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- Diversity and Inclusion strategy? Let's start with rest spaces
Resting at work is not the first thing that comes to mind for anyone when they think about inclusion; we hope that will change after you have read this article. Providing rest spaces at work should be part of every diversity and inclusion strategy. A widely adopted view around inclusion is creating a workplace where you can bring your whole self to work; you are not hiding elements of who you are and you are fully able to be yourself. There are three areas where rest spaces at work play a big role in enabling your employees to be the best they can are listed below: Life circumstances - factors that make daytime rest necessary such as being a new parent or having a hidden illness Sleep inequality - addressing racial and class disparities in nighttime sleep through providing a rest space at work Shifting attitudes - especially among younger generations to embrace rest in the workplace Life circumstances Everyone at one stage of their career has needed to rest whilst at work. Whether this was taking a nap or just grabbing a quiet space. This can stem from increased work-related stress, lack of sleep due to work and personal schedules or simply just need to sit on and ponder on a solution. This also includes circumstances that may be more long term impacts such as parenthood and health issues. Having access to a Rest Space was an absolute Godsend! In my first trimester I was naturally exhausted. Travelling and working long office hours was tough and I wasn’t ready to share my pregnancy; we had waited 6 years! On long days I could comfortably book a nap or two and no one noticed as it was part of our office culture. The relief was immeasurable both physically and psychologically. I wasn’t forced to explain myself and could easily recharge my batteries to maintain work productivity; but more importantly keep me and my baby well. I had never been a ‘napper’ before or since my first trimester but my heart went out to all the other pregnant mums who didn’t have this opportunity. How on earth did they survive? Did they have to compromise their privacy or worse their or their baby’s health? Thankfully I didn’t have to choose. - Sam who used our rest spaces to get through the first trimester of her maternity. We don’t talk enough about the impact of pregnancy and menopause on fatigue. Many of the women I have spoken to have highlighted points in their careers where they just needed a quiet space to lie down or just have a moment to themselves but ultimately resort to sitting in a toilet cubicle getting some resemblance of rest. We are also aware of the lack of sleep parents receive at the beginning of parenthood and throughout their child’s early life. The nights of nursing a sick child, the early morning school routine and the catching up with things after bedtime. One of the best ways to counteract sleep deprivation like this is a daytime nap. My work has opened my eyes to the number of employees that are dealing with hidden illnesses, whether it be it long-term or short. One particular story that made me realise how important it was to have a rest space in the workplace is of a young woman I met with an autoimmune disease. They had aced through their whole life while managing their health, education, masters’ degree and graduate job. The challenge came when they were pushing for career progression in a finance career. The nature of their challenge meant they needed a nap during the working day however the fast-paced city culture didn’t accept that. Pushing through the dip was such a big struggle; they worked from home twice a week because having a nap made them so much more productive. Despite management being aware of the challenges, there was nowhere to rest at work and they felt like they were kissing their chances at promotion away if they napped at their desk and they knew not being able to be in the office as much as they wanted was impacting their chances. This person excelled at their job but felt they would be doing so much better if they had a place to take a 20-minute rest on their lunch breaks like they did when they worked from home. This is just one story of the many accounts of how much of an impact a rest space would have on people with the hidden illness to really bring their whole self and be the best they can at work. Racial and social disparities There is a body of research that highlights class and racial disparities in the amount and quality of sleep certain races and classes get at night. The quality of rest received by different classes and ethnic groups demonstrates disparities, which highlight that the ability to get a good rest is not equally shared. When you look at the impact of a good night's sleep on performance, well-being or mental health; it is in the best interests of employers to provide rest spaces in the workplace for all employees. The conclusions of this research boils down to the increased long-term stress experienced more by some race groups and classes. In addition to the stress, it also contributes to limited access to good healthcare, working longer and harder to achieve basic levels of security, less downtime such as vacations, times for hobbies and access to good quality foods. To add to this list, access to a good resting environment, good quality beds, air conditioning or heating, quiet neighbourhoods and clean air is largely skewed to a certain class and racial groups. A space to rest in the office can help employees cope better with fatigue and lost sleep especially on the days they really need it. A rest space can also help minimise some of the stress and overload they are getting from their working environment by giving them a quiet space to reflect and meditate in the office. An environment for the generations Napping during the day is most commonly seen in the older generations but is now hugely valued by the younger generations entering the workforce. With more forward-thinking tech organisations being amongst the first to provide spaces to rest in their offices. The label younger generations have received of being lazy to the upsurge in trends such a 躺平 - tǎng píng translated as ‘‘lying flat’ are all indications of a larger cultural trend; they value rest more. The concepts of working