Sleep and optimal well-being

“Sleep is the single most effective thing we can do to reset our brain and body health each day.”_¹

Matthew Walker, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and Founder and Director of the Center for Human Sleep Science
Twitter: @sleepdiplomat

Why is sleep important? That’s a question attracting much scientific interest – amid the increasing busyness of our modern lives and the temptation to shave off hours spent seemingly “idle”.

But the cost to our well-being is real. Neuroscience research in particular is bringing heightened awareness to the importance of sleep: its duration, continuity, and timing. Fortunately, our growth in understanding is coupled with the ability to track our sleep more easily using wearable devices (such as smartwatches). So to a significant extent, correcting our sleeping habits is within our control.

When we consider health and well-being, nutrition and regular physical activity are top-of-mind. It is now clear that sleep, unlike nutrition and exercise, is not a pillar of health, but rather the foundation to support optimal health and well-being. Sleep is unique in having a significant effect on our health, while being a strong indicator of underlying health problems.

What happens when we sleep?

Technicalities aside, there are two main states of sleep: Rapid Eye Movement (REM, when we dream) and non-Rapid Eye Movement (non-REM, which increases in depth to ‘deep sleep’). Both states do wondrous things, and they are not without activity, as we might expect. During certain stages of sleep, your brain is up to 30% more active than when you are awake.

REM and non-REM cycle throughout the night, every 90 minutes, with the ratio balance shifting from non-REM dominance to REM over a course of about eight hours – making seven to nine hours the “sweet spot” for a good night’s rest. Different stages of sleep perform different functions for the brain and body, at different times of night. Memories are replayed over and over during your sleep – sped up during non-REM sleep, and slowed down in REM. It’s a mysterious dance, but one that has profound effect on our health and well-being.

“Non-REM sleep is crucial to memory retention, and to acquiring and refining our motor skills. REM sleep plays a role in our abilities to overcome negative feelings, read other people’s emotions and solve problems.”²

David Kamp, Exploring the Necessity and Virtue of Sleep.

There is clearly an intimate relationship between sleep and mental health.

Reading all this, we can start to see why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends a minimum of seven hours of sleep for adults to maintain human health. (The developing brain, until it is fully developed around 25 years of age, needs more. See the sleepfoundation.org for age range guidelines.)

Health Impact of less than 7 hours’ sleep

Sleep affects every major organ system in the body and every operation of the mind,³ so interrupting or cutting short our natural sleep cycle affects our health profoundly. Shorter sleep predicts all-cause mortality; sleeping less than seven hours a night increases your risk of death from all causes of mortality by 24%.⁴

Some of the measurable impacts of less than seven hours of sleep include³:

On the flip-side, a good night’s rest has a multitude of benefits, including:

• Deep sleep being akin to blood pressure medication – decelerating your heart rate, helping your blood vessels relax, dropping your levels of cortisol (a stress-related chemical that is often chronically high);
• Quietening our fight-or-flight sympathetic nervous system, shifting to our restorative parasympathetic nervous system;
• Cleansing the mind; the brain has a cleansing system that is most active at night, similar to the body’s lymphatic system.

What is the relevance for life insurance?

Life insurance pricing and risk management are premised on assessing each individual’s risk profile for the likelihood of early mortality or predisposition to illness. The more accurate and fine-tuned the underwriting, the better aligned and more affordable the cover for each individual.

Given how significant sleep is to our well-being, we (at Elevate) care a great deal about your sleep. We can support you through real-time integration of relevant wellness data (wearable trackers, financial management, episodes of healthcare, etc), conducting big data analysis to identify risk factor trends, and determining – on an individual level – what actions directly impact your longevity. Our model empowers you to make more informed choices.

Recently our CEO, Matan Abraham, (together with fellow actuary, Nicole Kriek of Insight Actuaries and Consultants) addressed the All-Actuaries Summit in Melbourne, Australia on “Sleep, Wearables and the Future of Underwriting”⁵. Their presentation describes some of the work underway to incorporate sleep data into the life insurance customer journey. We’re at the global forefront in enhancing underwriting and customer care through proactive data integration.

Actions you can take to improve your sleep

Encouragingly, studies show that it is never too late to improve your sleep and realise improvements in health, and even memory. (Read our blog on the regenerative capacity of your brain, which unsurprisingly is turned off when deprived of sleep.)

Where to start? Awareness is key. Wearable sleep trackers (such as smartwatches) can be supportive tools in monitoring our sleep duration and patterns (as illustrated in the image alongside, tracked by a Fitbit).

We hope soon to announce the inclusion of sleep tracking in our Customer Wellness Portal to provide additional, actionable insights on your sleep and well-being.

In the meantime, you are well-advised to:

1. Cap your coffee intake to the mornings.
   • Coffee has a quarter-life of 10 to 12 hours, so a quarter of the caffeine in the cup you drank at 1 pm could still be circling your brain at midnight, inhibiting your REM sleep.
2. Limit the use of alcohol as a nightcap.
   • Alcohol “sleep” is in fact sedation and triggers your fight-or-flight response.
3. Incorporate mindfulness into your daily routine.
   • Help shift the balance from reception to reflection at moments during the day, not just when you hit the sack.
4. Adopt a regular sleep schedule.
   • Dim the lights an hour before your bedtime, getting in touch with your circadian rhythm. Similarly, on rising, boost your energy with 40 minutes of direct sunlight, for subsequently better sleep.

Short Takeaway: Recognise the value of good sleep for your optimal well-being and be more intentional in how you allocate your time.

References:

¹Walker, Matthew. 2017. Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. New York: Scribner.

²Kamp, David. 10 October 2017. Exploring the Necessity and Virtue of Sleep. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/books/review/snooze-michael-mcgirr-sleep-dreams.html. (Accessed 7 June 2022.)

³Sleep Is Non-Negotiable: Dr. Matthew Walker | Rich Roll Podcast. 10 May 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTvxa0Rlhpg. (Accessed 9 June 2022.)

⁴Sandhu, Amneet & Seth, Milan & Gurm, Hitinder. 2014. Daylight savings time and myocardial infarction. Open heart. 1. e000019. 10.1136/openhrt-2013-000019.

⁵Sleep, Wearables and the Future of Underwriting. All-Actuaries Summit. 3 May 2022. Presentation by Matan Abraham and Nicole Kriek. Recording available at https://youtu.be/Mu8eWhf_n2c.