Title: The High Quality Sleep Method
Author: [Beauty] by Raphael Perajo
Publication date: February 2022
Gu Ailing mentioned many times in the interview that her "secret weapon" is to sleep enough for 10 hours, because enough sleep can help her review the movements and knowledge she learned during the day and make herself better digested.
However, with the same 10 hours of sleep as Gu Ailing, how many modern people cannot achieve their wishes, because for them, a good night's sleep is a difficult task in itself.
Hundreds of millions of people across the country have sleep problems
Adequate sleep, a balanced diet and proper exercise are three health standards recognized by the international community. In order to arouse people's awareness of the importance of sleep and the quality of sleep, since 2001, 21 March has been designated as World Sleep Day.
The "2020 China Sleep Index Report" pointed out that more than 38.3% of people in the country have sleep problems, and more than 300 million Chinese are suffering from insomnia.
From 2013 to 2020, the average sleep duration of Chinese has dropped from 8.8 hours to 6.5 hours, and due to the epidemic, the average sleep time of Chinese has been pushed back by 2-3 hours.
Among the self-attribution that cause sleep problems, "work stress", "life stress" and "emotional factors" are frequently on the list.
However, we still want to go out of my way to emphasize that it is really important to sleep well, especially for those who need high-intensity brain use.
Studies have shown that sleep can help integrate memories. For the information we learn or remember during the day, the brain will use the deep sleep time at night to convert this information into long-term memory in the relevant area, just like storing information in the computer's hard disk, which is convenient for later access.
The hippocampus, which is responsible for processing information and storing memories
The hippocampus is responsible for processing information and storing memories, so getting a good night's sleep is crucial for us, and staying up late to work or study will only do half the work.
In addition, being in a state of lack of sleep for a long time will have various negative effects on the body. For example, getting fat.
If you think that insomnia people are in a emaciated state of "yellow flowers piled up on the ground, haggard and damaged", then you may think too much.
A survey that tracked 13 years showed that sleeping less than 6 hours a day was 7.5 times more likely than others to have a higher BMI. This may be because staying up late affects the secretion of appetite-related hormones, which will make people want to eat high-calorie foods more.
If a person does not sleep well for a long time, he will become more and more irritable, emotional, and it is difficult to concentrate, resulting in many serious physical, psychological and emotional problems.
In short, to be physically and mentally good, you have to sleep well.
How long does it take to sleep?
Having 10 hours of sleep every day is indeed a bit of a luxury for workers, so can you sleep less?
In fact, an average of 7-8 hours of sleep can make most people feel refreshed when they wake up, and the optimal sleep duration varies from person to person, provided that the sleep quality is normal and the sleep time is more regular.
In "Get a Good Night's Sleep", psychologist Wang Zhan and MD Ouyang Xuan pointed out that most of the time, evaluating the quality of sleep is a subjective feeling.
To put it simply, if a person feels full of energy during the day, physically and mentally comfortable, energetic, and has a good lifestyle, body and mood, his sleep is usually no problem. Don't dwell too much on whether you've slept enough for X hours.
Because how much sleep is enough, specific to each person, the difference is quite large. It is true that some people are "gifted" and can sleep less every day to be more energetic; while some people have to sleep more than 10 hours to be energetic. This is determined by our genes.
According to a study by the University of Pennsylvania, less than 5% of the world's population falls under such "naturally short sleepers." For them, it may be enough to sleep 4-5 hours a day.
In addition, people of different ages need different amounts of sleep.
Newborns need nearly 16 hours of sleep a day, and children and adolescents need more sleep.
People of different ages need different amounts of sleep
After that, as people get older, the amount of sleep people need will gradually decrease. At the age of 30, people's sleep time will be fixed. By the age of 50, the biological clock will gradually move forward, that is, the number of awakenings at night will increase, and it is easier to wake up early.
Sleeping long and sleeping short is not good, the key is to sleep enough time for your body.
Obesity, cancer, cognitive deficits... What else is the harm of sleep deprivation?
So, if we are really tormented by poor sleep quality and insomnia for a long time, what harm will it be?
First of all, lack of sleep, the body's immune system can not fully play its role. Lack of sleep puts stress on the body, and the body's response to this stress is similar to that of low-grade inflammation.
If you don't get the necessary sleep while battling the disease, your body's need for an anti-inflammatory response increases.
Even if you're not sick, you should pay attention to sleep, as sleep deprivation interferes with the immune system's T cells, which can help us fight infections caused by viruses. This may be one of the reasons why we are prone to colds when travel and sleep patterns are disturbed. Even healthy young people get sick frequently if they don't get enough sleep.
As mentioned earlier, not everyone needs the same amount of sleep every night. But one study showed that those who reported a habit of sleeping only 5 hours a night had an increased risk of pneumonia over the next two years, and they also had a higher incidence of previous respiratory infections than those who typically slept 7-8 hours younger each night.
Sleep deprivation is a stressor for the body, increasing not only the risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, but also the risk of cancer and serious neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, and can lead to serious cognitive deficits, including decreased thinking speed and loss of verbal memory, and even false memories.
Your emotions may be affected, you may overreact to stress, and you are more likely to engage in risky and impulsive behaviors. If you suffer from mental illness, lack of sleep can aggravate the condition.
Usually sleep too little, is it useful to make up for sleep on weekends?