smart over working hard resonate much more amongst them. Concepts they have been exposed to much earlier in their lives thanks to the learnings shared from previous generations. As an organisation attracting and retaining the best talent is what sets you apart. Rest spaces can help you do this AND help you bring the best out of that talent. I like to think we often see the more experienced generations napping in public because they know better, they know napping makes them better at work and they have the confidence to ignore the stigma of napping in the workplace. As we get older the amount of sleep we get at night is reduced. This isn’t because we need more sleep, it is because we are unable to get the quality of sleep we need due to a number of factors from increased stress, pains and body aches, and shifts in our hormonal regulation. A nap during the day helps top up the sleep we are missing out on. Often as we get older we start to wake up earlier so come napping time our urge to sleep has been building up for much longer making the need to nap feel much stronger. Of course, as we get older we understand much more the benefits of taking time out. Rest spaces in the work environment will help bring fresh energy from the younger generations as well as the experience and creativity from the older generations. It creates a much more inclusive workspace for everyone. Providing a rest space for employees is often overlooked despite the increased attention to creating more inclusive workplaces. Action around inclusivity is often perpetuating information overload. Bombarding employees with more training, more talks, webinars and apps. Although awareness and education are beneficial, we need to provide them with the environment to put it into practice. We tell our employees to take breaks, rest, meditate yet the environment we provide makes it impossible to do any of this. Everyone in the workplace benefits from rest spaces regardless of their life circumstances, age, gender, class or race. Creating more inclusive spaces for our most marginalised employees creates more inclusive workplaces for everyone. Get in touch with RestSpaceLDN if you would like to learn more about our Diversity and Inclusion strategies. References Afternoon napping during pregnancy and low birth weight: the Healthy Baby Cohort study Top tips to improve sleep during the menopause Fatigue and menopause Sleep disparity, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic position. Grandner MA, Williams NJ, Knutson KL, Roberts D, Jean-Louis G. Who gets the best sleep? Ethnic and socioeconomic factors related to sleep complaints. Grandner MA, Patel NP, Gehrman PR, Xie D, Sha D, Weaver T, et al. Racial/Ethnic and Social Inequities in Sleep Medicine: The Tip of the Iceberg? Pandi-Perumal SR, Abumuamar AM, Spence DW, Chattu VK, Moscovitch A, BaHammam AS Young People Are Going to Save Us All From Office Life
- Mercedes’ Drivers can have a Nap
Recently we came across an article about Mercedes’ new electric car, the EQS. What surprised us the most is that it has a napping mode! We did a little research and found that Mercedes have been working on this as early as 2012. They conducted the TopFitTruck study and found that “drivers who have not had a good night's sleep drive more erratically and drive in a manner that wastes more fuel than their well-rested counterparts.” On top of that, drivers who feel tense behind the wheel have trouble making good decisions in stressful situations and over time tend to develop back problems. Here at Rest Space, we are always trying our hardest to provide the best space to rest to anyone who would need it and we want to give props to companies like Mercedes who are looking after their customers’ physical wellbeing. The Mercedes EQS has a special Power Nap program so drivers can get a nap in at a rest stop. The mode will automatically recline the driver’s seat, close the windows and the sunshade across the glass roof. and temperature are adjusted to create a soothing atmosphere. Relaxing sounds are played while an image of a starry sky appears on the dashboard screen. When it is time to wake up, the car will initiate special energizing fragrances and a gentle massage. We think this is a development in the right direction. The EQS creates an ideal environment to sleep, adapts the temperature and lighting to make it into a comfortable and familiar environment to the napper. This is similar to what Rest Space has integrated into our sleeping/napping pod, the [Rest Space] Everest. Now, when can we get a napping mode in all cars? Or even napping areas in back of trucks and lorries? Get in touch with Rest Space LDN if you find any new and interesting developments in the napping and wellbeing space.
- Let's talk about Shift Work, Sleep and Health
In our research, we found this post by The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) regarding shift work, sleep and health. Though this was published in 2018, here at Rest Space we are confident the issues mentioned here have been exacerbated by the recent pandemic and doing all we can to bring up to date research to organisations and people involved with shift work. "NHS staff are at high risk of sleep and circadian disruption, and there is evidence showing that fatigue is linked to increased risk of medical errors with consequences for patient safety." The key takeaways from this article are here: Shift work is common in many safety-critical and other sectors, including transport and healthcare. This can disrupt sleep and circadian timing Shift work is linked with an increased risk of sleep problems, occupational and driving accidents, and long-term health conditions Reducing its impact is a potential way to improve public health, health and safety in the workplace, and increase productivity "Shift-work related fatigue has been implicated in several serious workplace accidents. For example, fatigue has been linked to 21% of UK rail incidents." Some solutions that can be implemented to help alleviate the effects of shift work include: Strategically timed breaks/naps during the shift; this can be facilitated by having suitable break rooms or sleeping pods Improve education around managing shift work and promoting health and wellbeing Develop an open culture around taking breaks and napping when needed Get in touch with RestSpaceLDN If you would like to talk about some of these points or if you have any interesting articles you would like to share with us. Some extra reading Night work 'throws body into chaos' - BBC Doctors should nap during night shifts - British Medical Journal Defying body clock linked to depression and lower wellbeing Challenging the stigma of workplace napping - Oxford Academic Guidelines for Using Napping to Prevent Commercial Vehicle Driver Fatigue Napping: A public health issue. From epidemiological to laboratory studies Bus Driver Fatigue - Transport Safety Research Group
