l struggle. I’ve never figured out the direct cause of my problem. It could be anything: the weather, the temperature, my husband’s health, or even work stress. After several nights of poor sleep, I finally reached my breaking point and decided to tackle the issue head-on.
I am constantly worried about something. I limit my worries to things I can have some control over, but I worry about many things to the point that my husband is amazed by them. I generally research everything so that I can identify obstacles or challenges ahead of time before I schedule the tasks. It is my personality that makes me worry about many things. Some may find I am well-planned, but it can be stressful regardless.
This ongoing anxiety seems to have thrown off my internal clock. I started falling asleep about 45 minutes later than usual, which cut down my total sleep time. Before all this began, I had no trouble clocking over seven hours of sleep each night, excluding the brief periods my Fitbit marked as awake time. Around 40-45% of that sleep used to be deep or REM sleep. But Deep and REM sleep have been harder since the trouble started. My sleep quantity shrank to six hours a night, and though I’d spend eight hours in bed, two of those would be restless wakefulness.
Only recently did I realize how much I took sleep for granted. I could not even recall the last time I had a sleeping problem like that. I usually fall asleep quickly. Lately, though, I find myself lying awake, turning over the day’s worries in my mind one hour past my sleep time. I meditated on the day like that, hoping to drift off, but it wasn’t enough. My wake-up time crept later by about 15 minutes, though that didn’t help much, especially with the mornings getting darker. I still stick to my running routine despite my lack of sleep. I thought that I would not be able to sleep if I stopped exercising. Running would give me energy, but I feel more fatigued these days. Of course, I could still blame my hormone imbalance, given my age, but I wasn’t ready to let it slide that easily. This problem must be stopped. So, I focused on my lifestyle and started looking for answers.
Sleeping Issues
After one week of sleeping problems, I decided to observe what symptoms I started to have. I will never intentionally deprive myself of sleep in the future. Fortunately, I keep various biometrics such as weight, drinking, heart rate, and so on. This would be a perfect opportunity to observe firsthand what happens when sleep falls short. I want to talk about the effects I personally noticed during this period.
Weight Problem
One thing I noticed almost immediately, thanks to my food journal and regular weigh-ins, was the impact on my weight. I’ve been working on shedding a few pounds through exercise and maintaining a slight calorie deficit. However, no matter how much I exercised, the weight just didn’t come off as quickly as I hoped. In August, I lost less than a pound. WebMD explains that sleep deprivation triggers a spike in cortisol, which leads the body to conserve energy (Paturel, 2022). In addition, when you don’t sleep enough, your insulin sensitivity drops by as much as 30%. This means the body struggles to process fats from the bloodstream, and unprocessed fats end up being stored (para. 10-13). It’s a frustrating cycle.
Productivity
Despite struggling with sleep, I kept up with my running routine. But instead of feeling energized like usual, I felt drained. On a typical day, a morning run would boost my energy for the day. My heart rate would pump from a morning run, and my body would be filled with abandoned energy.
It was a little different during this time. I was a walking Zombie. The more I ran, the more fatigued I felt. Some days, it was like the feeling you get when you’re abruptly woken up from the middle of your deep sleep, leaving you groggy and disoriented. One day, I felt so sick that I tried slowing down on days I wasn’t feeling well, but ironically, my energy dropped even more.
With my naturally low heart rate and blood pressure, exercise usually helps me wake up. Still, without enough sleep, it wasn’t doing the trick. It’s no surprise that studies on military personnel have shown sleep deprivation can reduce cognitive function by up to 70% (Scharre and Fish, 2018, p. 7). The struggle was real.
Running Pace
From the log from my running app, my running pace also took a hit, dropping by 10-15 seconds per kilometer. Some might chalk that up to the August weather, but I usually run early in the morning when the temperature is fairly mild. Even in Nashville’s August heat, it’s about 68-73F degrees at 5:30 a.m., so that shouldn’t have impacted my pace. As September crept in and the sun rose later, I found myself forcing my body awake, feeling groggy and sluggish, almost like I was under a sleep spell. Still, I pushed through, determined not to lose my running time, even if I had to rely purely on willpower to get myself moving.
Focus Level
There’s no doubt that sleep plays a massive role in maintaining our focus. No matter how much I tried to learn during this time, my brain was on strike. Even focusing on stories in books became a challenge. I kept a journal of my planned tasks for the day, noting which ones I completed. On average, I could only get through all my tasks listed two or three days out of the week. The only silver lining was that I didn’t depend solely on motivation to meet my goals. Despite feeling like a zombie, I pushed through, albeit at a much slower pace.
