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How to Sleep
The necessary amount of sleep
Most adults function best after 7-9 hours of sleep a night.
When we get less than 7 hours, we’re impaired (to degrees that vary from person to person). When sleep persistently falls below 6 hours per 24, we are at an increased risk of health problems
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Polyphasic sleeping
It's based on the idea that by partitioning your sleep into segments, you can get away with less of it.
Though it is possible to train oneself to sleep in spurts instead of a single nightly block, it does not seem possible to train oneself to need less sleep per 24-hour cycle.
Replacing sleep with caffeine
Caffeine works primarily by blocking the action of a chemical called adenosine, which slows down our neural activity, allowing us to relax, rest, and sleep.
By interfering with it, caffeine cuts the brake lines of the brain’s alertness system. Eventually, if we don’t allow our body to relax, the buzz turns to anxiety.
Minimize screen time
Especially before bed. Phones and tablets emit light that’s skewed heavily toward the blue end of the visible spectrum and these frequencies are especially influential in human sleep cycles.
Using a “night mode,” available on some phones, is supposed to minimize that effect.
Melatonin and sleep
Melatonin is a hormone that regulates sleep-wake cycles.
Melatonin supplements have been shown to make some people fall asleep more quickly, but they aren’t proven to increase the total time or quality of sleep.
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The Science of Sleep
The average adult spends 36 % (or about one-third) of his or her life asleep.
Purpose of Sleep:
- Restoration
- Memory Consolidation
- Metabolic Health
Restoration
The first purpose of sleep is restoration.
Every day, your brain accumulates metabolic waste as it goes about its normal neural activities. Sleeping restores the brains healthy condition by removing these waste products. Accumulation of these waste products has been linked to many brain-related disorders.
Memory Consolidation
The second purpose of sleep is memory consolidation.
Sleep is crucial for memory consolidation, which is responsible for your long term memories. Insufficient or fragmented sleep can hamper your ability to remember facts and feelings/emotions.
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Avoiding caffeine
Don't drink caffeine after dark. If you have your last coffee in the early afternoon, most of the caffeine will have been flushed out of your body by 11pm.
Although avoiding coffe...
Sleeping diary
Keeping a sleep diary of your activity before bed, which helps to ensure you avoid the worst triggers.
You should avoid doing anything strenuous or stressful within a few hours of sleep time
Reading devices
Many e-readers are backlit with blue frequencies of light, which can fool the brain into thinking that it’s still daytime.
Reading on these devices for a few hours before bed seems to suppress melatonin (the sleep hormone) and therefore makes it harder to doze off, compared to a traditional paperback. The same goes for tablets, MP3 players and smartphones.
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Keep in sync with your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle
- Try to go to sleep and get up at the same time every day;
- Avoid sleeping in, even on weekends;
- Limit naps to 15 to 20 minutes in the early afternoon;
Melatonin
Is a naturally occurring hormone controlled by light exposure that helps regulate your sleep-wake cycle.
Your brain secretes more melatonin when it’s dark, making you sleepy, and less when it’s light, making you more alert.
However, many aspects of modern life can alter your body’s production of melatonin and shift your circadian rhythm
Influence exposure to ligh
During the day:
- Expose yourself to bright sunlight in the morning.
- Spend more time outside during daylight.
- Let as much natural light into your home or workspace as possible.
At night:
- Avoid bright screens within 1-2 hours of your bedtime.
- Say no to late-night television.
- Don’t read with backlit devices.
- When it’s time to sleep, make sure the room is dark.
- Keep the lights down if you get up during the night.
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