- One tip to excel in 2021 - schedule in your naps
Napping is a cross-cultural phenomenon which occurs across the lifespan - Dr Kimberly Cote Professor, MSc, PhD, Psychology As the new year begins many of us started to focus on learning a new skill or starting a new job or in many cases both. How many times has the overwhelming sense of what we have to learn led us to looking for productivity hacks? Do some of us do the ‘look, cover, write’ method? Are there ways to speed up the transition to be the ideal humans we aspire to be? Getting out of your comfort zone doesn't mean you must forgo comfort and learning new skills doesn't mean you must sacrifice your rest. In fact, having a nice cosy nap can speed up your memory retention and make it more effective. Having a nice cosy nap can speed up your memory retention and make it more effective. To some of you reading this it must seem like a contradiction. Spend more time resting so I can be smarter. Well, bare with me while I put forward the case for your afternoon naps, they no longer need to be cheeky naps or guilty pleasures. When we are starting a new job or acquiring a new skill we have a lot of learning to do. To really learn something effectively we need to be able to remember it and then apply it. Nothing is worse than spending time learning something new but then struggling to remember it when you need it the most. Or you learn something, but miss the opportunities you could have used it. Napping during the day can improve how much you remember, how long you remember it for, and your ability to apply this new information in more out of the box ways. Napping enhances memory Our memory recall works by transferring new recent memories into long-term permanent memory stores in our brain, most of which happens when we are sleeping. Sleep is an important step in our learning process. Short naps can help with improving the memory of information (declarative memory) and longer naps can help with improving your ‘muscle memory’ (procedural memory). The relationship between napping and memory has been identified by many studies such this one by Ju Lynn Ong, et al. who that found “participants who had a 90-minute afternoon nap in addition to a habitual, nonrestricted night of sleep encoded 21% more word pairs on average than those who stayed awake during the nap period. “ If our learning is 21% more effective, does that mean we can spend 21% less time learning? I'm not sure it works exactly that way but it can help you understand how effective prioritising your naps can be. If you've started a new job you have lots to take in, whether it is your new team's names, new processes, and what the company does. Make the most of this intensive flood of information by scheduling naps during your working day. This will help you more effectively store and understand all the information you are absorbing. The same goes when you are learning a new skill, we often feel the need to grind through and dedicate as much time to it as possible. In fact, taking a nap helps you pick it up faster and apply more creativity. Taking a nap helps you pick it up faster and apply more creativity Napping enhances creativity Research led by the University of Bristol looked at whether a short period of sleep can help us process unconscious information and how this might affect behaviour and reaction time. They found that even during short bouts of sleep we process information that we are not consciously aware of. Sleep has 2 main phases; REM (rapid eye movement sleep) and non-REM. Together they consist of 5 stages you cycle through while asleep. During REM information flows more freely between different brain networks. We take all the information we have previously learned and we start to link it to the new information in ways we couldn’t do while awake. The brain starts to explore new and abstract associations between the information we have stored. You wake up with new connections between what you know allowing you to see things from new perspectives. There is a reason the phrase ‘just sleep on it’ is a common solution to problems you can’t solve. There are numerous anecdotal stories of great discoveries coming to people while they napped. Dmitri Mendeleev is said to have dreamt of the periodic table after years of trying to find connections between the elements, and Paul Marcatney claims to have woken up with the song 'Yesterday' in his head and rolled over to his piano next to his bed to play it before he forgot it. One study showing the benefit of napping in creative problem solving got two groups to solve a complex problem which had a hidden rule found. They found 60% of the group that had a nap in-between solving the problem found the hidden rule. Only 20% of the control group found the hidden rule. Next time you have a problem to solve try prioritising your naps. Tips Don't nap in the 5hr window before you go to bed - to make sure you can still hit the hay at night. Schedule naps into your day and prioritise them - it's too easy to get caught up in what you are doing and you miss an opportunity to cement your learning. Make it a habit to get the most out of napping - great naps take practice Nap in a bed - studies have shown that compared to napping in a seat you have a much better rest (improvement in alertness and mood) from napping in a bed There is always time - Even short naps up to 10 min have shown to be effective for memory improvement and mood. Nap after a learning session - Regular breaks are important, nap breaks can help you retain the information you learned quicker. Check out our blog for more tips on how to make the most of your naps Improve your nap when working from home
- Can sleep make your vaccines more effective?
