It is a misconception to think that sleep is a time wasted in our lives. Sleep is an indispensable period for life, health and our body. A person spends about a third of his entire life asleep. The quality, regularity and adequateness of this process allows us to spend our daily life in the best possible way. It helps in maintaining our mental and physical health. Quality sleep is essential for our life. So how long should we sleep? What time should we sleep at night? Can we organize our sleep the way we want? The answer to this question varies from person to person, from age to age. Specialist from Sleep Disorders Center. Figen Hanağası draws attention to the fact that quality sleep is as important as breathing and nutrition for a healthier life. But there is a situation we need to know that our sleep is programmed from birth and we cannot interfere too much depending on our will!
How?
For example; While babies spend 16-18 hours in sleep in the first 3 months in sleep-wake periods equally divided into night and day, from 6 months onwards they gradually spend the day more awake. With the increase in age, our sleep periods become two parts, being a long night's sleep and a short afternoon sleep, which we can't usually do due to work and living conditions, which we adults from pre-school age on. As mentioned earlier, it is determined from birth. A person's need for sleep and the time to fall asleep vary individually. In studies conducted on Turkish society, a large part of the population sleeps for 7-8 hours. In our country, those who sleep less than 6 hours are only 10%.
In addition, people are divided into two groups according to the time they go to sleep: those who go to bed early and those who go to bed late. When you look around you, you will hear the words "No matter how hard I try, I don't get sleep before midnight" or "No matter how hard I try, I can't sit for a long time at night and go to sleep".
These groups include "long sleepers" and "short sleepers". “They are divided into two. If a person who sleeps early and is a short sleeper wakes up early in the morning and does not sleep during the day, this person cannot be said to be sleep deprived.
Look from another angle If a long sleeper feels good with 10 hours of sleep a day, when he sleeps for 8 hours, his sleep will be insufficient and he will spend the day tired. People who go to bed late at night and have long sleep periods have difficulties in the morning hours in business life because they sleep insufficiently, their work performance is low, they try to warn themselves by drinking tea and coffee, but their performance increases towards noon.
As it can be understood from here, a person cannot accustom his body to insomnia, even if he says that he has gotten used to it by sleeping less, he is deceiving himself and is condemned to chronic sleep deprivation. Many metabolic and mental disorders occur in our body due to poor quality and insufficient sleep.
To give a few examples; Our immune system deteriorates, our resistance to diseases decreases, headaches, drowsiness, increased appetite, decreased concentration, decreased tolerance or indifference to events, stagnation begins.
As our attention is reduced as a result of insomnia, we cause work and traffic accidents and indirectly harm our environment. Sleep deprivation causes many problems in school-age children, such as a decrease in academic success, a decrease in problem solving skills, a decrease in interest in lessons, and lack of attention and concentration.
Dream period (REM sleep) is necessary for structuring our memory and for psychological regeneration. If we wake up during this period, we can remember the dreams we had.
A person who says he dreams a lot is actually waking up frequently during the night with a bad quality sleep.
During deep sleep, which is more in the first half of the night, growth hormone and hormones that suppress appetite are secreted. For this reason, people whose sleep quality is impaired for various reasons and who do not enter the deep sleep phase cannot suppress their appetite and begin to gain weight.
Even though reducing working time, rest periods and taking short naps are among the conditions that should be considered in the treatment of sleep deprivation and deficiency, the most effective treatment for a quality and healthy life is to complete the missing sleep period we need. If it is not possible during the week, we must close our sleep deficit on the weekends.
What Should We Do for a Quality Sleep?
The above-mentioned things are necessary to ensure a quality sleep. It is the first of the conditions. However, due to many reasons such as working life, living in a big city and not being able to spare time for ourselves, we may experience problems in falling asleep and maintaining our sleep unless the adequate environment and conditions are met. The rules that provide the necessary conditions for a quality sleep are called sleep hygiene.
In order to achieve this,
- We must go to bed when we are sleepy.
- Even if we cannot sleep, we should not spend much time in bed.
- The bedroom is too hot or too cold
- The bedroom should be used only for sleep and sexual activity, not as a study room and television room.
- Your morning departure times should not change much during weekends and holidays. .
- You should not sleep during the day, and if you can't stand it, you can take a very short nap before 15.00.
- Consumption of alcohol, caffeinated drinks and chocolate should be stopped 4-6 hours before bedtime.
- Smoking before going to bed should not be allowed.
- Dinner should not be eaten very heavily, but one should not go to bed hungry either.
- Sleep in heavy sports should be avoided, and exercises should be shifted to afternoon hours.
- After going to bed, daily thoughts should be avoided, one should think outside the bedroom, analyze and go to bed.
- Drugs that will disrupt sleep (antidepressants, cortisone, drugs used in flu treatment, some heart drugs, etc.) should not be taken during hours of sleep.
Is Napping Right or Wrong?
Our adult sleep consists of two parts, a long night's sleep and a short afternoon nap.
However, due to living and work conditions, we cannot have the afternoon sleep period that our body desires physiologically, we only continue our day with night sleep. This is how we can understand why the 10-20 minute nap shown in studies is beneficial. The mentioned nap is limited to 10-20 minutes before 15.00 in the afternoon (in order not to disturb the night's sleep).
In this way, we create an opportunity for our body to refresh itself with the short sleep period in the afternoon, which we actually need physiologically. In studies conducted with people who sleep in this way, the concentration is There was an increase in their work and job performance.
Contrary to popular belief, this short-term nap before 15.00 does not disturb our sleep at night. However, if we move it forward and extend the nap time, we will not be able to adapt to our work when we wake up, and we will go to bed late because we do not sleep at night. Since we have to get up early in the morning, we suffer from sleep deprivation again the next day.
For this reason, if we have a good sleep environment, if we can sleep and wake up for a short time, a 10-20 minute nap refreshes our body, our spirit, and increases our attention and performance. However, we do not recommend it to those who cannot sleep in a different environment from their home, and those who cannot wake up after a nap and have increased drowsiness. We recommend naps only to individuals who sleep in a suitable environment for a short time and feel good when they wake up.
Apart from the above conditions, if we get too sleepy during the day, short naps can increase our attention and prevent unwanted situations. To give an example, it is known that parking the vehicle and sleeping for a short time when a person gets sleepy while driving leads to a decrease in traffic accidents. The same is true for people who use dangerous work machines.
We should not forget that sleeping is necessary for resting our body and refreshing our soul. Don't make him sleepy.
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