This is the 3rd and last instalment of the 3 part series on health designed to give Uber drivers a simple framework to improve their overall health. Ultimately the fitter and healthier you are, the better your quality of life will be and the more money you will earn.
Part 1 focused on diet, part 2 was on exercise and in part 3 we will focus on the commonly underappreciated importance of sleep.
Sleep is one of those subjects which in recent times has had an element of machismo attached to it, especially among the world of entruperinerialshp and making money. You’ll see these social influencers parading the fact that they have been awake since 4:30 am and that we too should wake up before the competition and ‘GET AFTER IT!’
This is not sound advice for anyone considering the science on the importance of sufficient sleep and especially not for private hire drivers, where lack of sleep can lead to dire physical consequences.
A common theme that has been apparent in this 3 part series has been the lack of knowledge leading to poor decisions that negatively impact our health. This is especially true when it comes to the subject of sleep.
Recent data suggests that 1 out of 2 people are sleep deprived in America with the average being 6 h 21 minutes.
I knew that sleep was good for us and that we should get 8 hours a night but didn’t really know why it was good for us or realise how critical it really was.
Last year Dr matthew walker, a professor of neuroscience and psychology whose research focuses on the impact of sleep on human health and disease went on The Joe rogan Experience podcast to talk sleep. He broke down exactly why we need adequate sleep and the serious impact lack of sleep has on our bodies.
Quite frankly it was mind blowing and absolutely terrifying at the same time.
If you have 2 hours to spare, I highly recommend you watch the whole episode as it will make you evaluate your sleeping habits especially as a private hire driver.
For anyone who just wants the cliff notes though, you can read on for all the juicy bits.
How Much Sleep Do We Really Need?
According to Dr Walker, your body needs 7-9 hours to be able to function optimally. Anything less than seven starts to cause impairments in the body.
Data shows the shorter your sleep the shorter your life and the quality of life for the period you are alive will be significantly worse.
What Are The Negative Effects Of Lack Of Sleep?
Shift workers, which Rideshare drivers are, have higher rates of obesity, higher rates of diabetes and cancer. The link of insufficient sleep and cancer is very strong among cancer of the bowl, prostate and breast. So much so, that the World health organisation has classified shift work as carcinogenic.
Insufficient sleep is also the most significant lifestyle factor in developing Alzheimer. Wakefulness is low level brain damage and it’s sleep that offers a reparative function. There’s a system in the brain that ramps up during deep sleep that cleanses the brain of all the metabolic toxins built up throughout the day. One of the toxins is called beta amyloid which builds up in the brain due to lack of sleep resulting in the development of alzheimer.
Men who sleep 5 to 6 hours a night will also have a level of testosterone of someone ten years older, essentially ageing them by a decade because of lack of sleep
6 hours or less and lactic acid builds up quicker , Lungs don’t function as well and you will get physically exhausted 30% quicker. Apart from the fact that driving exhausted is a danger to everyone on the road, you will also end up working 30% less. Let’s say your planning on doing a 10 hour shift on the uber app but you only slept 5 hours of sleep the night before, you only end up working 30% less due to tiredness. That’s 3 hours less driving you would have done that night and 3 hours less money earned.
And that wouldn’t just be a one off. It would be a common scenario in your working week where you are being less productive and working less when you thought cutting your sleep short was going to mean you earnt more.
Insufficient sleep will even erode your DNA.
In one study, they took healthy adults and limited their sleep to 6 hours for a week and compared their profile of gene activity from when they had 8 hours of sleep and found 720 genes had distorted activity.
Half of those genes were switched off and these were genes relating to immunity resulting in immune deficiency.
The other half of the genes activity was increased and these where genes related to tumours, inflammation and genes associated with stress and cardiovascular disease.
Data from athletes who suffered injuries over a season was correlated 100% of the time with lack of sleep. The less sleep an athlete had the more injuries they would sustain.
The athletes who had 5 hours of sleep compared to 9 had a 60% increase injury risk over a season.
This is due obviously to the body not being able to repair itself as well as it would if you slept 4 hours more but crucially as it relates to private hire drivers, when your concentration, alertness and decision making is greatly reduces, you increase the risk of an accident immensely.
Shockingly, a Surgeon who’s had 6 hours of sleep or less will have 170% increase in risk of major surgical error relative to if they were well rested.
Resident doctors working a 30 hour shift are 460 % more likely to make diagnostic errors in the intensive care unit relative to if they worked 16 hours.
That same resident doctor who has worked a 30 hour shift has 168 increase risk they will have a car accident on the way home from their shift.
We even see the significant impact less sleep can have due to daily savings time
In the Spring when the clocks go forward an hour there is a 24% increase in heart attacks
In autumn when the clocks go back, there is a significant decrease in heart attacks
Being under slept also means you will eat more to the tune of 300 calories a day, 70000 calories a year and 15 pounds of weight gain.
You not only eat more but you eat more of the wrong things. More carbohydrates, Simple sugars and processed food which will have a detrimental impact to your health.
This last statistic should really hit home as it directly relates to us as Private Hire Drivers, Rideshare Drivers, Uber drivers etc..
20 hours of being awake makes you as cognitively In paired as being drunk, drastically reducing alertness and reaction time.
If your think that sounds a little bit extreme, it’s actually worse than you thought.
Drowsy driving kills more people and drink or drug driving combined!
How To Improve The Quality Of Sleep And Sleep Longer
So you can see that getting 7 plus hours of good quality sleep is not only vital for our health and well being but it can also have a direct impact on our safety at work and potential earnings.
I’m generalising here but most Uber drivers would prioritise working longer hours over sleep. If your coming to and end of a shift but your still getting no stop ride requests, your probably going to keep going despite being tired. It’s just the nature of the game we play.
What I’m suggesting is not necessarily working less but prioritising sleep more. The best way to do this is to put sleep in front of watching TV or scrolling through social media for hours before bed. You will not only get more sleep but better quality sleep also.
White light from technology suppress Melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone released in the blood at night to help us get to sleep. 1 hour on a screen time before sleep delays the release of Melatonin by up to 3 hours, It’s peak is 50% less and you get less REM sleep meaning you are less refreshed when you wake up.
In the last hour before you go to bed, stay away from any type of screen and turn off most of the lights in the house to prepare the body for sleep.
Another good tip is to keep the room cool. The brain needs to drop its temperature by 2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit to initiate sleep. It’s always easier to fall asleep in a room that’s cool than too hot.
According to Dr Walker, regularity is probably the most important factor in good sleep. Going to bed at the same time and waking up at the same time. Your body functions best when it sticks to the same schedule. Sticking to the same schedule for a while also means that it becomes a habit which would make it second nature for you to make sure you are getting enough sleep.
As you can see, sleep is crucial for us private hire drivers. If we worked in an office and sat in front of a desk it wouldn’t pose too much of a problem, but as we drive passengers around in a 3000 pound hunk of metal, it has to be taken seriously.
Start Getting More Sleep Now !
Get into a routine of 7 plus hours a day to firstly allow your body to recover and fight off disease and secondly to allow your self to to drive in the safest, most productive way possible.
Good sleep, combined with a daily routine of short bouts of effective exercise along with a healthy diet and intermittent fasting will transform your mind and body to function optimally to be the best you can be.
These are all simple strategies that all Private Hire Drivers can implement no matter how busy they are, so there really are no excuses. There is no reason why your job should negatively impact your health. In fact, if you improve your health, you will positively effect your job as an Uber driver and improve your earnings.
Comment down below and let me know your thoughts