As we are moving deeper into the colder months and with a lot of talk of vaccines in the world at the moment; we decided to focus this month’s blog on sleep and its relationship with our immune systems. Over the years, we are coming to a realisation that sleep affects virtually every process in our bodies; and as we look more into sleep and our physical health, we are finding that sleep can also have an effect on our immune systems. Sleep and Vaccinations Vaccines work by introducing a weakened or deactivated form of the virus into your body, triggering an immune response. In a way, it teaches your body to identify and attack that antigen. In 2012, an experiment was carried out to see whether there was a relationship between sleep and the antibody response when the participants were given the hepatitis B vaccine. The researchers, based out of Pittsburgh, found that the people who slept less than six hours on average per night were less likely to have an antibody response to the vaccine and therefore were 11.5 times more likely to be unprotected by the vaccine than the people who slept seven or more hours on average. “Based on our findings and existing laboratory evidence, sleep may belong on the list of behavioral risk factors that influence vaccination efficacy,” lead author Aric Prather, PhD, a clinical health psychologist Similar kinds of studies have been conducted with the Hepatitis A vaccine and H1N1 swine flu vaccines with similar results. Though some of these involve total sleep deprivation before or after the vaccination, others have seen reduced vaccine effectiveness in adults who habitually fail to get at least seven hours of sleep. People who get insufficient sleep may not give their bodies enough time to develop immunological memory, potentially leaving them unprotected despite having been vaccinated. Sleep and Covid-19 Vaccine Last week, the UK MHRA approved the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use; this would be the first mRNA vaccine of its kind to be approved in an infectious disease. The differences is that instead of injecting us with a deactivated virus, the vaccine contains a small piece of mRNA from Covid-19. If you can imagine an IKEA instructional booklet being the full instructions on how to create a Covid-19 virus, this small mRNA is a torn page from that instruction booklet. And this small mRNA will encode segment of Covid-19 for us to respond to. This mRNA will be taken into our body and produce a small piece of Covid-19, small enough so you won’t fall ill to it but enough for our bodies to react and produce antibodies to fight against it. Essentially a similar process as we saw from the Hepatitis B vaccine above but our body creates a small piece of the Covid-19 virus for us to have an immune response to. With the mounting evidence that sleep has on our immune systems, the researchers at Walter Reed Medical Centre plans to have one group of participants sleep up to ten hours for a few nights before receiving the Covid-19 vaccine. “Over and over, we show that people who got insufficient amounts of sleep were more likely to get sick when we exposed them to a virus. It clearly plays a role in health and well-being.” - Aric Prather Though not a confirmation that sleep will let you respond to the vaccine better, it is one of the factors we have control over to help us fight against Covid-19. On top of that, we could also do with a couple more hours of sleep for our general well being and being more productive in the workplace. Get in touch with RestSpaceLDN if you would like to learn more about sleep and vaccine.
- Why should you get paid to sleep on the job?
I've been wanting to write a piece on the stigma of napping at work but Sara Alger, Allison Brager, and Vincent Capaldi have done a much better job with this in their Challenging the stigma of workplace napping article published in the Sleep Research Society Journal. The article looks at the common pushback people have when talking about napping at work. Here is a snippet from their 3 main points: “Why Should Someone Get Paid to Sleep on the Job?” People are already napping on the job, why not make it more of a benefit to your team and company? "Employees already seek out covert naps, and internet tips for “sneaking in a nap at work” reveal unsanitary (restroom) and uncomfortable (car) locations as top sites for napping. If employers embraced workplace napping, this option could produce a comparatively more marked and sustained increase in productivity" “I Don’t Have Time to Nap. I Have Too Much Work.” Pushing through dips are counterproductive and produces lower quality work with more mistakes. Have a nap and improve your productivity "During an average work afternoon, a disproportion of the circadian alerting signal to the rising homeostatic sleep pressure occurs, resulting in increased sleepiness and reduced alertness. These factors, along with other impacted cognitive and emotional performance metrics, resulting in decreased productivity. There is a wealth of evidence that brief daytime naps of 10–20 minutes decrease subjective sleepiness, increase objective alertness, and improve cognitive performance " “You Must be Lazy if You Take Naps.” Humans have been napping for as long as we can look back. In Japan its seen as a sign of working very hard. "This statement reflects the most damaging and pervasive stigma placed upon napping. However, this argument is based largely in ignorance and companies are beginning a movement to counteract it. Google, Uber, Nike, Cisco, Zappos, Huffington Post, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Proctor & Gamble, and Ben & Jerry’s. Not only do these companies encourage workplace naps, but they provide accommodations, such as rooms secluded for the purpose of napping, often equipped with nap pods or beds." At [Rest Space] we have spoken to hundreds of people in the UK to understand their habits around workplace napping and found on average 80% of people think naps are great for them. When we ask these same people what other people think of them napping they say they feel they are viewed as lazy and should get fired. The scary thing for me is the data showed that caffeine is the biggest go-to when fatigued followed by snacking. 3 things to highlight about caffeine Caffeine makes you feel more alert but it's not likely to it improve your performance when you are tired. A number of studies have found that caffeine does not reverse the effects of sleepiness when it comes to high-risk decision making and memory consolidation. You can say it treats the sleepiness symptom but not actually the underlying impact of sleepiness. Caffeine affects your sleep quality, even if you don’t think it doesn’t. In one of her studies, Dr Amy Bender found that an athlete was waking up to 22 times an hour after drinking coffee at night time despite them being adamant a nighttime coffee didn't affect their sleep. Caffeine’s quarter-life is 12 hrs, meaning that it can take up to 12hrs for your body to remove three-quarters of the caffeine you had. It affects your sleep quantity; research has shown drinking caffeine even 6 hours before bed reduces your sleep time by up to one hour. If napping is so natural for humans where did this stigma come from? The image of a shepherd or farm hand having a nap in the afternoon is ingrained in many of our minds. The prevalence of the boss napping on the sofa in the office is commonplace in many TV shows such as Mad Men. Did it come about when we started to look at productivity solely as time spent working instead of quality or creativity? For many of us, technology has replaced the jobs that required repetition and mindless tasks where time working was probably closer to measure your productivity. Now many of our jobs require more human connection, complex decision making, and creativity. These are not directly proportional to the time spent working. Let us work smarter not harder. 'The challenge is to continue the spread of information regarding the wealth of benefits of napping to combat the numerous physical, mental, and financial consequences of fatigue. The long-term plan is to normalize and implement scheduled napping during working hours.' Sara E Alger et al Well, what can I do? First, take 5 minutes to read Challenging the stigma of workplace napping by Sara E Alger et al Start napping and don't worry about letting people know you nap, chances are they do too. Lastly, management is responsible for promoting a culture of physiological safety when it comes to napping at work. If you believe in employee wellness, here are some things to think about. Many organizations are doing this very visibly by introducing nap pods and wellbeing rooms into the office. Others are allowing more flexible work schedules and running sleep and wellness webinars for the benefit of their employees, some have even explicitly stated their napping policy in their work contracts. If you are not in a position to influence it, raise it next time your employee survey comes around. Get in touch with RestSpaceLDN if you would like to learn more about this topic.
