Who Needs Sleep? You!
That with work, family, friends, hobbies and errands in addition to planning an often three-day extravaganza for 200 of their nearest and dearest, it’s surprising that brides-to-be have time to brush their teeth, let alone get enough sleep. You may not think lack of sleep matters if it’s only for a few weeks or months, but failure to get enough zzz’s can impact your big days in negative ways that might keep you up at night.
“If human beings go too long without sleep, they stop functioning,” says Matthew Edlund, director of the Center for Circadian Medicine in Sarasota, Fla. “Memory becomes impaired, they lose the ability to learn new things, temperature regulation fails and then they start to hallucinate.”
These are, of course, extreme conditions of getting no sleep at all, but even minor but consistent sleep deprivation can have seriously un-wedding-friendly effects.
“There are two aspects to lack of sleep that are probably especially important to brides-to-be,” says Edlund. “The first is lousy mood. Lack of sleep can make you anxious, tired and cranky – basically just not at your best. And second, it can lead to weight gain.”
Weight gain?! No bride who just spent $2,000 on yards and yards of snug-fitting organza and lace wants to hear those words. It’s not like a sleep-deprived bride will pack on the pounds overnight, but cumulative sleep deprivation impairs the body’s ability to control its own blood sugar and hormones – consequentially we feel hungrier, especially for calorie-rich carbohydrates like cake, bread or chips that will provide quick energy but offer little in the way of nutritional value.
“The body treats the loss of a few hours’ sleep like a deficit of 1,000 calories that it wants to make up, so it steps up appetite and slows down metabolism,” explains science writer Jennifer Ackerman, author of “Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream: A Day in the Life of Your Body” (Houghton Mifflin, 2007).
This desire to unnecessarily munch more is then compounded by the fact that we tend to eat more when we are stressed, which most brides-to-be certainly are. And stress, in turn, is exacerbated by failure to get enough sleep.
Stress and lack of sleep can certainly affect decision-making and the ability to coordinate a million wedding details – as well as your chances of being a bridezilla – during the planning process, but it can also have another negative consequence during the event itself.
“Sleep is incredibly important for brides and grooms,” says Carmen Bailey, a wedding planner with Ella Events Portland in Portland, Ore. “Even the most well-planned events can be extremely emotional, busy and very tiring, so I always encourage my clients to get a good night’s rest.”
And what exactly constitutes a good night’s rest?
The actual amount of sleep we need and the immediate effects of deprivation depend on the individual, explains Edlund. One person might feel tired and out of it after a week of less than optimal sleeping, where as another person might feel moody and exhausted after just one night. A simple-but-good rule of thumb is that you should sleep as much as you need to feel rested, which is generally seven to nine hours for the average person.
If you don’t or can’t get enough sleep during the night, try to take a quick 20-30 minute nap, suggests Edlund. If you aren’t a napper, at least try to do something restful, such as reading a book, meditating or simply practicing a few minutes of deep breathing – rest is restoration as well. Bailey recommends that her clients try to get a massage a few days before the wedding to help relax.
“I always encourage sleep,” says Bailey, “however most of the time couples operate from pure adrenaline once their families and guests start arriving to town, then they crash and burn once the wedding weekend has passed.”
It’s true that excitement and back-to-back activities will probably cut into your snooze time right before your big day; but that should just be all the more impetus to prioritize sleep in the weeks and months leading up the main event – your brain, your waistline and, most likely, everyone around you will thank you for it.
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