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Hi ,

Social scientists often cite the “fresh start effect”—the psychological reset offered by a new year—and I am taking that to heart this January. Beginning January 5, we will adopt a new rhythm: I will share my weekly column with you every Monday, followed by a reimagined newsletter format on Fridays designed to better serve your pursuit of happiness. Besides the all-new content and a fresh, new format, these will be coming from a new email address. I’ll keep you posted as we get closer so you don’t miss a thing!

Now, onto today’s topic: the night.

In exactly six days here in the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice occurs—the longest night of the year. An excellent occasion for a long night’s sleep, right?

If you’re like me (a notoriously bad sleeper), your answer to that question might be a resounding no. But decades of research suggest that sleep deprivation might be a very big deal for your health, and even for your happiness. Adjusting this aspect of your life could be one of the best things you do all year.

What the science says

Until the late 1990s, people didn’t seem to worry too much about the health risks of not getting enough sleep. That started to change with a 1999 article in the medical journal The Lancet, which showed that “sleep debt” can have significant deleterious effects on health. The authors demonstrated that glucose tolerance fell and stress hormones rose in people deprived of rest, with implications for weight gain and anxiety, among other things.

And then there’s happiness. Everyone knows what it feels like to run on inadequate sleep—after an all-nighter, you can be foggy, inattentive, and grouchy. In one 2020 paper published in the journal Health Psychology, researchers followed the sleep pattern of nearly 2,000 adults. They found that after nights with shorter-than-average sleep duration, the participants experienced a less positive mood when they encountered quite ordinary stress factors, and smaller increases in positive mood from pleasant events. When you are sleep-deprived, people irritate you more and things feel less fun.

What I think

Some researchers have identified chronic sleep deprivation as a diagnosable malady—insufficient sleep syndrome (ISS)—and see it as a type of disease. American happiness and increases in polarization may in some way be connected to the malady’s prevalence. (Perhaps what our dysfunctional Congress needs, like my infant grandson when he gets grumpy, is a good nap.)

What you can do

Sleep hygiene is the first order of business, and advice in this area is easy enough to find.

1. Practice the basics.
   • Darken your environment before bed, and sleep in complete darkness.
   • Cut out screen use, especially social media, in the hours before sleeping.
   • Just go to bed! So that you get more hours in the sack.
   • Eat less junk food, particularly late in the day.
   • Get more exercise (though not right before bedtime, when it can set you buzzing).
2. Work to attain greater peace in life. Perhaps this means looking for your sources of anxiety and stress, and then cutting them out. Maybe—if you are a naturally anxious person—you should consider cognitive behavioral therapy, which has been shown to be very effective in improving sleep.
3. Find your own sleep rhythm. What if I told you about someone who sleeps 6.5 hours a night, does not sleep deeply, is awake around midnight for a couple of hours, and drops off during the day? You would probably say that person has a serious sleep disorder. But I just described the typical sleep pattern of a sample of the Malagasy people of Madagascar, who live a centuries-old traditional agricultural life without electricity or artificial light. What the internet calls a disordered sleep pattern might simply be your natural sleep pattern.

Whether you are a sleep-deprived workaholic, a revenge bedtime procrastinator, or just a good old-fashioned insomniac (as I am), attending to sleep is a crucial strategy for health and happiness.

Want to learn more?

If you’re still worried about the forces of night-time restlessness, listen to my night-time protocols podcast episode here, where I give sound, science-backed ways to fall into slumber.

Arthur