- Phones, devices, and sleep
Earlier this month we launched the #signingoff challenge. We wanted a fun way to rethink our use of devices before bed. The challenge is not to use your devices 1 hour before bed. We’ve been looking into how this can help with your sleep and mental health. Who knew that one hour away from our devices can help us feel better, wake up more rested and give us better sleep? Well not many people the national sleep foundation found that 95% of us use some sort of computer, video game, phone within an hour of bed. This isn’t a surprise as our phone are often the last thing we look at, setting our alarm and clearing our notifications is part of our sleep routines From the [Rest Space] sleep webinars I was all too familiar with the impact that even 1 hour less sleep can have on our mood and performance. I was curious to know if our device's were impacted our sleep quality. We took a deep dive into the popular topic on the effect blue light from our devices has on our sleep. I wanted to look at the other reasons our devices impact our sleep. My body wants to sleep but my brain is telling me NOOOO Many of us have forgotten to prepare for bed. When we were kids we knew bath time, pyjamas and a bedtime story meant bedtime. This helped us not only calm our bodies but also our minds. As much as we need to physically prepare, we also need to get our minds ready for bed, wind them down. Otherwise, we jump in bed and lie there awake, spending commutative hours and days over our lifetime waiting for sleep. Then we get frustrated, we can't sleep and countless other frustrating situations start to come to mind. Now you are awake. Deprived of hours of sleep. Or in some cases you fall asleep and wake up in a few hours worrying, unable to fall back asleep. This can be the result of us not winding our minds down before we sleep, leaving all our stressors front of mind. We also need to get our minds ready for bed, wind them down Using our devices before we go to bed compounds this problem. Our devices arouse us, they represent all the things we still have to do, the fun, the social engagements we are missing out on, the stress of work - they do the opposite of winding down. They wind us up. Even a quick scroll or glance at our notifications can arouse us, keeping our brain active for long after we have put our devices away. We associate them with everything going on in our lives. Junk sleep - think junk food When thinking of what is good sleep I like to think of it like food, to me good food makes me feel full and it gives me lots of nutrients and tastes amazing. When it comes to sleep many of us only think of it in terms of making us full. Was it enough sleep? We also need to think, was it good sleep. Our brain and body are very active when we sleep with lots going on to process and repair us mentally and physically this are what I equate to getting nutrients from food. Some indications of not getting your ‘sleep nutrients’ are tossing and turning, not being able to get back to sleep after waking up, feeling tired all day even though you slept enough. Finally, does it taste good, this one is even more subjective but I like to think of it as my dream. If you are going to bed with a negative mindset your dreams are more likely to echo this. Several things impact your quality of sleep like stress and psychological factors, light, drugs including alcohol and caffeine and our DEVICES. Think of these as the oils and sugars in our food, a little is great but too much of them is…. well undesirable. Why is my phone a problem when it's so smart? Research into why devices impact our sleep is still very young. Theories currently name a number of factors from physiological arousal which I have covered a lot here, lights impacting our circadian clocks which we have covered in a previous blog and even radio frequencies (RF-EMF) potentially affecting our brains. What is sure from all the studies is that limiting phone use before bed does improve your quality and quantity of sleep, - in food terms: you are full and get lots of nutrients. A study this year from Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, found restricting mobile phone use before bedtime for four weeks was effective in ‘reducing sleep latency (the time it takes to fall asleep), increasing sleep duration, improving sleep quality, reducing pre-sleep arousal, and improving positive affect and working memory.’ This study echoes and provides more detail to similar studies carried out in Finland, Sweden and Saudi Arabia In short you spend more of your time in bed actually asleep waiting to sleep or restless, you wake up feeling more refreshed, and you generally sleep for longer. When you look at the impact even 1 hour more sleep can have on your mood, physical fitness, performance, creativity and productivity it seems to me like a no brainer to put my devices down one hour before bed. Devices are a detriment to one of the most important pillars of our health and we need to establish a better relationship. The research into the impact our phones have on our sleep all tells the same story, they are a detriment to one of the most important pillars of our health and we need to establish a better relationship. Until we get a better understanding of the cause we know we can still benefit greatly by putting away our devices an hour before bed. Sleep plays such an important role in our physical and mental wellbeing. Improving our sleep can have a positive effect in every other aspect of our wellbeing. Some practical tips Set a reminder to put your devices away. I personally put mine on flight mode. For those of you that wouldn’t want to be ‘unavailable’ maybe put it in a different room with notifications on silent, or turn off the internet so if someone needs to get hold of you in an emergency they can still reach you through a good old fashioned call. If you slip up on one day don’t beat yourself up, habits take time to build - keep trying. This hour is a great time to read, plan our days, journal, have a hot bath, indulge in some self-care. For the better lot of us this time can be used for meditation or yoga. If you have families, it can be a chance to prepare for the next day without the added stress of tending to every notification. It takes some time to find what this no phone zone will look like for you, don’t give up. Instead of trying to minimise the amount of sleep you have why not try and maximise the quality of your sleep? Sleep is non-negotiable, let's make sure we increase the ‘sleep nutrients’ and stop wasting our time with junk sleep. #signingoff #goodnightworld
