By Bonnie Hutchinson
 

Planning a busy fall? Sleep more!
 

You know how sometimes the same topic shows up from different sources within a few days? This week I’ve been invited to “sleep” webinars, had sleep articles show up in my inbox, heard a friend tell me sleep stories, read news items about a good night’s sleep…

Okay, maybe I have something to learn about sleep.

That’s a surprise. In earlier decades I could fall asleep anywhere, anytime – and frequently did. It was embarrassing.

At movies, I’d fall asleep until the person beside me elbowed me when I began to snore. At concerts I never stayed awake past the first few bars of music. During conversations with people I liked and found interesting, I’d nod off while they were talking.

Once during a Scrabble game I fell asleep – and it was my turn!

I didn’t have trouble sleeping. I had trouble staying awake.

What was blindingly obvious to all but me was that I was tired. In the busy years of child and career demands and juggling never-ending competing responsibilities, I just plain didn’t get enough sleep.

I’m grateful to be at a life stage where getting enough sleep is easy.

So – in case you’re gearing up for a busy fall and thinking maybe you’ll stay up later or get up earlier to pack more into your busy days, here are some things I’ve learned from sleep experts.

1. Peak performers sleep more. K. Anders Ericsson has studied peak performance, possibly more than any other researcher on the planet. He’s delved into the one per cent of top performers in dozens of fields. One of his surprising findings is that the best of the best tend to sleep more than most people – an average of about eight and a half hours every 24-hour day.

2. Sleep – or sleep deprivation – affects every aspect of our lives. During sleep, all our organ systems are being replenished and restored – breathing, digestion, muscles, bones, nerves, all our physical functions. Sleep is when we heal. Not enough sleep slows our physical reaction times by 30%. Don’t drive when you’re tired! A scary thing: cancer cells reproduce faster when we are sleep deprived.

The benefits of sleep are not just physical. Not enough sleep makes us more irritable. We make poorer decisions and are more likely to take dangerous risks. With enough sleep, we feel happier and think more clearly.

3. Sleep is the third pillar of wellness. We know diet and exercise are two aspects of staying healthy. Getting enough sleep is the third pillar.

4. We each have unique sleep needs and sleep patterns. Dr. Michael Breus, sleep researcher, says our patterns of sleeping late or early are pretty much set at birth. He describes four patterns:
Bears rise and fall with the sun. They usually need about 8 hours of sleep. This group includes the majority of us.
Wolves are night people. They have lots of energy in the evening and night but find it hard to wake up in the morning.
Lions wake early and are extremely productive, especially earlier in the day. They’re often exhausted by early evening.
Dolphins are light sleepers and may need to be vigilant about sleep routines to ensure they get enough sleep.

5. Five suggestions for improving sleep, suggested by Dr. Breus:
-Have the same bedtime and wake-up time every day, even on weekends.
-No caffeine after 2 p.m.
-No alcohol for three hours before bedtime. (Passing out is not quality sleep!)
-Stop vigorous exercise four hours before bedtime.
-Every day get at least 15 minutes of sunlight or at least be outside.

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I’d love to hear from you. If you have comments about this column or suggestions for future topics, e-mail Bonnie@BonnieHutchinson.com. I’ll happily reply within one business day.

By Laurel Nadon

Unexpected Fun
 

The final days of August are here. Summer is drawing to a close, but I have been slow to admit this. I was shocked when on about August 10, someone told me to have a “good rest of my summer.” I thought that was a bit premature – isn’t the end just the last week?

Summer fun has come in unexpected ways this year. With almost daily rain and a voracious mosquito population, we have spent less time outdoors, when we have been home, than normal. There have been days which I thought would be memorable and fun that were “meh” instead, and experiences that I thought would feel like a chore and instead we had a great time together. After a mad dash into the bug-infested woods to pick saskatoons, the table was covered with a half-finished game so I spread out a tablecloth on the ground inside and my two oldest kids helped me clean berries. Before I knew it, we were talking, laughing, and splashing drips of water all over the place.

One Sunday, my 12-year-old and I went swimming together, just the two of us, and had a blast. Another day, my 15-year-old and I biked into town, got slushies together, and then biked home. At some point in the summer, we rediscovered the domino game Mexican Train, and had a few epic game afternoons and evenings.

One afternoon, I was beating the kids at the game quite handily, and they started to complain. I told them that it was important for them to learn how to win and lose graciously, and that I was imparting important life lessons. As we wrapped up the game, I announced that it was time to clean the house. My 17-year-old daughter looked shocked and said, “So you’re going to beat your kids, teach them how to be losers, and make them do chores.” Hmmm, yes, that’s a pretty accurate summary of the day.

The final weeks of August can be a busy time of preparing for school, and doing any last minute fun activities. I ask myself: Is there anything else we can do to make memories in the warm weather?

The other day, the answer was yes. At the last minute, we headed off to the zoo and had the best time. I don’t think there has been a zoo day yet that hasn’t gone well or that I have regretted, and we try to go each year. We take great delight in searching for the critters in their enclosures, and pointing them out to each other. There’s always something different to see, whether it’s a python digesting a meal or peacocks strutting about on the loose. This year my kids really enjoyed the non-animal sightings – the pile of pigs that my mom pointed out that turned out to be a pile of rocks (in her defence, the rocks were in the pig enclosure), and the takin (a large, hooved mammal) that was actually a tire. My kids hooted with laughter, forgot that they were teenagers for a minute, and climbed aboard the kids’ train. We stood and really watched the animals, noticing the spectacular shade of blue and green on a peacock’s back and how it looks like a stained glass window. We watched how the seals propel themselves through the water, and inspected a large tortoise with a head like a snake and miniature elephant legs as it slowly lurched forward to its lunch of dandelion leaves. We even spotted the elusive Lucy the elephant, who has surpassed the life expectancy for an Asian elephant in human care and is now 51 years old. We were supposed to be at home packing for our one last hurrah canoe trip, and instead it turned out to be one of my favourite days in the summer.

I never like the fun to end, and I know that I stall to prolong good times. I didn’t realize that others could sense this lingering, until we were on a canoe trip in northern Alberta a few years ago. The circuit ends in a narrow upper arm of the lake with a dock at the end where we haul our gear out and portage for half an hour back to our vehicle. My husband pointed out that I always paddle slowly in that section, which I hadn’t realized, as I am reminiscing about the trip and trying to put off arriving at that dock and accepting that another canoe trip is finished.

I plan to linger in these final moments of summer as long as possible. I’m paddling as slowly as I can, but that dock is quickly approaching.