15 'truths' completely wrong about sleep (part 1)

Most of us are not getting enough sleep and it seems that everyone is looking for the best solution to get an effective sleep.But are you sure you have eliminated the wrong ideas and found the best methods?Here is the real answer to the "myths" that you still think about sleep.It turns out many things are not the same as we think.

1. Everyone must sleep 8 hours a day

Stop using the stopwatch for your sleep. Although for some people, 8 hours yielded the best results but for others, the number could be 7, 9 or even 4 hours . It all depends on factors such as genes, age and level of activity during the day . For example, there are certain types of genes that connect to shorter sleeps, enabling them to function normally with just a few hours of sleep each day.

2. Alcoholic drinks help you sleep

Although they seem to help you feel sleepy, drinking alcohol before bed actually often breaks sleep. A small study in Australia indicates that people who use alcoholic beverages before bed tend to cause brain waves to have patterns related to interrupted sleep . So even sleeping to recover, these brain waves do not bring positive effects.

Scientists have studied this unconventional relationship, between the feeling of sleepiness caused by alcoholic beverages and true sleep since the 1930s. There is some evidence to show that the body Metabolic processes with alcoholic beverages during sleep and make the lock body able to do many things at once (meaning that metabolism with alcohol and sleep cannot be done at the same time, so sleep interruption).

3. You can sleep off

The idea of ​​sleeping until noon on the weekends sounds interesting, but it is really disruptive to the biological clock inside the body. Every time you switch to sleep, it feels like you fly from New York to Californina and then fly back to New York on a weekend, making your body feel confused on Monday.The best way to avoid this is to sleep with a fixed number of hours and sleep time (almost the same) every night .

4. Not getting enough sleep doesn't affect other body functions

Although you may not feel sleepless at night after a long night of sleepless sleep, it can lead to poor health conditions. Inadequate sleep is often associated with an increased risk of diabetes, obesity, coronary heart disease, and stroke. Even in the short term, you will see some effects such as decreased visual acuity, mood swings and headaches.

5. Drinking warm milk before going to bed can help ease sleep

Like turkey meat (will be mentioned later). Milk contains tryptophan - a substance that the body converts into serotonin - a chemical in the brain that affects sleep. But this amount is lower than the amount needed to help you sleep up to 10 times.

6. Nap is not good

This problem is relatively complicated. If you sleep too much during the day, you may not feel sleepy at night. But if only limited to 10-20 minutes , researchers show that they can be effective, helping people to be more alert during the day. In addition, naps can help improve memory and neurological activities, and even increase resistance to the immune system.

7. You can only dream during REM sleeps

Contrary to many people's thoughts, you can dream at every stage of sleep. The two main phases are REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and non-REM. Experts believe that even though you can dream in both stages, the non-REM dream is very different. Non-REM dreams are often related to everyday events, while dreams during REM are often bizarre and bizarre.

8. Count sheep to help you sleep

If you are constantly having trouble sleeping, the counting method actually makes it harder to sleep. A study of 41 people with sleeplessness showed that in the evenings they were instructed to count sheep before they slept, they still took longer to sleep than without instructions. If you want to search for some thoughts before you go to bed, try taking relaxing pictures of entertainment. Those who try to participate in this way say they sleep faster when not instructed or when instructed to count sheep.

(there's more)

Author: Lydia Ramsey and Jessica Orwig