GETTING a good night’s sleep is about more than simply counting the hours, with sleep quality and consistency also playing an important role in how rested you feel and your overall wellbeing.
While seven to nine hours is often given as a general guide for adults, spending eight hours in bed does not necessarily mean you have had a restorative night.
According to sleep researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast’s Thompson Institute, healthy sleep is built around three key ingredients: quantity, quality and consistency.
Sleep quantity refers to how much sleep you get, while quality is about whether your body can move naturally through the different stages of sleep without frequent disruption.
During the night, we cycle through lighter sleep, deep sleep and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, with each cycle lasting around 90 minutes.
These stages have different roles in physical recovery, memory and emotional processing.
Frequent waking can interrupt those cycles, meaning you may spend plenty of time in bed without necessarily getting the restorative sleep your body needs.
Many older Australians worry when they find themselves sleeping less deeply or waking more often during the night.
The good news is that lighter and more fragmented sleep can be a normal part of ageing. Older adults naturally spend less time in deep sleep and may wake more frequently overnight.
Rather than focusing only on how your sleep compares with when you were younger, consider how you feel during the day.
Consistency is another important part of healthy sleep as our bodies have an internal clock, known as the circadian rhythm, which helps regulate when we feel sleepy and when we feel awake while natural light plays an important role in keeping this body clock on track.
Going to bed and getting up at roughly the same time each day can help support a predictable sleep-wake cycle and large variations in sleep schedules, including regularly trying to make up for lost sleep by sleeping much later, can make it harder for the body to maintain that rhythm.
Everyday habits can also influence the quality of your sleep.
Caffeine later in the day can make sleep lighter and more fragmented, not just coffee to consider, with caffeine also found in tea, chocolate, cola drinks and some supplements.
Perhaps the most important message is that occasional poor sleep is normal with waking during the night from time to time does not necessarily mean something is wrong, and becoming anxious about getting enough sleep can sometimes make sleep difficulties worse.
Instead of focusing entirely on the number of hours you have slept, look at the bigger picture: are you allowing yourself enough time for sleep, keeping a reasonably regular routine and waking feeling rested enough to get through the day?
When it comes to healthy ageing, the goal is not perfect sleep every night.
It is creating the conditions that give your body and mind the best opportunity to get the restorative rest they need.
