British scientist: The first half of the night’s rest is key

Mark
Written By Mark

What time should you go to bed to sleep well? We’re used to hearing that we need 8 hours of sleep a night to get the best out of our brains, but some lucky “short sleepers” only get 5 or 6 hours of sleep, while other long sleepers find it difficult to get through the day with less than 9. Hours of sleep. So, the secret does not lie in the number of hours, but it may be in the sleep cycles.

Perhaps worse than lack of sleep is disrupting our sleep-wake cycles prematurely, in part because each of these different stages brings different benefits to our health.

It seems that the first half of the night’s rest is the key, says Professor David Ray, professor of endocrinology at the University of Oxford, in an interview with the British newspaper The Telegraph, as this is often the time when the body completes “vital repair processes.”

Disrupting these processes can make us feel tired. “When you fall asleep, you sleep light for only a short period, then you move into a longer state of deep sleep, then slow-wave sleep, which seems to be particularly important for reparative sleep,” says Professor Ray. “Rapid eye movement, when you’re dreaming, appears to be key to things like memory formation and creativity. So, to wake up feeling refreshed, it may be best to time your wake-up time according to the likely start and end of your sleep cycles.”

Set a fixed time to sleep

“Maintaining a consistent bedtime is one of the best ways to get restful sleep every night,” says Charalambos Kyriakou, president of the European Circadian Society and professor at the University of Leicester in the UK.

There are two internal biological mechanisms: circadian rhythm and homeostasis, and these two mechanisms work together to regulate when you wake up and when you sleep. The “internal sleep-wake balance process” monitors your need for sleep.

Homeostatic sleep drive reminds the body to sleep after a certain time and regulates the intensity of this sleep. Sleep drive gets stronger with every hour you are awake and leads to longer and deeper sleep after a period of sleeplessness.

Professor Kyriakou explains that people vary in the timing patterns that dictate the amount of sleep they need. You may be genetically programmed to want to wake up early or late, but if you do not want your sleep to be disrupted and you wake up feeling tired, it is better to have a bedtime. fixed”.

Circadian rhythms control a wide range of functions ranging from daily changes in alertness to body temperature, metabolism, and hormone secretion. It makes you feel sleepy at night, and can help you wake up in the morning without the need for an alarm clock, so setting a bedtime will help you adjust your biological clock.