I firmly believe that many of our social behaviors are linked to our sleeping habits. The common road rage, grumpiness, loss of productivity at workplaces and schools are only a few examples. I had earlier written an article on the subject some weeks ago, “Sleepless nights in Kingdom.” This is an extension of the same subject. A careful study of our behavioral pattern will reveal that many of our personal and emotional problems are caused due to the loss of those sweet and much-needed eight hours of shuteye.
Years ago, before the modern life as we know it with its TVs channels, smart phones, and fast food chains, Saudis had a healthy lifestyle — early dinner, quiet nights and full eight hours of sleep. It came naturally by that time. No distracters demanding full attention day and night, to be connected, to be present whenever a message or an e-mail is sent your way. That was why that generation used to get up early in the morning, full of energy, in the right mood, meeting the day’s challenges with open hearts and minds. Words such as stress, exhaustion and work burnout were not even in their dictionary.
However, with new technologies things changed, as the benefits are so great to be overlooked. Along the way we, and the rest of the world, started to change, to adapt to new lifestyles and behaviors. Unfortunately, a lot of these behaviors have contributed baldy to our sleeping habits and consequently gave rise to sleep-related problems. Although sharing the burden of this new lifestyle with rest of the world, we created other issues ourselves.
One of those is the tendency to eat late. Not only that but eating unhealthy meals. This happens at home, at the nearest restaurant, and at wedding ceremonies. The last time I attended a wedding function, we were served dinner at 12.30 in the morning! Of course that is after midnight but technically speaking it is morning. Such habits will affect one’s sleeping patterns. In addition to that one’s stomach will be working overtime trying to deal with the late night arrivals, causing acids to leak into the esophagus, usually followed by a tired morning because the body was not able to rest properly. Most health experts advise a three-hour difference between the last meal and bedtime and to avoid fatty food in that meal altogether. Also, add to the eating bad habits, the tendency to drink a lot of caffeinated beverages throughout the day. Serving coffee and tea in our houses is not only a pastime; it is a sign of generosity and hospitality. Usually at family get together, we arrive late at night and start by having coffee and tea, followed by a heavy dinner, then a second round of coffee and tea; all these within an hour or two and then we go to bed late!
Next example of behaviors affecting our sleep is the addiction to screens. For a lot of us, from the first second of waking up in the morning, to the last second before falling asleep, it is a journey from one screen to another. Although the modern life of work and even family is dictating such needs but a lot of us tend to overdo it. Drowsing off while watching TV, or even worse, watching TV in the bed, checking e-mails, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp messages in the darkness of the bedroom are all bad habits. For a good night sleep, the mind needs to be prepared to go to bed. The brain needs to relax, to get in the mood for sleeping. The brain helps with that by introducing melatonin, a hormone that prepares the body to drowse and to drift into sleep. Being connected to the phone, or to the TV, alerts the mind and prohibits the sensitive to light hormone from flowing into the blood. The result is staying up late, followed by a restless sleep.
The health risks related to sleep deprivation are on the rise, especially for those at a young age. It is definitely alarming. We truly need to scrutinize our lifestyles. Simply put, for a society to be productive, it needs to sleep, and sleep well!
