What is healthy sleep?

With the increase of social pressure, more and more people have sleep problems. "Don't sleep, get up and have fun!" "Why sleep so long when you are alive, you will sleep forever after you die?" "Go to bed at two o'clock, get up at six o'clock, drink millet in the ICU" and other online jokes are very popular.

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In China, the incidence of insomnia among adults is as high as 38.2%. More than 60% of people born after 1990 feel that they do not get enough sleep, which means that more than 300 million Chinese people have sleep disorders, and this figure is still increasing year by year. Good sleep quality is an important guarantee for people to eliminate fatigue and restore physical strength, and is extremely important to human health. So what is healthy sleep?

It is not necessary to sleep 8 hours a day

In the past, the traditional view was that everyone should sleep 8 hours a day. If more or less than 8 hours, it means too much or too little sleep. However, 8 hours is just a rough measure. Different people need different sleep times. If a person has only slept about 6 hours a day for a long time, and is still energetic and has no discomfort the next day, then this amount of time is enough for him. The length of sleep time is like a person's food intake. There is no uniform standard.

The standard for evaluating the quality of sleep should not be simply measured by the length of sleep time, but whether fatigue is eliminated and energy is restored. As long as you feel energetic and not uncomfortable the next day, it means that the sleep quality is high and it is healthy sleep.

Deep sleep for about an hour is best

The amount of sleep each person needs varies greatly, which is related to many factors such as personality, health, work environment, labor intensity, etc., and also to each person's sleeping habits. In real life, some people sleep much less than the average person, but they also work and live well.

Therefore, the quality of sleep depends on the length of deep sleep time during the entire sleep. If the total sleep time is 6 hours, a deep sleep time of 50 to 90 minutes a night is normal. According to the biological clock of most people, the best sleep time for adults should be from 10 pm to 6 am, slightly earlier for the elderly to 9 pm to 5 am, and for children to 8 pm to 6 am. It should be noted that the standard of sleep varies from person to person, so don't blindly compare the quality of sleep. Even the same person's sleep will change at different ages and in different situations.

Misconceptions about healthy sleep

Misconception 1: If you can sleep, the longer you sleep, the healthier you will be.

People who sleep too long often have sleep apnea, depression or uncontrolled diabetes, and therefore cannot get up. In fact, the length of sleep has little to do with healthy sleep. Quality is more important than time. The most important thing is to develop good sleeping habits.

Misconception 2: Dreaming at night means you didn’t get enough rest.

Dreams are a common physiological phenomenon. Every normal person will dream 4-6 times during sleep. If we do not wake up while dreaming, we will not remember the dream and we will not know that we had a dream. Regardless of whether we have the memory of dreaming or not, as long as we are in a good mental state the next day, we cannot assume that we did not get enough rest.

Myth 3: Drinking can induce hypnosis.

People who have this idea will drink some alcohol before going to bed, thinking that this will help them fall asleep quickly. This practice is not advisable. Drinking alcohol before going to bed can indeed shorten the sleep latency period, but it also shortens and inhibits deep sleep, causing sleep to become shallow and fragmented, and reducing the quality of sleep. In addition, the harmful substances in alcohol accumulate in the body and damage the body.

Myth 4: Sleep can store and advance money.

Some white-collar workers sleep very little during the weekdays due to their busy work, but sleep a lot during the weekends, thinking that sleeping more on the weekends can make up for the lack of sleep during the weekdays. However, they do not know that this will cause the sleep rhythm of the weekdays to be disrupted, making it more difficult to restore normal sleep. Therefore, you should pay attention to planning your work and rest time during the weekdays and do not sacrifice your precious sleep time at will.

Misconception 5: Take sleeping pills if you can’t sleep well.

This is a relatively common phenomenon. Many people will act as their own doctors after suffering from insomnia and take sleeping pills at random. This may solve temporary sleep problems, but it often leads to drug tolerance, drug dependence, and more serious sleep and psychological problems due to irrational use of medication. Therefore, even if you want to use sleeping pills, you must take them under the guidance of a professional doctor.

Myth 6: Watching TV or reading in bed helps you sleep.

People who have this understanding will engage in activities that have nothing to do with sleep in bed (reading, reading newspapers, thinking, watching TV, etc.). Over time, the bed will have nothing to do with sleep, and once they go to bed, their minds will become active, thus aggravating insomnia.

Myth 7: If you don’t sleep well at night, you should make up for it during the day.

This is a "remedy" that insomniacs usually like to take, but they don't know that catching up on sleep during the day will consume the sleep needs of the night. At the same time, catching up on sleep will reduce the time of wakefulness and activity, which will lead to a decrease in the motivation to sleep at night, thus aggravating insomnia the next night, thus entering a vicious cycle of "poor sleep at night, catching up on sleep during the day." Therefore, even if you didn't sleep well the night before, you still have to stay awake during the day the next day to do what you need to do and exercise.

Misconception 8: You have to lie down even if you can’t sleep well.

In fact, what we care about is the effective sleep time, not how long you stay in bed. If you find that your sleep effectiveness is very poor, don't force yourself to lie in bed, but seek professional medical help in time to improve the effectiveness of sleep.

Create a comfortable bedroom environment, develop sleeping habits that suit you, get rid of bad habits, and be careful not to fall into the misunderstanding of sleeping. Remember not to exaggerate the consequences of insomnia, do not turn the bedroom into a synonym for "pain", and be sure to seek help from a professional doctor when you encounter trouble, and do not go astray.

Source: Chongqing Mental Health Center

Author: Wen Yan

Audit expert: Wei Xiaoyun

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