Good sleep is foundational to life, and as lifestyles change, so too does slumber. “Sleep divorce” is becoming common among couples, where they sleep separately and prioritise shut-eye over intimacy. Sleep tourism is growing: health hydros and hotels are offering sleep rejuvenation through circadian lighting and tailored relaxation programmes.
Sleep maxing is becoming a thing. It’s all over social media, with influencers dishing out advice in the name of enhanced sleep. Their recommendations are racking up thousands of views and include sleep-tracking devices, sleep support supplements such as melatonin, sleepy girl mocktail, white noise machines, weighted blankets, strict sleep schedules and mouth taping. But taping your mouth shut so you don’t snore is a little extreme, and all that glue on the lips can’t be good for you. It's clear, however, that good sleep evades many of us and we're desperate for the midday yawning to stop.
Sleep anxiety is real. We have become far too strict about something so natural. We check our tracking apps to see how well we’ve slept, but paradoxically, all this obsessive scrutiny exacerbates the problem. When the obvious remedies have been tried, and at some point stop working, we seek new ways.
There's a trend emerging known as grounding, where you simply lay down on the grass and get your 40 winks. Proponents claim that touching the Earth's surface directly can reduce stress and thus enhance sleep. While this isn't a new thing — humans have slept on the ground for millennia — the practice is gaining followers, especially in urban areas. In the Tokai Forest of the Western Cape, Antoinette Bishop creates a safe space where people can lie on the ground and listen to the music she creates through a sound journey. “The types of folk who show up are those who are curious, who are sad, who've gone through trauma, or people who are celebrating birthdays and just want to get out,” she says.
Once a month, people arrive with a yoga mat, blanket and pillow, lie on the forest floor and place their naked hands directly on the ground. Birds and squirrels roam about; there are people walking dogs. The 200 to 250 participants rest in the pine forest. “Nature is the best medicine to regulate ourselves and repattern our nervous system. It’s forest bathing and we do it right through winter. People wear beanies on their heads, bring flasks of coffee for afterwards. It relieves stress and is so good for sleeping well.”
Bishop likes to use the elements — for her Sounds of the Forest sessions she uses earth, and, at the Gaia Centre for Healing Arts in Constantia, she conducts floating sleep therapy sessions using water. People lie on blow-up mattresses in a pool of oxygenated, purified water while Bishop leads them with her voice and crystal and Tibetan bowls. Because the body contains a lot of water, the water in the pool and in the body carries the vibration of the music. The sound works on the sympathetic nervous system, bringing an immersive calm and quietude to an overactive mind. Using sound to soothe is one of the oldest therapies and works with the Alpha and Theta states of the mind, so people drop quickly into deep rest. “People actually fall asleep or think they’re asleep; they may even snore but they’re wide awake. They’re very aware of what’s going on around them, but the body drops into a deep sleep state which can bring on dreams and journey states. Most people come out of these sessions feeling deeply rested.”
As people float, Bishop plays high frequencies on crystal bowls. She may bring in the sounds of nature with a rain stick, or use a drum that creates the rumble of the ocean. With a chakapa made of leaves she emulates wind through branches. She uses her voice to whistle like birds. She plays monotones on a string instrument called a monalina. As the participants relax, sun streams through the windows and fresh air moves around the room. It's a very nurturing experience, one that cultivates sleep.
Sleep remedies aren’t a one-size-fits-all and, fortunately, there are various ways of reaching the bliss of excellent slumber. Adam Suzman from Beyond Medicine tells me about Bear Root, also known as Osha. Osha (Ligusticum porteri) is a plant with a long history of use in herbal medicine, with roots resembling bear claws. Its other link to bears is this: male bears use the root to proposition the females. The root is valuable to bears because they ingest it to go into hibernation during winter. It slows down their metabolism so that they can enter a state of dormancy. Suzman uses Osha as an ingredient in a homeopathic formula he's invented called Sleep. “Osha induces a very comfortable and safe feeling — like putting a nice, big warm rug over yourself and lying by the fire.”
Suzman is trying to not push biochemistry the way that pharmaceutical sleeping tablets do, but rather to induce a feeling of wanting to go to sleep, a prelude to sleep. He's also cognisant of the many reasons that people wake up during the night — a child needing care, an emergency call or anxiety about the many things going on in the world right now. His remedy is like a hack for getting back to sleep: “People think of muscle being built in the gym, but muscles actually tear in the gym and then rebuild while you sleep. Organ regeneration takes place during sleep. If you’re not sleeping, that’s not happening. Your immune system becomes trashed. Your mental health goes to hell, and you’re antsy and jumpy. Sleep is a big thing.”
