Written by Skin
On mondays on weekdays before the Spring Festival, getting up early becomes particularly difficult...
Why do I take two days off on the weekend and still get sleepy when the alarm goes off on Monday?
On Monday, I don't want to get up early be like: | Pixabay
How much sleep do we really need? This may seem like a matter of divergence, with a 2018 study finding that students who slept 8 hours a night would do better. Another study found that if you sleep less than 6 hours for two consecutive nights, you may be sluggish for the next 6 days.
There seems to be a worry in our lives: if we don't sleep enough for 8 or 7 hours, we may be a little uneasy inside, and even use drugs to meet the standard of sleep. It seems that only getting enough time is a sign of health. But is this really the case?
Why do we always feel like we haven't slept enough? | Giphy
One study found that before the invention of the electric light, people slept an average of 5.7-7.1 hours, not much more than we do now, but they did hunting or day work that consumed more energy.
Researchers have found three hunting groups around the world, and in their lives, there are no electric lights and any electronic devices, and the only light source is small fires. So they don't have a watch, whether they fall asleep or wake up, it's caused by the environment and the body's biological clock.
The study found that their sleep time and sleep rhythm are very much related to the environment. For example, in winter, you will sleep longer, you will wake up naturally around sunrise, and your nightly sleep rhythm is related to the ambient temperature at night...
The daily routines of ancient people (blue line) and modern people (red line). | doi.org/10.1038/527176a
This may show that our current sleep patterns are largely influenced by modern industrial society. And when you see the sleep of ancient Europeans, you may have a deeper understanding.
In ancient Europe, people followed the law of "Biphasic sleep", that is, sleeping twice a night:
At 21:00 in the evening, people have finished dinner and are ready to sleep for the first night. After a few hours of naps, from 23:00 to 1:00 in the morning, although there is no alarm clock, they will wake up naturally according to the body's biological clock.
This kind of getting up is not like we wake up in the middle of the night just taking a nap, but really can work time. According to researcher Ekirch, people do some household work during the waking hours: such as sewing and mending by fire, combing wool, and even chopping wood and doing farm work in the moonlight.
In the middle of the night after work, people will return to bed and sleep until dawn.
This is a 1595 print by Jan Saenredam. It shows the sleep patterns of some people in Europe at that time. | Jan Saenredam
Biphasic sleep is not unique to Europe, and such sleep patterns have been found in Southeast Asia, Latin America, South Asia and other regions. In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, people go to bed early and eat a "late night snack" after waking up for the first time.
This kind of segmented sleep does not have an alarm clock, it is completely a natural behavior of people. On the one hand, it is afraid of danger at night and needs to take turns sleeping; on the other hand, this seems to be a physiological law.
A group of researchers prescribed that a group of people had only 10 hours of light per day. As a result, after a month, these people gradually changed from unipolar sleep to bipolar sleep: the first sleep was 3-4 hours, and the second sleep was 4 hours.
It's okay to wake up in the middle of the night and read a book. | bullfrag.com
Some scientists believe that when the first sleep is over, the level of some hormones will become higher, making people feel more calm, which may be a good time to work and study.
The next time you wake up in the middle of the night, it may not be that there is a problem with sleep, but that you have acquired a more ancient and natural sleep habit. You can even get up and read a book and eat a meal and then go back to sleep (?).
In addition to unipolar sleep, there are several different sleep modes (dark sleep) | typewhiter.com
But after the Industrial Revolution, this sleep rhythm gradually disappeared. The main reason is the invention of artificial light and clocks.
In modern society, although we can turn on the lights until very late (or play with our phones until very late), due to the limitations of work and study, we need to wake up at the same point in time. In the opinion of researcher Ekirch, this breaks the law of natural sleep.
How much of a wake-up call the alarm clock bears. | Giphy
In addition to this reason, it is also difficult for us to perceive changes in light and temperature outside the house when we sleep at home, which may also be the reason why we do not sleep like the ancients. In short, Ekirch believes that today's unipolar sleep may not be a natural way of sleeping, but a product of the industrial age.
So, who doesn't need me to say it clearly| Giphy
Another study found that people in modern society tend to like to sleep late on weekends, and this pattern is most pronounced among young people.
The main reason is that we have to set an alarm clock to get up very early on weekdays, which can interrupt our biological clock and lead to lack of sleep. In order to make up for the sleep debt accumulated during the working day, we had to oversleep on the weekend.
In fact, this kind of "retaliatory" sleep is also a kind of "jet lag". Due to lack of sleep on weekdays, the circadian rhythm system is out of balance. Compared to traveling across time zones, the jet lag caused by this sleep is long-standing. It may also cause other diseases.
So whether it's a rest day or a workday, adjust to a more regular sleep. | Pixabay
Under the influence of various factors, we may not be able to return to the sleep patterns of ancient people. But this kind of research can help us figure out which factors affect sleep, so that we can adjust to a healthier way of sleeping.
We can maintain a regular life as much as possible and maintain our own physiological rhythm. Everyone's sleep time may be different, and we need to take a moment to discover how much sleep we need and then follow this rule.
There is no need to fall into the anxiety of 8 hours of sleep, and some experts have suggested that if you wake up feeling refreshed, it means that you have slept well.
The Spring Festival holiday is coming, I hope you can also make up for the lack of sleep before the holiday, cultivate good sleep habits, and sleep well in the new year.
When my parents woke me up when I came home for the New Year, I:
Pass it down, bring the science home and say that going to work affects your sleep (no