There’s no better feeling than waking up from 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. The older you get, the more you appreciate a good night’s sleep. Especially because it’s not that easy to achieve. With the busyness of life, it can be tricky to maintain a regular sleep routine, let trying to get one of uninterrupted sleep!
So it’s not a surprise that people are doing anything they can to sleep more. But how many of the popular myths surrounding sleep are true?
Dr. Lindsay Browning, neurologist, psychologist, and sleep expert at And So To Bed, uncovers what factors really contribute to ample sleep and what misconceptions we should avoid listening to.
Bad news for lie-ins
Let’s be honest, most of us aren’t getting the recommended amount of sleep we need every night. But, we can make up for those hours of lost sleep with a lie-in right?
Unfortunately, no. Being sleep deprived and then relying on the weekend to recover, may help in the short term, but in the long run, extra rest may create a false sense of recovery. Also, if you are struggling to fall asleep during the week, then a lie-in at the weekend may make this worse.
Research has shown that it can take up to four days to recover one hour of lost sleep and up to nine whole days to fully recover from sleep deprivation.
Dr Lindsay, suggests that “maintaining a consistent sleep schedule ranging from around 7-9 hours, will be of most benefit to mental and physical health. Try going to sleep and waking up at the same time on weekends as you do on weekdays in order to feel more refreshed and energised overall.”
If you absolutely can’t get enough sleep during the week, then you should try to get more over the weekend, but you’re better off trying to get a good amount of sleep every day.
Yup, there’s such a thing as too much sleep
Yes, there is such a thing as having too much sleep and it’s not a good thing. Although it might seem that more sleep is better, there is a link between getting too much sleep and poor health.
Regularly getting significantly more than 9 hours of sleep each night is associated with a number of health issues such as obesity and stroke, as well as early mortality.
Also, if someone is sleeping too much, it’s often an indication that their sleep quality is very poor. Even though they might be getting 10 hours of sleep each night it is not as restorative as seven hours of good-quality sleep.
Experiencing too much sleep is a common side effect of depression, where individuals may use sleep as a means to escape emotional pain and the stress that life provides. However, experts have revealed that oversleeping can worsen depression and mental well-being, as it becomes a habit, which can then be difficult to break.
But napping can fix everything, right?
Naps are great if you’re feeling a little sleep deprived and in need of a boost. Taking a 10-20 minute power nap just after lunch will leave you feeling refreshed, improve mental acuity and increase work performance for a few hours.
Sleeping for long periods of time like an hour, isn’t as helpful as a 20-minute power nap, because you will wake from the deepest part of sleep, leaving you with sleep inertia and feeling sluggish.
It is important to note that napping should not become a replacement for regular nighttime sleep as it could perpetuate your poor sleep at night. If you get too much sleep during the day, you may have problems sleeping at night due to being too awake.
Much like food, if you have a snack before your dinner, you won’t be hungry for your main meal - if you have a nap too near to bedtime, you might find it especially hard to fall asleep at night as you won’t be as sleepy.
Does drinking alcohol before bed help you sleep better?
The central nervous system depressant causes brain activity to slow down which can produce sedative effects such as feeling tired and relaxed.
Nonetheless, although alcohol makes us feel sleepy, it doesn’t mean that the sleep we actually get will be of great quality. Alcohol disrupts our sleep cycle by affecting our ability to get REM sleep. As such, our bodies will wake us up throughout the night and make it more difficult to fall back to sleep. This means that although you may fall asleep more quickly after alcohol, the quality of your sleep will be poorer.
To prevent insomnia, it’s of benefit to stop drinking alcohol at least 4 hours before going to bed so that the alcohol can clear your system.
Can’t fall asleep? You should probably get out of bed
We’ve all had those nights where we struggle to fall asleep. Some nights you might lie in bed, staring at the ceiling, hoping to fall asleep as quickly as possible, but your body just won’t let you.
In these cases, if you can’t fall asleep within 20 minutes, it’s useful to get up, move to another part of your house and do something relaxing like listening to music or snuggling up with a good book for a little while before going back to bed again.
If you stay in bed, trying to force sleep to happen, it will likely have the opposite effect as you will become more and more anxious and frustrated with your inability to fall asleep. It’s much better to take a break from trying to force sleep and failing, before trying again after that break.
When you find yourself struggling to fall asleep try winding down half an hour before bedtime, disconnecting from any electronic devices, dimming the lights so your eyes can adjust and relax, keeping your room cool, and using lavender or essential oils to calm you.
Is watching TV before bed is a good way to relax?
It’s so tempting to watch TV before you fall asleep but the bright light emitted from the screens can interfere with your brain’s production of melatonin which can prevent you from falling asleep.
Additionally, if your brain is more stimulated (especially by something stressful or anxiety provoking such as the news), it’s likely that sleep will be disrupted, which in the long run, could lead to depression and anxiety.
Rather than watching something before bed, you’re better off trying to engage in calming activities that don’t require screens, such as reading a good book or relaxing yoga before bed.
Counting sheep will help you fall asleep faster though, right?
We’ve all heard the idea that counting sheep can help you fall asleep - but is there any truth behind this theory?
The myth suggests that engaging your brain in simple rhythmic and repetitive visualizations can help distract you from the stresses and worries of everyday life.
However, counting sheep isn’t very cognitively challenging as it’s very easy to mentally count sheep while still worrying about all the work you still have to do tomorrow. Instead, try other distraction techniques like listing your top 10 favourite movies, or counting backward in 7s from 1000. However, there’s no harm in trying if you want to count sheep.