Video clips have spread about some people’s attempts to get the best sleep a person can get, and activists have published their experiences and methods under the topic “Sleepmaxxing”, which has become one of the most interactive topics (trend).
Emily Lavinia shared with The Independent her experience with this trend and some health experts’ opinions.
Perfect sleep obsession
Getting ideal sleep has become an obsession for some social media users, and activists use a set of strategies, tools and techniques in an exaggerated way to improve the quality and duration of sleep.
Dr. Harry Garrett, a sleep researcher from the United Kingdom, explains this trend, which amounts to an obsession with getting perfect sleep. He says: “The trend aims to reveal the practices that a person can do to improve the quality of sleep, that is, focusing on the quality and number of hours of sleep the individual has. To improve your overall mental and physical health, this trend involves using different tools, techniques, smart devices, and supplements in an attempt to stimulate your body to get deeper, longer sleep. In general, many people combine a number of these techniques to increase their chances of getting a good night’s sleep “Hopefully achieving specific physical and mental benefits.”
Smart devices track the amount of deep, light, and “rapid eye movement” sleep, which is a stage of sleep in which the muscles – except for the muscles around the eyes – are inactive.
Practices in this most interactive topic on social media also include taking nutritional supplements and drinks that help with sleep to ensure that the body is filled with nutrients to get the best rest. Using bed covers and pajamas increases the feeling of comfort. Using many tools and devices, such as earplugs, an air purifier, etc., and wearing a bracelet that measures the electrical activity of the heart.
Although the results of ideal sleep obsession were positive in terms of increasing the number of hours of sleep and no difficulty in sleeping, ideal sleep obsession has negative effects on its practitioners, such as feeling anxious about the quality and number of hours of sleep, panic when not adhering to the pre-sleep routine, and checking One of the vital signs that smart devices record as soon as you wake up.
In the end, you will sleep without needing all this
What must be asked is whether people who follow this trend are exaggerating their practices?
Sleeping is ultimately a natural practice, and although daily stress, anxiety, hormones, and a host of other factors may interfere with sleep and affect it, when a person is tired, he will eventually sleep.
For her part, sleep physiologist Stephanie Romeszewski explained, “Sleep is a process that does not require any intervention. It is better to have a good day, be social, and take care of the things you can control, and this will improve your sleep. While those who try to restrict themselves To get good sleep, such as canceling their meetings with friends or not going to the gym, and excessive rest, while spending little time outside, this will lead them to poor sleep quality.
Some experts have pointed out that tracking sleep to get good quality sleep can lead to unhealthy obsession.
For her part, Dr. Carlera Weiss, a sleep science consultant from the University of Buffalo, says, “Marketing sleep as a product is troubling. We must be careful not to shift the focus from following healthy habits to buying more and more products to get perfect sleep.”
The dark side of the “Sleepmaxxing” trend
The average age of TikTok users is 24 years old, and most of the videos that go viral are trending -which promotes The perfect sleep obsessive – their owners are in their early twenties, and they all have products and techniques that can be used to treat sleep problems, but of course it is not possible to know how these tools actually benefit their users, as social media never shows us the whole story.
Dr. Garrett explains, “Most information provided to followers regarding any health trend on social media has not been scientifically tested, and is often provided by individuals who have no experience in health care. This can lead to people wasting their time and money on practices.” “It may not be effective and lead to frustration when it does not improve sleep quality.”
Comparing one person’s sleep routine to another also poses a problem related to increased anxiety, which can have adverse results that keep a person awake. In addition, the financial costs of sleep aids must be taken into account, as these products, while useful, are essentially not necessary.
On the other hand, Dr. Garrett says: “Another worrying trend is the use of treatments that must be prescribed by a doctor to patients. For example, many online influencers suggest the use of melatonin – a hormone produced by the pineal gland in the brain, which plays an important role in regulating the menstrual cycle. “Sleep in humans – and does not require a prescription in many countries.”
The variables related to sleep are too numerous to control
Studies show that we all likely need different hours of quality sleep at different stages of our lives. For example, people going through puberty and menopause need longer hours of sleep because their sleep quality decreases as a result of hormonal fluctuations. Changing hormones can cause night sweats, muscle pain, dreams that increase your anxiety, and a host of other symptoms that can negatively impact sleep and rest.
“Sleep naturally changes with the seasons, weeks, and months,” Romeszewski explains. “It is impossible to control all of these environmental changes, but we can stick to the behaviors that are most influential, and then abandon our need for every night’s conditions to be exactly the same. This is impossible to achieve.”
Suffering with sleep and searching for solutions
Perfection is difficult in all areas of life, but improvement is a good thing, especially when it comes to something like sleep.
Sleep deprivation and insomnia have a negative impact on life and physical health. Insufficient sleep has many effects, as it leads to very weak memory, loss of concentration when doing work, and suffering from severe anxiety about the simplest things.
According to the Cleveland Center, sleep deprivation has negative effects on the body’s systems, organs, and processes. People who suffer from chronic sleep deprivation are more susceptible to the following:
- Having high blood pressure and cholesterol.
- Having diabetes mellitus II.
- Weak immune system against infection.
- Higher sensitivity to pain, which means they feel pain more easily, the pain is more intense, or both.
- Feeling symptoms of depression and anxiety.
How do you get perfect sleep in reasonable ways?
In an interview with Healthline magazine, experts mentioned the basics that can be applied to get perfect sleep:
- Do not drink caffeine 6 hours before bedtime (some people may need longer periods).
- Avoid looking at screens at least 45 minutes before going to bed to reduce exposure to blue light, which interferes with the body’s natural secretion of sleep hormones.
- Exercise regularly, refraining from sports that cause heavy sweating before bedtime.
- Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.
- Keep your bedroom cool and dark.
- Exposure to sunlight upon waking.
How can good sleep help improve your health?
“Prioritizing rest benefits your physical and mental health, whether you call it optimal sleep or not,” says Noah Kass, an expert in the field of psychotherapy.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, getting enough sleep helps a person in various ways, including:
- Increase the speed of recovery from diseases.
- Maintain a normal, healthy weight.
- Reduce stress and improve mood.
- Reducing the risk of health problems, including heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
- Improve concentration and memory.
- Helping you perform daily activities – including work – better.