We need to come to work and rest to attune ourselves to the natural rhythm of our physiological cycles and give ourselves a fighting chance of feeling well and energised and then sleeping well at night, says Dr Nerina Ramlakhan
More than 20 years ago, shortly after I’d completed my doctorate, I worked with the Medical Research Council. My contract dictated that I take a one hour lunchbreak. I was also entitled to a 15 minute coffee break in the morning and a 15 minute tea break in the afternoon. I usually started work at 9am and left at 5pm. A standard ‘nine to five job.
I rarely took work home, never worked on the way to work or on the way home and occasionally did some overtime. If we worked extra hours and accrued enough overtime we were allowed a day off in lieu every month. Working hours were monitored by a flexitime system in which we clocked in and out with cards; we weren’t allowed to cheat the system by not taking our cards out at lunchtime in order to falsely gain hours and get a coveted day off every month. I shared an office with two others and none of us had a computer or a mobile phone.
The seduction of connectivity
Fast forward a few years and by this time I was working in a corporate health screening clinic in London’s Square Mile and technology had well and truly landed on the scene. Mobile phones, the worldwide web and email. We were all seduced by the connectivity and speed with which we could get things done. And we thought it would make life easier.
The reality couldn’t have been further from the truth. As technology evolved, the speed of just about everything ramped up and we all started working at a relentless pace. Taking breaks during the day were seen as luxury, unnecessary, time wasting. The word presenteeism was coined to demonstrate that yet more hours would be worked to demonstrate commitment to performance. Meanwhile, the physiological data I was gathering in the health screening lab indicated that this pace of working was battering our health. I began running workshops in companies entitled ‘managing the pace’ teaching employees how to manage their working hours in order to optimise their energy levels, minimise stress levels, maintain focus and not burn out.
Linear working patterns
Often my words fell on deaf ears – the doors were hardly open. Years later and stress, burnout and mental health problems at work were on the agenda as people struggled to keep up. As our working patterns became even more linear (go, go, go and then stop) the need for a good night’s sleep became even more important. My work as a sleep expert grew and the sleep industry flourished. Now we had state of the art mattresses, pillows, duvets, scented candles, aromatherapy oils, sleep and relaxation apps, meditation apps. The set up was never better for getting a good night’s sleep and a far cry from the caveman and woman sleeping on a mat of leaves.
But it wasn’t enough. Still, our sleep was restless, fitful and non-rejuvenating, we became more exhausted and fell ill every time we stopped.
And why? With relentless demand our days became so rest-less that our nervous systems became depleted. Constantly operating in ‘go’ and ‘always on’ mode results in hyper-stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system responsible for the fight or flight reaction, and shut down of the parasympathetic nervous system which enables deep rest and sleep, digestion, sexual function, restorative functions – and immunity.
Our love affair with technology and responding reactively to 24/7 demand has definitely played its part in the growth of the sleep industry and the need for my work in this area but has it depleted our mental and physical health – including immune system – to the point where today we find ourselves in crisis and the doors are now wide open to finding solutions.
Building in rest time
There is no doubt that we all need to find new ways of working and being in the world. Maybe we won’t go back to the ‘good old days’ of the 9 to 5 but we do need to start building more rest into our days.
We need to come to work and rest. And in doing so, we will attune ourselves to the natural rhythm of our physiological cycles – which are oscillatory not linear – and thus give ourselves a fighting chance of feeling well and energised and then sleeping well at night. Working hard, playing hard and resting well – the Mars Bar principle.
So how do we do this? First, we need to understand our biological rhythms and how they work. The circadian rhythm is a sinusoidal cycle of approximately 24 hours which governs the sleep/wake cycle we all experience every day. Whereas the ultradian rhythm is simply a rhythm that occurs several times a day, roughly every 90-120mins – this is your basic rest activity cycle.
Reduced focus
After you wake in the morning, you have a period of between 90 and 120 minutes of focused attention. After this time, you will want to ‘switch off’. You may start to feel woolly in your head. This period of reduced focus lasts roughly 20 minutes. Very often this is the time when people go for a cigarette break at work, or make themselves a cup of coffee. Then you come back to work and are able to focus for another 90 to 120 minutes and so on throughout the day.
Now, it appears that this rhythm is nature’s way of allowing you during that 20 minute period to build up internal supplies of available energy and assimilate the activity of the previous 90 minutes, gearing you up for another hour and a half or so of good work or play. It appears that many famous highly creative individuals throughout history have recognised that by going with their natural cycles in this way, they would often have fresh insights and solutions on resuming work. Leonardo da Vinci himself advised his students to periodically go away from their painting so that when they came back they would see their work with fresh eyes. This is something I am sure we have all experienced.
Ernest Rossi’s book The Twenty Minute Break describes ultradian stress syndrome. He maintains that not honouring this natural biological need we have causes tiredness, irritability, loss of mental focus, frustration, accidents and can ultimately lead to sickness. Typically in an eight-hour working day, most people experience four-to-five peak periods when they are at their best in making decisions, planning and doing. In his opinion, it therefore makes no sense for employers to try to get people busy every minute of the working day. Taking a 20 minute break every couple of hours or so allows the mind/body to catch up with itself and create the ideas and energy that is needed to optimise the next work period. It also enables the nervous system to reset and recalibrate.
Dr Herbert Benson an American Cardiologist of Harvard Medical School discovered that by bringing the brain to the height of activity by intense focus for a period of time and then suddenly moving it into a passive, relaxed state that it is possible to stimulate much higher neurological performance than would otherwise be the case. He stated that over time those who learned to do this as a matter of course consistently performed at higher levels. He called this switching in this way invoking the relaxation response.
How do we come to work and rest in real practical terms?
Every 60-90 minutes seek recovery even for just 10 minutes – do something different from what you were just doing.
Try one or two of these:
- Get away from your desk and screens
- Stretch out your neck and shoulders. Shake out your arms and hands. Relax your eyes and face. Soften your jaw. Relax your belly
- Take a few conscious deep in-breaths into your belly
- Walk up and down a flight of stairs or around the block
- Gaze out into nature or look at a picture of nature or close your eyes and imagine a picture of nature
- Think loving thoughts about someone who might be going through a tough time
- Go to the toilet without your phone
- Drink a glass of water and/or eat something healthy
- Hug someone (preferably someone who wants to be hugged)
- Make eye contact and smile at someone
Repeat every 60-90 minutes and notice how much more energised you feel as you go about your day. Notice how much better you feel at the end of the day when you’re with the people you love. And notice how deeply you sleep.
Dr Nerina Ramlakhan has more than 25 years’ experience as a professional physiologist and sleep expert. Nerina works with individuals as well as corporate clients and hosts regular sleep programmes and workshops. She is the bestselling author of several books about sleep, including Tired But Wired (Souvenir Press) www.drnerina.com