- Weighted Blankets, Sleep & Anxiety
Earlier this year [Rest Space] bumped into Remy cofounder Abeer at the Sleep & Mindful Living Show. As we are always learning how to create the best rest environment we were keen to catch up with Remy and find out more about weighted blankets. Remy sells weighted blankets to help you sleep better and look stylish, they are breathable with a luxurious feeling. Remy blankets help you fall asleep faster, for longer and more deeply. We were intrigued to find out more about this How do they work? Using a Remy blanket means you sleep with a blanket that weighs the perfect amount for you. Sleeping underweight can provide a beneficial calming and relaxing effect, helping to reduce anxiety and give you a calmer and better night’s sleep. How does that work? Because research shows that sleeping underweight can help reduce movement that disturbs sleep so you can get more of it. Not only are these blankets great for adults, research also proves that these weighted blankets positively benefit people with autism and children in order to improve focus. Weighted blankets use Deep Pressure Therapy (DPT), which evenly distributes a gentle weight and pressure on the body to mimic the sensation of being swaddled. When you’re feeling anxious, your autonomic nervous system (which regulates your bodily functions like heart rate, respiratory rate, and digestion) either sends your body into ‘fight or flight’ (stress) or rest mode. The application of pressure therapy tells it to go into “rest” mode, reducing some of the symptoms of anxiety like quickened heart rate and breathing. This pressure therapy has the same effect as when you are being cuddled and hugged, you feel relaxed. Well, that is why these blankets make you feel relaxed. The evenly applied weight stimulates the production of serotonin (happiness hormone), reduces cortisol (stress hormone) and increases melatonin (sleep hormone). Better sleep makes sweeter dreams! Let the reviews speak! All Remy products are based on research conducted by sleep scientists, but it doesn’t stop there for them. They want to know how much Remy has helped people sleep so they conducted a survey of over 300 customers who have slept with Remy for over 30 nights. In this study: - 83% said Remy helped them have a better sleep. - 90% said they feel less stressed and more relaxed when under their Remy weighted blanket. - 75% said they fell asleep faster using Remy. To Remy, these results speak loud for their company. Based on Trustpilot, they were rated 4.5/5 and one of their customers Emily Hayden, stated “my mornings have been brighter after sleeping under my Remy weighted blanket”. Clearly, Remy blankets are revolutionary products they put practicality and design into the weighted blanket and we love what Remy does in order to help improve people's sleep. Sweet dreams!
- Transitioning back to Normality
As we slowly ease back into some sort of normality a lot of us have picked up new skills and habits over the last 3 or so months. If you have forged or rediscovered old hobbies or habits while staying at home; consider making those into part of your normal routines. A couple of things I have been told from my network is that a lot of them have tried out napping, many have started gardening and baking and almost everyone has tried out something new during this period and have come to a conscious decision to maintain it. But with the positive comes some negatives too; lockdown was a period that also affected a lot of people’s mental health. The fear of the virus, isolation and worries for friends and family was on a lot of people’s minds but now as we move forward we can heal, reflect and adapt. We have listed some things that you may want to consider coming out of lockdown: Napping You may not want to admit it but some of you have definitely picked this up working from home. Whether it's a conscious nap after lunch or sneaking in a shut eye at some point during the day between work video calls; you realised that you had a burst of energy shortly and thereafter. As humans we have a dip in temperature after lunch; biologically programmed for us to have a short rest. Listen to your body and bring this productivity burst when you return to the workplace. Sleeping A survey conducted by King’s College London in partnership with Ipsos MORI has shown that 50% of UK residents aged 16-75 has shown disturbed sleep during the lockdown period, with 2 in 5 people reported that they had less sleep each night on average and 3 in 10 saying they have slept more but feel less rested. The return to normality will result in some changes in our habit but something to keep a close eye on is your sleep. Try to keep a consistent sleep schedule and focus on having a routine, whether it is putting your electronic devices away or having a non-caffienated drink before heading to your bed. Sleep is important for your physical and mental health; sleep helps us recover and heal our bodies as well as process the memories and information we formed when we are conscious. Habits and hobbies If you have picked up an activity during the last few months such as baking sourdough or planting the leftovers of your meals, this would be the perfect time to include them in your schedule as it reverts back to normal. Think about what was meaningful to you when you didn’t have to travel into your workplace and notice the little things that made you now a better version of yourself. Lockdown may have been the perfect excuse to do the things you have been putting off. Make lockdown the best thing that ever happened to you by keeping the greatest things about it; those naps, habits and practices that served you well throughout and will keep serving you during your future. Get in touch with RestSpaceLDN if you would like to learn more about this topic.