When we don't get enough sleep, the missing sleep doesn't go away, but it accumulates like debt. For example, if you need 7 hours of sleep a day, then sleeping only 5 hours for 5 consecutive nights will result in a 10-hour sleep debt. The more sleep debt, the easier it is to drowsiness during the day, the easier it is to feel fatigued, and the more likely it is to trigger other underlying diseases.
What is the only known way to pay off sleep debt? That's sleeping. Going back to our example, assuming you stay up late for 5 days and get a good night's sleep on Saturday, it may alleviate your 10-hour sleep debt, but it won't eliminate that "debt." The only way to "pay off" your sleep debt is to change your sleep habits in the first place and don't accumulate sleep debt.
This can also explain why we have been liver for 24 hours, or after sleeping all night, even if we have slept for more than 12 hours, we still wake up with a headache and will not be refreshed.
First, being able to sleep for 12 hours or more indicates that you owe a lot of sleep debt that you can't get rid of with a single extra-long sleep—it may take you a week or so to get back to normal.
Second, if you sleep until noon or afternoon and wake up close to the typical low state of midday lethargy, the time of hormone secretion of the body will also be out of sync with the usual rhythm.
Third, prolonged inactivity can cause muscle pain or stiffness.
Unfortunately, while you can accumulate sleep debt, you can't store sleep. A normal, regular sleep pattern should be a nightly goal.
Four tips on how to make yourself sleep better
Having a good night's sleep can lead to a better state in life, so what should I do? We recommend that you try the following methods:
1. Avoid anxiety traps
Worrying about sleep quality can be a trap. If you go to bed thinking that success tomorrow depends on the quality of your sleep tonight, you're preparing for tonight's insomnia. Worry sends alarm signals to the brain, and the brain responds to it by staying alert and sleeping as little as possible.
At the same time, sleep is a self-balancing activity of the brain, and homeostasis is the mechanism used by biological systems to maintain balance. This means that our brains struggle to repair themselves during sleep.
If you wake up in the night, don't blame yourself. Remember that waking up frequently is a normal manifestation of the sleep cycle. Trying to stop this process will only trigger an endless vicious cycle that allows yourself to wake up repeatedly during sleep.
Be sure to comfort yourself and tell yourself that you will still fall asleep, because the brain's self-balancing instincts can guarantee this.
2. Fix the time of getting up every day
Insomniacs are usually concerned about the difficulty they have when they fall asleep and are able to remember a lot of details, such as bedtime, the time it takes to fall asleep in a daze, how often they wake up, and how long they wake up at night.
But when asked what time they wake up, the answer becomes blurry, and they say, "It depends on when I fall asleep." ”
The first step in solving sleep problems in terms of behavioral patterns is to fix the time to wake up. Insomniacs often say they are willing to do anything to sleep better, but when I ask them to get up at the same time every day, their first reaction is "I can't do it."
In fact, it's much easier to force yourself to get up at a particular time than to force yourself to fall asleep. If you wake up at the same time every day, a powerful biological clock will eventually also make you fall asleep more regularly.
3. Gradually increase sleep time
Sleeping up to 10 hours overnight is quite difficult, due to the conflict between sleep's self-balancing instinct and the circadian fluctuations of the "sleep-wake schedule."
The two biological systems are antithetical to each other — your homeostasis system may want you to sleep longer, and the circadian rhythm system wakes you up before you get the extra sleep you crave.
If you want to increase your average sleep time by 1 hour per day, you need to gradually develop a new habit: Go to bed 15 minutes earlier than usual every day for one to two weeks. When you slowly adapt, repeat the process: go to bed another 15 minutes earlier, so that the sleep time is extended to 30 minutes, and then gradually increase.
This is an easier way to achieve your goal of extending your total sleep time by an hour.
4. Tips for falling asleep again
Many insomniacs spend more time awake in bed than they sleep, and they no longer associate bed with sleep. Please turn the following sentence into your mantra: The bed is used for sleeping.
If you have trouble falling asleep again after waking up at night, you can use these methods:
Don't look at the time. If necessary, turn your alarm clock around and don't let it face you. If you want to know what time it is, tell yourself it's evening – that's the time now!
Lie calmly and concentrate on breathing. Comfort yourself that you will always fall asleep, that's for sure.
If after a few minutes you find yourself restless, get up and leave the bedroom. Don't do any productive tasks, such as chores or work (which will make it harder for you to fall asleep). Read something of no value, like a home appliance warranty.
Do not turn on the computer or TV. Reading or watching something interesting will only make things worse, because it is tantamount to rewarding insomnia and can easily lead to a vicious circle.
Do not snack. Eating can also be a bonus that can exacerbate your insomnia. (Not to mention that eating late at night can lead to weight gain.) ）
Keep reminding yourself that your drowsiness will eventually come back. When you think like this, go back to bed and don't stay on the couch or chair.
The real role of sleep is that if we sleep well, we can live healthier, longer, and more enjoyable lives. This is the ultimate form of self-care, so our quality sleep comes first.
Finally, I hope everyone can sleep well and get a good night's sleep.
The above content refers to the "High Quality Sleep Method" ([Beauty] Rafael Pelayo published by CITIC Publishing Group in February 2022), the copyright belongs to the book and the author, please be sure to indicate the source and source when reprinting.