How to learn to sleep? How much sleep do you need? Healthy sleep

Sleep takes up a third of our lives. If you live 90 years, you will sleep through 30 of them. This condition is the subject of research by many scientists around the world. So let's study this issue together and answer the main question: how much sleep do you need to get enough sleep? First, let's figure out what phases our sleep consists of.

slow sleep

Comes right after falling asleep. Consists of four stages. The total duration of the Non-REM phase is about 90 minutes. The breathing is calm, even, the pressure decreases, the eyes first make slow movements, and then they are motionless, the brain is inactive, the body is relaxed. You rest, restore physical strength.

REM sleep

Follows slow sleep and lasts 10 to 20 minutes. The temperature and pressure rise, the heart beats faster. The body is immobilized, with the exception of the muscles responsible for the heartbeat and breathing. Under closed eyelids, eyeballs make quick movements (hence the name - REM). The brain is active. You see dreams.

The Non-REM and REM phases alternate with each other. First, you fall into slow sleep and go through all its stages. This takes about 90 minutes. Then comes the phase of REM sleep. The first time it is short, no more than 5 minutes. This cycle is called the sleep cycle. The cycles are repeated. At the same time, the proportion of non-REM sleep decreases and the duration of REM sleep increases (up to 1 hour). A healthy person usually goes through five cycles of sleep at a time.

What is the danger of lack of sleep?

Lack of sleep impairs the functioning of certain parts of the brain. For example, inhibition of neural processes in the parietal lobe is observed, which may cause problems with the reaction rate. And when the work of the prefrontal cortex slows down, it is difficult for a person to formulate thoughts, there may be problems with vision. Fatigue of the brain turns into a whole bunch of negative consequences.

Long-term sleep deprivation can cause serious health problems: the risk of developing heart and vascular diseases, diabetes. However, there are people who consider sleep a waste of time and deliberately keep it to a minimum.

How to sleep little and get enough sleep?

Polyphasic sleep is a sleep pattern in which sleep time is broken up into several short periods instead of a long rest once a day. At the same time, the total duration of sleep is significantly reduced, and wakefulness increases to 20–22 hours.

The main modes of polyphasic sleep:

• Dymaxion- four times for 30 minutes every 6 hours. Total - 2 hours.
• Uberman- six times for 20 minutes every 4 hours. Total - 2 hours.
• Everyman- 1.5–3 hours at night and three times for 20 minutes during the day. Total - 2.5–4 hours.
• Tesla- 2 hours at night and 20 minutes during the day. Total - 2 hours 20 minutes.

Many prominent personalities practiced polyphasic sleep: Leonardo da Vinci, Salvador Dali, Nikola Tesla, Bucky Fuller. Of our contemporaries - Yahoo president Marissa Mayer, businessman and billionaire Donald Trump, basketball player Kobe Bryant and others.

However, there are many critics of polyphasic sleep, who argue that sooner or later this ragged schedule will backfire on problems with the cardiovascular system. Opponents of polyphasic sleep believe that you cannot force the body, you need to listen to your biological clock.
This follows from the very nature of sleep. Remember, under normal conditions, we go through five sleep cycles of about 100 minutes each: 100 times 5 divided by 60 is about 8 hours.

How much sleep do you need?

The duration of sleep depends on age. The younger the person, the more sleep they need. The National Sleep Foundation, an American non-profit organization with 25 years of experience in this field, makes the following recommendations:

• from 0 to 3 months - 14-17 hours;
• from 4 to 11 months - 12-15 hours;
• from 1 year to 2 years - 11-14 hours;
• from 3 to 5 years - 10-13 hours;
• from 6 to 15 years - 9-11 hours;
• from 14 to 17 years old - 8-10 hours;
• from 18 to 64 years old - 7–9 hours;
• 65 years and over - 7–8 hours.

There is no universal recipe. Sleep duration is like shoe size. For most, 8 hours is suitable, but for some this is not enough, and for some it is a lot. To understand how much you need to sleep for you, you can experimentally.

Life hacks to help make the morning good:

• Stick to the routine. Go to sleep and wake up at the same time according to your internal biological clock. Use special tracker applications to study the features of your sleep.
• Create a comfortable sleeping environment. The optimum temperature in the bedroom is 18–21 ºС. Ventilate the room at night. Shade windows so that the light of outdoor advertising, street lamps and passing cars does not interfere with you. If you sleep more than one, discuss with your partner what factors affect your and his sleep, and create comfortable conditions for both.
• Buy a comfortable mattress, pillow, and sleepwear. Change bed linen as often as possible. Do not let pets in bed.
• Don't go to bed on an empty stomach, but don't overeat either. No coffee or alcohol at night.
• Use the bedroom only for sleep and sex. Do not watch TV in bed, do not use a laptop, tablet and smartphone. The light from the screens suppresses the production of melatonin - the quality of sleep decreases.
• Fill the morning with bright colors and cheerful smells. For example, eat oatmeal off an orange plate and hang citrus pomanders around the house.
• Take care of everything from the evening. Iron your clothes, assemble your lunch box, make a plan, and so on. Often you do not want to get up, because you know how many boring things are in the morning.

By creating the right morning rituals, you will soon feel how the rise with the first rays of the sun sets you in a creative way, and you will notice that you no longer need an alarm clock.

Daytime sleep: when, how and where to take a nap?

The best time for a siesta is from 13:00 to 16:00. But specific hours depend on your routine and biorhythm. For example, if you wake up at 10:00, you are unlikely to want to take a nap in just 3 hours.

Daytime sleep takes some getting used to. Practice it for several days at the same time. Try to sleep the same number of minutes. Consider the time it takes to fall asleep. If you switch off in 10 minutes, then for a full 20-minute daytime sleep, you need to start the alarm clock half an hour ahead.

You can doze off everywhere: in the car, at the table, on the couch. The sleep is short, which means that you almost do not risk getting up with back or neck pain. Ideally, find a quiet place with dim lights. If the office does not have this, use a sleep mask and earplugs.