- Sleep and Mental Wellbeing
With a lot of us in self-isolation, it is important for us to look after ourselves, our mental well-being and stay positive during this time. Feeling sad now and again is a part of life but when you don’t get your 7-9 hours of sleep it can influence your outlook on life, motivation and mood. If you’re feeling down, you may not realise that one factor could be your lack of sleep; even a small level of sleep deprivation can work away at your happiness. Sleep is important because it is a restorative state, the deficiency of it might make you less enthusiastic and more irritable or even have some symptoms of depression. These can affect your mental state but also the people close to you as well. The link between sleep and mood has been seen time and time again by researchers. Studies have shown that sleep can lower anxiety, stress and create a positive outlook; people were less impulsive and had a greater tolerance for frustration compared to people with insufficient sleep. One study has shown that 75% of depressed patients have insomnia and the patients who had recovered from depression but still had sleeping problems are prone to relapse. If you start to notice a change in your sleep patterns, take a moment and invest in your self-care and try to reach out for help. But remember just because it may be associated doesn't imply causation. None of us are immune from depression and some of us are more likely than others to develop depression, these populations also exhibit higher rates of insomnia. Some of the ways which can help during this time indoors includes keeping a regular sleep routine; exposing yourself to bring light when you wake up can suppress your melatonin (a hormone that encourages sleep) and increase your cortisol (a hormone that helps you wake up in the morning). Physical activities can also lead to better quality sleep; it reduces stress and tires you out. Additionally, it raises your body temperature and as you cool off it can trigger sleepiness, just be sure to not exercise too close to your bedtime. If you’re finding getting to sleep is difficult, be sure to speak to friends and family or consult a medical professional. Get in touch with RestSpaceLDN if you would like to learn more about sleep and mental wellbeing topic.
- Have you been dreaming more during lockdown?
I have recently had quite a few people reaching out to me about unusual dreams during this period. In my journey into understanding sleep, I have been fascinated about the role dreams play and would like to bring together some of my thoughts to help us better understand our dreams and improve our sleep. A number of reasons can make you dream more. Here are some that could be the result of the current situation with covid19. I will look at why we dream, how the current situation may affect our dreams and what we can do to improve our dream experiences. What are dreams? Before we dive into what could be causing unusual dreams it is important to look at why we dream. When we sleep our body may appear lifeless but our brains are as active as they are during the day. Dreams can occur at any sleep stage but most dreams occur in our rapid eye movement (REM) sleep about 20min into our 90 min sleep cycles. REM sleep is said to help with our emotional regulation and memory. During REM sleep the thalamus in our brain is active. The thalamus is responsible for receiving sensory information. It sends the cortex images, sounds, and other sensations that fill our dreams. Not only does our brain file away our experiences, memories, and learning during REM sleep it is also said to associate it to related memories and content in our brains. Why might we dream more during this time? Remembering more dreams On average you have around 3 to 6 dreams a night, most people do not remember their dreams or that they have dreamt. On average people remember 4 to 6 dreams a month. The functions tied to recalling dreams disappear very quickly when we wake up. People tend to remember dreams more when there is increased emotion attached to a dream, it is a strange dream they wake up during or just after the dream. In the next few points, I will cover why there may be more emotion attached to some of the dreams you are experiencing and why the content may be different. You may not be dreaming more, you may simply be remembering more of your dreams. This can be due to the content and the fact we are no longer rushed into our commutes giving us more time to recall dreams when we wake up in the morning Dealing with uncertainty and new routines During the day we are bombarded with content eliciting fear and stress which persists into our dreams. The headlines and reporting of the current situation are not helping with our mental health. This on top of the uncertainty we all face is bound to increase anxiety and activate the body's fight or flight responses. How this relates to our dreams is covered in the threat simulation theory one of the more popular theories as to why humans evolved to dream. It outlines that dreams help us rehearse threats and appropriate responses to them, helping us adapt and prepare. The threat simulation theory may explain why dreams are more negative than positive and often contain themes that are not reflective of our modern-day to day lives such as being attacked. What is almost certain is that the content of our dreams help us regulate our experiences, emotions and integrate them into other semantic networks. We may be having more emotional dreams as the content of our days are more loaded with emotions caused by the current situation. Our new routines can also play a role in the changes of content in our dreams in a different way. In REM sleep the brain does not just file away new memories it also associates it to related content. As our schedules and stimuli during the day have changed there is a chance that different associations are being referenced than what we are generally used to. As a bi-product the content of our dreams is different. We may recall these dreams easier as the content is unusual. Longer sleep period Most of us are getting more time asleep, reclaiming the time our morning commutes and social commitments stole from us. Evidation health found that after the US declared people should stay at home the fitness trackers of 68000 Americans show they are getting 20% more sleep. Not only is this great for our health it is also giving us more time to dream. You may be remembering more of your dreams simply because you are spending more time dreaming! Another cause can be explained by REM rebound. 