Sleep health knowledge

For the vast majority of ordinary people, the core standard of sleep health has never been "must sleep for 8 hours", but no obvious fatigue after waking up, enough energy to cover daily needs during the day, and no problems falling asleep, waking up early, or waking up frequently at night for more than one month in a row.

Have you also had this experience? I started to get anxious when I saw a video about "lack of sleep will shorten your life". I set an alarm clock to go to bed at 11pm and wake up at 7am. Even if I stayed up until 1am the day before, I still had to lie down until 7am the next day to get 8 hours. As a result, I woke up dizzy and couldn't open my eyes even after drinking three cups of coffee. I met a girl who was an e-commerce operator in the past two years. In order to get 8 hours of sleep, she set three alarm clocks to remind herself to go to bed and get up. She persisted for half a month but got headaches every day. After going to a sleep clinic for monitoring, I found out that she was a short sleeper. She naturally only needs to sleep for 6 and a half hours. The extra 1 and a half hours she had to lie down were all light sleep, which actually increased the burden on her body.

The debate about sleep duration has actually been going on for almost ten years. Traditional sleep medicine has always advocated the "90-minute sleep cycle" theory, which believes that human sleep is a 90-minute cycle of alternating deep and light sleep. You will not be tired when you wake up at the end of the cycle, so sleeping for 4.5, 6, or 7.5 hours is more comfortable than trying to squeeze in 8 hours. In the past two years, many scholars have also proposed the "individual sleep needs theory", believing that 1% of the population are born short sleepers, and sleeping 4-6 hours a day is completely sufficient. There are also about 10% of long sleepers who must sleep for 9 hours to restore their energy. The one-size-fits-all 8-hour standard is not suitable for everyone.

Let’s talk about everyone’s most troublesome problem of falling asleep. Who has never tried lying in bed and tossing and turning “pancakes”? It’s like a marquee is installed in the mind. Small things encountered during the day, unfinished work, and even funny jokes that I read in the afternoon all pop up one by one. The more I force myself to sleep, the more awake I become. CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia), which is now popular among the mainstream, believes that it is necessary to establish the conditioned reflex of "bed = sleep". Don't use mobile phones, watch TV, or work in bed. If you still don't fall asleep after lying down for 20 minutes, get up and sit in a dark living room for a while, read some boring professional books or instructions, and then lie back down when you feel sleepy. But there are also many people who have tried this method and found it useless. On the contrary, they become more energetic after getting up. I have an editor friend next to me who gets up to write manuscripts when he can't sleep. He writes until 3 o'clock in the morning when he is too sleepy and goes back to sleep. However, he is still energetic the next day. Therefore, there is no standard answer to the method. Only the one that suits you will work.

Oh, by the way, there are also the sleep aid products that people often ask about, such as melatonin, sleep aid aromatherapy, steam eye mask, and white noise. I tried almost all of them when I had insomnia. To be honest, melatonin is indeed useful for people who suffer from jet lag or occasionally stay up late, but if you have long-term insomnia, it is basically useless. Many people will have headaches and drowsiness the next day after taking it. Long-term consumption will inhibit the secretion of melatonin, which is not worth the loss. As for white noise, it is even more controversial. Some studies say that it can mask the sudden noise in the environment and help you fall asleep. A friend who is an otolaryngologist told me that sleeping with white noise on for a long time will keep the auditory system in working condition, which will affect the quality of sleep. My own experience after trying it is that it is useful when I occasionally stay in a hotel on a business trip and it is too noisy. However, when I use it at home, I always wonder if the power is cut off, making my sleep more unstable.

Many people always think that “it’s okay to sleep long enough”, but that’s not the case. I have a programmer friend who sleeps 8 hours a day, but he wakes up every day with a dry mouth and a headache. He still feels like he hasn’t gotten enough sleep. After a sleep monitor, he discovered that he has moderate sleep apnea. He keeps snoring and holding his breath while sleeping. His deep sleep duration is less than 10%. No matter how long he sleeps, it’s useless. If you snore all year round, have dry mouth when you wake up, and can fall asleep even while sitting during the day, don't take it seriously. It's best to go to the hospital for a polysomnography instead of forcing yourself to do it.

As for the "catch up on sleep on weekends" operation that everyone often does, it doesn't need to be killed at once. Previous studies have said that catching up on weekend sleep will disrupt the biological clock and make you more tired. A new study in the 2023 "Sleep Medicine Review" also said that as long as you don't stay up late for more than 3 days a week and catch up on weekends for no more than 2 hours on weekdays, the impact on health is actually reversible. Of course, if you stay up until three or four in the morning on Friday and Saturday, and sleep until two or three in the afternoon on weekends, your biological clock will definitely be messed up, and you will inevitably be even more tired on Monday.

In fact, there really aren’t that many golden rules when it comes to sleep. Don’t get anxious every time you can’t fall asleep, and don’t impose other people’s sleep standards. You see many energetic entrepreneurs who only sleep four or five hours a day and are still online. There are also people who sleep 9 hours a day before they can work comfortably. The core is always how you feel in your body, right? After all, getting a good night's sleep is the most practical way to maintain good health.