Are you a good sleeper? I’m not, and as I hear more about the importance of sleep to our physical and mental health, I admit to feeling stressed about sleep.

Welcome to the 84^th edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a decluttering challenge for the week. Along with why I’m stressing about sleep, this week I look at the link between sleep and Alzheimer’s, California’s new food labelling law, why cats need to eat meat, and decluttering digital files.

On my mind this week: Feeling stressed about sleep

Sleep! It’s something many of us never seem to get enough of for various reasons. From the busyness of life, to raising kids, to overactive brains, and hormonal changes at menopause, a good night’s sleep can be as elusive as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

In recent weeks, I’ve seen a couple of presentations highlighting the importance of sleep to our physical and mental health. All of this made me wonder why something that’s a biological necessity and common to all living things is so difficult for many of us. In short—I’m feeling stressed about sleep.

Looking back at my life, I don’t recall a time when I was ever a great sleeper. I envy people who can sleep in. For me, sleeping past 6:00 a.m. is an accomplishment. People told me that would change when I retired. They lied.

My sleep habits

Before you jump to judge me, let me be clear that I’m not burning the candle at both ends. I do all the things sleep experts recommend, but I still don’t get the recommended 7 hours a night.

I’m usually in bed by 11 and don’t have trouble falling asleep. I do wake during the night, and most of the time I get back to sleep without difficulty. Most mornings, I wake between 5:00 and 5:30. I try to go back to sleep, but after 5:00, there’s no use so I just get up.

I wear my FitBit to bed. Even though experts say these kinds of sleep trackers aren’t accurate, it’s interesting to look at my average sleep by month for this year.

• January – 5 h 58 m
• February – 5 h 47 m
• March – 5 h 38
• April – 5 h 41 m
• May – 5 h 49 m
• June – 5 h 38 m
• July – 5 h 55 m
• August – 5 h 41 m
• September – 5 h 55 m

So far in 2024, my average is 5 hours and 46 minutes. In 2023, I averaged 5 hours and 48 minutes of sleep a night. How’s that for consistency?

Despite my consistency, I’m well short of the 7 to 8 hours a night recommended by sleep experts.

How much sleep do we really need?

I function well on the amount of sleep I get. But hearing all the connections between sleep and dementia, heart disease, depression and other disorders is making me stressed about sleep!

As I was doing some research, I learned some people are “short sleepers”. The Sleep Foundation defines a natural short sleeper as someone who tends to sleep less than six hours per night even when they have more available time to sleep. They also say short sleeping isn’t an illness or sleep disorder, and there are no known health risks of being a true short sleeper.

Am I a short sleeper? I tick all the boxes on the Sleep Foundation’s list. I don’t sleep in even when I can, and I rarely need an alarm to wake up. I feel energetic throughout the day if I get my 5 hours and 45 minutes of sleep.

So maybe it’s time I stop feeling stressed about sleep. After all, my mum is 91 and her sleep habits are about the same as mine.

What do you think? Drop me a comment below and let me know.

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Three highlights of the week

It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights of the week gone by:

• Last week was Thanksgiving and we had a wonderful weekend. On Saturday, we celebrated with my husband’s family. Then on Sunday, we had my mum and my cousin over here for dinner. On Monday we ate turkey leftovers, and we went out to our local conservation area for a walk.
• I made homemade turkey noodle soup for the first time. It turned out fairly good for a first attempt.
• Friday was a beautiful sunny day, so my husband and I went on a road trip. We started out with a hike at the Luther Marsh Wildlife Management area, about an hour’s drive north of here. Then, we headed further north to Blue Mountain where we had a late lunch in the village. The fall colours along the way were spectacular—some of the best I’ve ever seen. And, despite my fear of heights, I was brave enough to ride the Blue Mountain Gondola from the top of the mountain to the village and back again.

Things I learned this week

Most of my learning this week was focused on my Strategies in Audience Analysis Course. Here are three non-course-related things I learned this week:

Link between sleep and Alzheimer’s

The glymphatic system acts like a waste management system for our brain and spinal cord, literally clearing away toxic build up while we sleep. It is particularly effective in removing beta-amyloid—a protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

That’s why I’m stressed about sleep!

(Source: Dr. Gillian Leithman, Booming Encore, The Brain Booster Challenge)

California introduces new food labels

Food waste is a big issue for the environment. Those “best before” dates on many foods just cause confusion because people throw away good food because it has passed a date that’s a suggestion rathre than a food safety concern.

A new law in California introduces new terminology for labels:

• “Best if used by” is the date when quality—but not safety—of a food item is diminished.
• “Expires on” would apply only to perishable foods that are unsafe to eat after the date shown.

Is “best if used by” better than “best before”? I think people will still think of it as an expiry date. We need more public education in this area.

(Source: Earth911)

Why cats need to eat meat

If you’ve adopted a vegan or vegetarian diet in the interest of sustainability, don’t be tempted to save the planet by eliminating meat from your cat’s diet. Domestic cats and other felines are carnivores. They need meat in their diet to survive because their diets must include an amino acid called taurine. Their bodies are unable to produce taurine.

Studies have shown that cats who eat a vegan diet have severe deficiency disorders affecting their muscles.

(Source: Yale Climate Connections)

This week’s decluttering challenge – Digital files and folders

In 2024, I’ve been revisiting the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge I completed in 2021. This week’s challenge was cleaning up and organizing digital files and folders. In addition to feeling more organized, I’m happy to report I decluttered 195 items. Find the details, along with my tips and learnings, in this week’s decluttering post.

Join the challenge! Visit this post to download your free checklists and jump right in with this week’s task.

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I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.