha. Now, things have changed for her. “I’ve started incorporating reading as a habit again and I’ve also gotten rid of my social media handles. I stop using my phone an hour or so before going to sleep.” For Sana, her sleep-and-screen boundary looks slightly different. “I have a setting on my phone – from 1am to 7am, I put my phone on DND. I’m a very light sleeper, and if you call me while I’m asleep, I’ll pick up. I do this so I can sleep peacefully.”

Let’s hear from the sleep expert

Maryanne from The Sleep Works also has a few tips to help get your sleep times a little more balanced. One is to reset your circadian rhythm. “Make a concerted effort to get exposure to natural light as soon as possible after you wake up and keep lighting dim in the evening.” This also explains why our sleep patterns shift as the seasons change – in the winter, with shorter days and lesser hours of sunlight, a study found that people slept up to an hour longer. Maryanne also recommended spending a short period of time in the evening processing your day by completing a ‘Put The Day To Bed Diary’. This is a very effective technique to help relieve some of the build up of mental stress from the day. By writing down your thoughts, emotions and events of the day, you can gain clarity and insight, helping you to process your experiences, find closure and feel more relaxed when getting into bed. Beyond these steps, she affirmed the benefits of a relaxing bedtime routine – having a shower, listening to a podcast – whatever works for you.

How I fall asleep faster

Last year, when I was taking especially long to fall asleep more often than not, I turned to the app Headspace’s Sleepcasts – which start with a wind down and take you on a narrated 40-45 minute journey through some dreamy landscape (from a flower market or lazing lagoon to a botanical building as night falls). Having free access to Headspace as part of the Weber Shandwick employee program has been incredibly helpful to me and even to colleagues around me – so if you’re looking for a sleep story or guided mindfulness meditation, consider giving it a try. We may have all tried several steps to sleep better. The point is: don’t be a passenger in your own sleep story. Anyway, it’s 7 A.M. Are you trying to snooze your body clock? It’s time to wake up.