Strategies
By the third week, I’d had enough of my sleep struggles and decided it was time to take action. The sleep problems started impacting me with my work. I began by analyzing the problem itself, listing out everything that could be affecting my sleep, and considering whether any adjustments were needed. Being naturally stoic, I already have a few healthy habits in place. I exercise consistently, keep track of my calorie intake, and meditate daily. So, what could I tweak? The biggest changes I saw potential in were getting more sunlight, eating more vegetables, and cutting out blue light before bedtime.
Here’s the breakdown of what I evaluated:
- Not enough sunlight in the morning → I made it a point to step outside and soak in some early sunlight each day.
- Nutrition → I decided to up my vegetable intake and add more variety to my meals.
- Exercise → No changes here. I’m already on top of it.
- Meditation → No change needed. This habit is firmly in place.
- Stress Level → Again, no significant changes. I already have stress management techniques I rely on.
- Blue Light → I made a conscious effort to stop using my computer 90 minutes before bedtime and avoid my smartphone while in the bedroom.
- Temperature → No adjustments. It wasn’t a factor for me.
In short, I took a hard look at my routine and focused on the areas where I could introduce improvements while keeping the elements that were already working for me.
What Happened After Making My Changes
The first change I made was getting sunlight. One afternoon, I spent over two hours working on our deck under the sun—don’t worry, I used sun protection. The result? I felt incredibly sleepy, but unfortunately, it hit me at the wrong time. I almost gave in to taking a nap, but I knew sleeping for over an hour would affect my ability to sleep at night. Instead, I settled for a quick 10-minute nap. I felt the nap itself didn’t make a huge difference, but it was better than nothing. That night, I got a solid seven hours of sleep. Getting more sunlight made me sleepy. It makes sense since exposure to sunlight helps regulate your body’s melatonin production.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the luxury of getting a few hours of sunlight every day.
The second change I made was eating one more cup of salad every day. Increasing my vegetable intake also had a positive impact on my sleep quality. I kept my bedtime consistent with what it had been for the past few weeks, but now I’m regularly getting at least seven hours of sleep. When I was looking into the potential solutions for my sleep issues, I found out that eating more plants or nuts could improve sleep quality. I was skeptical at first, but I decided to give it a try. Nothing to lose by doing that, right? I added an extra cup of salad to my daily intake, and surprisingly, it worked! I later found a journal article that confirmed my experience. It noted that people who consume more fruits and vegetables tend to have a lower dietary inflammatory index and experience better sleep than those who consume more sugar or energy-dense foods (Arslan et al., 2024, p. 2). I thought I was eating enough vegetables already, but it turns out I wasn’t.
Lastly, I stopped using devices that emit blue light before bed. I do have blue light-blocking glasses, but my sleep was more important than relying on them. Interestingly, I didn’t notice much difference in my sleep after cutting out blue light exposure. However, that’s likely because my sleep had already improved once I added more vegetables to my diet.
Conclusion
I’ll be honest. I still felt that my problem was serious. After several nights of restless sleep, anyone would feel uneasy, and I was no exception. I’ve noticed some negative impacts from the lack of sleep. So, on the way, I panicked. I tried breathing exercises or meditation on such nights. It didn’t help that I’d already encountered a few possible solutions, which only made me more anxious. Getting caught up in the fear that this might be a permanent issue is so easy. This time, eating more vegetables helped me. To be honest, I don’t know what really worked.
Now that I have reflected on the whole thing, I have turned this situation into a personal quest to solve instead of worrying about it. Once I see the problem as a quest, I can calmly think about the possible solutions instead of panicking. I researched and created a list of things I can do. Slowly, my worry shifted into curiosity instead of remaining a problem. Since the day I got a lot of sun, it made me sleep through the night, and I gained some hope.
I’ve made a lifelong commitment to staying healthy, and I worked at it hard. Initially, I found it fascinating—and a little ironic—that someone like me, who exercises daily and leads a generally healthy lifestyle, could still struggle with sleep issues. Life is full of surprises and learning, isn’t it? Then I realized how arrogant I was to even see myself like that. The truth is, I was far from perfect. This experience reminded me that there’s always room for improvement. It humbled me, showing me how arrogant it was to think I had everything figured out.
In many ways, this was a valuable learning experience. This experience made me reflect and see where adjustments could be made to improve my well-being further. Ultimately, it became an opportunity to refine my lifestyle, and I’m choosing to see it as a success.
References
Arslan, N., Bozkır, E., Koçak, T., Akin, M., & Yilmaz, B. (2024). From Garden to Pillow: Understanding the Relationship between Plant-Based Nutrition and Quality of Sleep. Nutrients, 16(16), Article 16. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16162683
Paturel, A. (2022, August 14). Does Sleep Affect Weight Loss? WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/diet/sleep-and-weight-loss
Scharre, P., & Fish, L. (2018). Human Performance Enhancement. Center for a New American Security. https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep20411