1 in 3 of us suffers from poor sleep so those of us that were running our lives on sleep deprivation due to our busy social and work lives may be experiencing REM rebound. REM rebound occurs when you regularly do not get enough sleep. You tend to spend more time in REM sleep on the occasions you manage to finally get enough sleep. REM sleep as mentioned earlier is the stage in our sleep cycle where most dreaming occurs. The amount of sleep you need is biologically determined but may change slightly with age. For most people it's between 7.5hrs and 8.5hrs of sleep and for a small portion of people, it could be as little as 6hrs or as much as 10hrs. How can I improve my dreams? There are a number of ways to approach your dreams and improve your sleep. I will talk about some of the things I have found most accessible and impactful. Embrace your dreams Biologically speaking dreams are not there for us to interpret if they were then arguably we would remember much more of them. Our dreams are very subjective and linked to our personal experiences (Dr. Antonio Zadra ). Based on Dr Zadra's observations I would not encourage you to dwell on the content of your dreams for too long but it is an opportunity for you to reflect on how you feel and explore ways to improve your overall emotional wellbeing. You can also take comfort in knowing that studies have shown dreams and more specifically nightmares may help us process and deal with trauma. A study conducted at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago of recently divorced women, showed that the women who dreamt more about the divorce and their spouse overcame their depression significantly faster than women who didn’t. Dreams help us with emotional problem solving and making sense of our experiences. They can help resolution with trauma, depression, and bereavement. The intense dream you had maybe helping you with situations you are going through - embrace them Regular sleep routine Maintaining a regular sleep routine will help with the quality of your sleep. Quality of sleep is an important factor in our overall sleep health. It can minimise your experience of REM rebound and support your ability to process emotions during the day. Here are some tips for improving your sleep quality: A good routine includes having the same bedtime and wake up time. The regularity of sleep has a great impact on our quality of sleep. Your ability to fall asleep has a significant physiological factor. Keep your bed for sleep and sex, thus allowing you to fall asleep quicker when you jump in bed as your brain associates it with sleep. Avoid your devices before bed, mainly to prevent the anxiety and physiological activation they trigger. Devices easily delay you from falling asleep for 30min or more as your brain tries to switch off from this activation. Instantly adding to your sleep debt, Journaling Writing in a journal before you sleep can help take the emotional edge off some of your day's experiences. Relieving the anxiety and stress from a growing to-do list or article you read earlier in the day can help you wind down. Researchers from Baylor University and Emory University found that writing to-do lists, rather than writing about completed tasks, helped people fall asleep an average of nine minutes faster. Journaling is even more attractive when compared with the pharmaceutical clinical trials of people using sleeping aids. The participants fell asleep only 10 minutes earlier than usual. Positive journaling can also help frame your thoughts before bed. Research has found anxiety before sleep is related to a negative dream effect and peace of mind before sleep is related to a positive dream effect. If you want good dreams -go to bed with a positive frame of mind. The science of dreaming is still in its early days but what has been uncovered shows that dreams help us with our emotional wellbeing and memory. So embrace and explore your dreams no matter how scary they are. If your dreams are considerably affecting you, you may wish to talk to a professional and look at dream mastery techniques and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Sweet Dreams! Get in touch with RestSpaceLDN if you would like to learn more about dreams and the effects.
- 3 things that can improve your nap when working from home
Is there a right way to nap when you are working from home? When working from home it is usually difficult to get into a healthy routine. Many of us end up glued to our work and don’t take the breaks we need. It is easier to be inactive as the toilet is closer and the walk to get a coffee is shorter. There is no lunchtime gym class and the boundaries between work and home become blurred. One of the joys I quickly found when working from home was being able to get a nap in during the day. Many people have told us the same, they have nowhere to nap at work but they love to have a nap when they work from home and it does wonders for their productivity. As I’ve started to discover, napping regularly is part of a healthy lifestyle and if done right is great for your productivity, creativity, and health. Now many of us are working from home making this a great chance to perfect and improve our napping habits. If you are going to spend 20 mins to an hour napping, how can you get the most out of your time? Getting an early morning or post-lunch nap was something I looked forward to on my work from home days. In the beginning, these days were few and far between but as many workplaces adapt and made them mandatory I found myself working from home regularly. I started to revisit my napping at home habits and improve them as I had the luxury of doing so more frequently. Here are some of the things I learned to improve my nap quality: The length of my nap Time of day I take my nap The environment I nap in If you would like to know more about how you can improve your nap when working from home get in touch with RestSpaceLDN.