Have you ever slept for an extended period of time only to wake up feeling tired and sluggish? Well the thing about sleep is that the length of sleep is not what causes us to be refreshed upon waking, it is the number of complete cycles our brains go through. It takes the average person +-90 minutes to go through all 5 phases which completes a single sleep cycle, thus if someone only gets 3 hours of sleep, they will wake up feeling refreshed even though they haven't fully replenish their energy. If you wake up in the middle of a cycle or when a cycle hasn't completed, you will wake up feeling tired and not so alert. Due to this it is recommended that you sleep in multiples of 90 minutes or 1 1/2 hours a day, this does not have to be sequential as you could get 6 hours core sleep at night and a 90 minute nap some other time during the day. As long as your brain finishes a cycle you will feel refreshed and good to go, however in order to fully replenish and restore mind/body energy you should get at minimum, 6 hours of total sleep during a 24-hour period. Furthermore you shouldn't make it a habit to sleep for more than 9 hours as it could cause permanent brain damage and your muscle mass and strength will decrease. Ideally, one should aim for 6/7.5/9 hours of sleep on a daily basis.
Sunday, 29 May 2011
How To Get the Best Out of Sleeping
Have you ever slept for an extended period of time only to wake up feeling tired and sluggish? Well the thing about sleep is that the length of sleep is not what causes us to be refreshed upon waking, it is the number of complete cycles our brains go through. It takes the average person +-90 minutes to go through all 5 phases which completes a single sleep cycle, thus if someone only gets 3 hours of sleep, they will wake up feeling refreshed even though they haven't fully replenish their energy. If you wake up in the middle of a cycle or when a cycle hasn't completed, you will wake up feeling tired and not so alert. Due to this it is recommended that you sleep in multiples of 90 minutes or 1 1/2 hours a day, this does not have to be sequential as you could get 6 hours core sleep at night and a 90 minute nap some other time during the day. As long as your brain finishes a cycle you will feel refreshed and good to go, however in order to fully replenish and restore mind/body energy you should get at minimum, 6 hours of total sleep during a 24-hour period. Furthermore you shouldn't make it a habit to sleep for more than 9 hours as it could cause permanent brain damage and your muscle mass and strength will decrease. Ideally, one should aim for 6/7.5/9 hours of sleep on a daily basis.
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A.) Not everyone's sleep cycles are 90 minutes. There is an average 30 minute differential on that. Most people's sleep cycles are 1 or 2 hours hence the 90 minute average.
ReplyDeleteB.) There is no scientific evidence that normal, natural sleep could cause brain damage at any length of time.
C.) During most of your first cycle, you are not getting any restoration until you reach REM stage sleep which usually doesn't happen until the very end of your first cycle, so 60-90 minute naps are quite literally "just resting your eyes"
D.) You can't fall asleep whenever you want. It is a bodily reaction to tiredness, weakness, need to use energy for different problems (e.g. a sick person's white blood cells need what little energy is left to fight off an infection) & sometimes just because you're bored & your brain has nothing to do so it shuts down.
This is interesting. I almost always wake up feeling tired but it's just normal to me.
ReplyDeleteI read about this before. I've been working on my sleeping pattern.
ReplyDeleteThis may help me, thanks!
ReplyDeletei really like the way you move mmm
ReplyDeleteNice one. I recommend some books on Physiology and sleep's phases (NREM, REM).
ReplyDeleteI've got an app for my phone that is supposed to wake you up once you complete one of those cycles so that you feel refreshed.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post, but thanks to FrostyC for clearing some of those things up because I did think a few of the facts were a bit off
ReplyDelete