So how much sleep do we actually need?
Imagine this: two African elephant matriarchs in the wild, roaming freely. In their trunks are probes through which researchers are monitoring them and their activity. They want to know more about how the biggest mammals on the continent sleep. After following their movements for 35 days, what astonished the scientists is that the elephants slept on average two hours per night, and yet their daily routines were unaffected. They sleep some time between 2am and 6am and can go for 46 hours without sleep — this occurs when there are predators, food is scarce and they have to travel many kilometres to feed, or when there is a male in musth. Contrarily, elephants in captivity sleep for longer — there’s nothing chasing them and they're well fed.
For African elephants, sleep patterns change depending on environment, food availability, safety and mating season. If we think about this for a moment and take a big leap across species and land on humans, we’ll see that we're probably similar.
If we cast our minds back to ten thousand years ago, when humans wandered for about 12km a day, slept in caves and spent the night in huddled groups for warmth and protection, sleep was a very different thing. Researchers theorise that they probably slept in phases, taking turns to watch for danger while the others slumbered and dreamed.
Sleep requirements are particular to society and lifestyle. Nadine Rampf, a sleep scientist from Stellenbosch University — who also studied the sleep architecture of the elephants — wants to know how South African children sleep in this day and age. She believes that schoolchildren aren’t getting the quality sleep they need, and she and her team have initiated The Children’s Sleep Health Study.
Rampf explains that globally, insufficient sleep is a health issue. “Our society is chronically sleep deprived. There’s the attitude of putting sleep on the back burner, of not prioritising it,” she says. “There’s a growing body of evidence linking chronic sleep restriction to an increased risk of non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and obesity.”
Compared to other nations, South Africans are early risers, with the average wake-up time set at 6.45am, and many of us wake up long before dawn cracks the darkness. However, many of us don’t go to bed early, and don’t sleep for seven to nine hours — the recommended time the brain needs to recuperate and for the immune, biological and emotional systems to regulate.
Sleep culture, beliefs and practices around sleep in our population are diverse. Rampf's study aims to monitor children while they sleep via a ring on the finger that measures heart rate, respiratory rate and movement, and also understand family and home environment, bedtime routines and behavioural norms like sharing a bed. The data will be collected from a cohort of 200 kids and their families. By better understanding lifestyles and sleep patterns, adjustments can be made so that primary school children get the quality nine to 12 hours of sleep they require.
In a world gone mad, getting good sleep to feel happy and at peace is imperative.
Having a good night’s snooze is multi-faceted and doesn’t happen in isolation. It's impacted by a million and one things such as where you sleep, the time of your last coffee, what you ate for dinner and if you’re feeling stressed. Though we live with AI and motor cars these days, our physiology is still primitive: our brains geared for fighting, fleeing and staying awake in the face of potential attack. In a modern-day workplace scenario, someone from accounts may be spreading nasty rumours about you to head office, threatening your job security and survival, and this will tend to keep you up at night. This is part of the reason we’re seeing more burnout.
Ashley Motene, industrial psychologist and spokesperson for The South African College of Applied Psychology, explains that poor sleep makes burnout more likely. “Poor sleep affects the brain’s ability to think clearly, making it harder to solve problems, make decisions and concentrate. This can lead to mistakes or poor judgment in daily tasks, and difficulty staying alert during important meetings. Over time, this can leave you feeling worn out, frustrated and unable to keep up with work, which means burnout has set in.”
She explains that finding the right solution to sleep problems often takes time, patience, and possibly help from a doctor or therapist. Sometimes what's needed is time away to rest and recuperate. For business travellers, and for those seeking a sleep experience away from home, there's the option of sleep tourism — travel packages and hotels specifically designed around sleep. Think pillow menus, eye masks, dark curtains, soundproof rooms, books about sleep on the bedside table and access to guided meditations. It’s all geared towards getting good shut-eye and rejuvenating in a calm, sleep-inducing environment.
In a world gone mad, getting good sleep to feel happy and at peace is imperative. Whatever you do to get good slumber, may you have sweet dreams.
