Sleep Experts Debunk 15 Sleep Myths

3) Lying in bed with your eyes closed is almost as good as sleeping. Sleep is not like putting your keys off. It is an active process which includes entering 3-4 stages per hour or so and repeating the cycle 4-5 times a night. If disrupted, you feel not rested.

4) If you can't sleep, you should stay in bed and try to fall back asleep. You should stay in bed but not with the stress of sleeping. Try to relax and still if you can't sleep, get up and stretch out. It may help.

5) Many adults need 5 hours of sleep or less. Scores of data has shown that almost all adults need 7-8 hours of sleep.

6) Your brain and body will adapt to less sleep. Your performance keeps deteriorating the more you restrict your sleep. How bad you feel is way greater than how bad you think you are feeling.

7) It doesn't matter what time of the day you sleep. Sleep is timed, it doesn't just happen. If you play with your sleep biology, it will soon play with you. Studies have shown greater probabilities of heart diseases and obesity in the people who don't sleep according to their biology.

8) Exercising within 4 hours of sleep disrupts your sleep. This can be helpful for some people while harmful for some.

9) Remembering your dreams is a sign of a good night's sleep. It doesn't matter, tbh. What matters is how you are feeling the next day in the morning.

10) Eating cheese (or any other food) before bed causes nightmares. There is no particular food that causes nightmares but feeling uncomfortable while sleeping may cause them.

11) Loud snoring is annoying but mostly harmless. Snoring is a sign that something blocks your respiratory tube. LOUD snoring is a sign that that tube may be completely blocked which is also called sleep apnea. It may cause disruptions in sleep.

12) Hitting snooze is better than getting up. It is advised to set alarm for the latest time possible as it gives you enough sleep and allows you to work better. Hitting snooze just fragments your sleep and even REM sleep sometimes.

13) You can simply become a morning person. You can't change your chronotype but you can trick your mind believing that it is morning instead of evening or vice-versa. This can be done by the blue light therapy. It makes you believe that you are working in a different time zone.

14) You can catch up on sleep during weekends. This is a very common practice but it disrupts your circadian rhythm. Waking up 3 or 4 hours later than your usual time may lead to social jet lag. You may be in NYC but your body is in London.

15) Boredom makes you tired even if you got enough sleep. Boredom unmasks your sleep deprivation. If you have slept enough, boredom can't make you sleep.