How to Sleep Properly to Get Enough Energy
How many hours to sleep and what time is it better to get up?
The norm for people from 18 to 65 years old is from 7 to 9 hours of sleep. If you sleep less than 7 hours and more than 9, then this can lead to various diseases and even a reduction in life expectancy. Of course, it is better to go to bed before midnight, but this is not necessary: the main thing is that a person does not get up very late and “poured out” his norm. For example, if you have to get up at 9 am, you can easily go to bed at 1 am.
Unfortunately, the duration of sleep is constantly decreasing: in some metropolitan areas, people sleep for 6 hours. They naively believe that they will be able to do more and this will not affect their health in any way. People forget that sleep is one of the pillars of human health. The ancient Greeks, including Hippocrates, thought so. He closely followed his sleep and lived, according to some data, 83 years, according to others, 104.
A lot also depends on where you sleep. It is important to have a comfortable mattress, pillow and hamptons style doona covers.
In general, modern medicine began precisely with somnology. In ancient Greece, there were asklepions (temples dedicated to the god of medicine Asclepius), including people who came there for treatment. The patient had to sleep one night in the temple, and in the morning tell the priest about his dreams – on the basis of dreams, the priest prescribed treatment.
It is better to get up early enough, at a reasonable morning time. The earlier we get up, the greater the so-called “sleep pressure” in the evening – a condition that forces us to go to bed in the evening. The longer we sleep (late morning or afternoon), the harder it is for us to fall asleep at the end of the day. Why it’s better to get up early: the main regulator of sleep and biological rhythms is sunlight. If it hits the retina of a sleeping person at the wrong time, then there is a possibility of sleep disturbance and jet lag.
How to properly prepare for sleep?
A simple rule: there should be no stress before going to bed, neither physical nor emotional. Fitness is best done 4 hours before bedtime. TV, computer, gadgets – exclude. They disrupt the production of melatonin (sleep hormone). The TV should be removed from the bedroom: a person should in no case associate the process of falling asleep with it.
As for alcohol – after alcohol, it is, of course, easier for a person to fall asleep. But after 3-5 hours, after the alcohol is processed by the body, the mechanism responsible for awakening is activated. A person wakes up in the middle of the night and cannot sleep. Smoking before bedtime is also not worth it – cigarettes disrupt the production of neurotransmitters (chemicals that ensure signal transmission between neurons) that are responsible for sleep.
Summary: relaxed, calm, little light. The temperature in the room, by the way, also matters, the optimum is 20-22 °.
How to wake up correctly? How to catch the phase of “REM sleep”, during which it is easier to get up?
You don’t need to phase. Ideally, the body itself prepares us for awakening from this phase (if everything is fine with the sleep pattern). Gadgets and applications that supposedly can wake you up in this phase should not be used: the algorithms in them are imperfect.
How to wake up: better without a sharp alarm clock on your smartphone. Awakening should be natural, if you wish, you can put your regimen in order and wake up on your own (I, for example, get up myself). If not, it is better to buy yourself a light alarm clock. Working principle: at the appointed time, the light slowly flares up and simulates the sunrise. Such alarm clocks are not pulled out of sleep abruptly, but gradually, which leads to a decrease in melatonin production.
