What’s indisputable is that many of us simply aren’t getting enough sleep. CDC investigation, More than a third of Americans report not getting the recommended amount of sleep, and that’s not something to take lightly: Sleep-deprived people are “at a much higher risk of diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, obesity, depression, anxiety, and cancer,” says neuroscientist Stephen Lockley, visiting professor at the University of Surrey in the UK.
We spoke to experts to find out the key things we all need to know about sleep and how we can improve our sleep experience. Here are five takeaways:
1. Are you tired? You’re not alone.
Are we living in sleepier times than ever before? Modern mobile phone use may be making sleep problems worse, but it’s not as simple as you might think.
major Research review The researchers found that the amount of sleep people got from 1960 to 2013 was roughly the same regardless of the year, and it’s not a technology issue. 2015 Survey When people in three pre-industrial societies in Namibia, Bolivia and Tanzania were asked to wear activity trackers to record their sleep habits, they found that they were getting less sleep than their industrialized counterparts, ranging from 5.7 to 7.1 hours a night. The fear of not getting enough sleep has long been a perennial problem. British Medical Journal The editorial included the following passage: “The problem of insomnia has once again become a topic of public discussion. The hurry and excitement of modern life is quite rightly attributed to much of the commonly heard complaints of insomnia.”
Either way, the fact is that many people today would like to get more sleep. For adults, the pressures of commuting, childcare, and multiple jobs can make it hard to follow your body’s cues. Lack of sleep is also a problem for teenagers. The recommended eight to ten hours of sleep per night is for 13-18 year olds. However, Junior and senior high school students Respondents to the CDC survey were getting less sleep than this, which the health agency says could affect mental health, attention and behavior.
Racial and ethnic disparities also need to be considered. “This is a bigger problem for minority populations,” says Tom Scammell, a neurologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. Black and Pacific Islander adults were the most sleep-deprived in the CDC survey, with roughly one in two respondents saying they needed more sleep.
The consequences of sleep deprivation may be more severe than in the past, Lockley said. Time Shifter, The app is aimed at helping travelers reduce the symptoms of jet lag. “150 years ago, you didn’t have to worry about falling asleep at the wheel,” he says.
2. Perhaps you can’t judge how sleepy you are.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that adults get at least seven hours of sleep per night, and because a typical night’s sleep is peppered with small awakenings, Lockley says, that means you need to stay in bed for more than seven hours.
But if you regularly sleep less than that and still feel fine, should you be worried? Scammell says people aren’t very good at discerning whether they’re sleep-deprived. In his experience, asking more questions often reveals red flags, like drinking four cups of coffee a day or needing a nap in the afternoon.
“When people are in these chronic situations, what they perceive as normal may not be how it should be that day,” Lockley says. Lockley points to research that suggests sleep-deprived subjects unknowingly perform worse on cognitive tests. “It impairs your ability to evaluate,” he says. “You often think you’re doing better than you are.”
Patients with severe sleep apnea (when breathing stops and then starts during the night) can feel groggy during the day, but they may think they’re sleeping soundly, says Andrew Wellman, director of the Sleep-Disordered Breathing Lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Wellman tells the story of a patient who claims he’s sleeping soundly, only to find that tests reveal a different truth: his sleep is disturbed. “The reason he thinks he’s sleeping soundly is because he’s so tired he falls asleep quickly,” Wellman says.
Wellman recommends this test: Do your eyelids feel heavy during the day? If so, that’s a better indication of lack of sleep than whether you feel “fine.”
3. Can’t sleep? The best cure isn’t medicine.
The standard treatment for insomnia (trouble falling asleep or staying asleep) is not sleeping pills, which can cause side effects such as cognitive impairment and dizziness. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia CBT-I involves patients tracking the times they spend in bed and awake, dimming the lights before going to sleep, and working with a therapist to develop habits that help them feel tired at the right time. Equally or more effective A 2019 study found it had fewer side effects than sleeping pills.
Scammell says it can be hard to find a CBT-I practitioner, but there are apps that can help you build these skills even if you don’t have a therapist — Sleepio, for example, has been shown to be effective in treating anxiety and insomnia. Two large randomized controlled trials.
For insomniacs, setting a goal to sleep a certain number of hours per night can be counterproductive, Wellman says. If worry about not getting enough sleep is keeping you from sleeping, it’s time to hang up the tracker and start focusing on good habits instead of numbers. “It’s not for everyone,” Wellman says of sleep advice. It all depends on your situation.
For children, experts say changing habits like dimming the lights in the home and avoiding screen time in the hours before bedtime can be the first step to improving their sleep.
a Recent trends Some parents give their children the hormone melatonin to help them sleep. According to one study: Six percent of preschoolers and about 20% of older children received melatonin, many of them every night. This may seem harmless, since melatonin is a hormone produced by the body a few hours before sleep and is available without a prescription. But Scammell cautions that there is little data on the safety of giving melatonin to children long-term. Moreover, Lockley says, melatonin is known to affect sleep in many animals. Reproductive system, Without further research, the question arises as to whether it should be considered safe for children.
4. Light is a powerful medicine. Use it to your advantage.
The timing of your sleep is controlled in part by your body’s internal clock, which keeps track of how much time has passed since you were asleep. Your internal clock also tracks your daily cycle of light and dark. Both systems are affected by light, Lockley says, as light stimulates your desire to sleep and keeps you from falling asleep. Being exposed to light at the wrong time can throw your internal clock off-kilter, putting it out of tune with your environment (think trying to sleep in an entirely different time zone).
Lockley and his colleagues exposed subjects to brief periods of bright indoor light and made a startling discovery: Just 15 seconds of very bright light can throw off our body clocks — subjects who were exposed to bright light had bigger shifts in their body clocks than those who weren’t.
Blue light, According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, blue light from fluorescent and LED lights and backlit electronic screens has a greater impact on circadian rhythms than other types of light. In fact, even moderate exposure to blue light at night can help your body adjust. delay It inhibits the production of melatonin. If you have trouble falling asleep, NIOSH recommends avoiding watching TV, smartphones, or other digital screens before going to bed.
However, because red light has little effect on circadian rhythms, your doctor may recommend reading under warmer light instead of using your phone before bed.
5. Sleep is older than the brain.
If you’re worried about whether you’re getting enough sleep, it might help to consider the bigger picture. It’s easy to think that sleep evolved for the brain — after all, a good night’s sleep makes you feel “clear-headed.” And for years, sleep scientists have believed that.
But something more unexpected may be closer to the truth. The path to our current understanding began in the 1970s, when biologist Eileen Tobler began recording the behavior of cockroaches, which have two brain-like clusters of neurons in their nervous systems that perform behaviors that closely resemble sleep.
Insects had periods of quiescence during which they would not wake up easily, and when they did, they had to compensate by resting more later. Over the next few decades, work based on Tobler’s criteria revealed that sleep occurs in organisms as diverse as fruit flies and roundworms. The same sleep behavior is also seen in the Cassiopeia jellyfish, which has only a nervous system without a central brain. An even simpler organism, the hydra, Found sleeping In 2020.
This suggests two things. First, sleep probably dates back more than a billion years, to when our last common ancestor with Hydra was alive. Second, sleep may not have evolved as a maintenance procedure for the thinking equipment in our skulls. For humans, sleep keeps us alert, aids cardiovascular health, and allows our bodies to process things that we probably can’t while awake. We can only imagine what that meant for the first humans on Earth to sleep.
Think about that next time you go to bed: what you are about to do is ancient and mysterious, and we are only just beginning to understand the profound role it plays in our lives.
Veronique Greenwood A science writer living in the UK. Comments are [email protected].
