Sleep 4 hours - oh, it's very simple. It’s much more difficult to stay awake for the remaining 20...
Haste, vanity... Purposeful people strive to achieve career heights and a decent level of well-being, to assert themselves or to prove something to someone. They pile on an unrealistic amount of work, find a sea of new things to do and try to cope with them all. Ambition, ruthlessness towards oneself and circumstances, fortitude, perseverance - all this is positioned as the necessary properties of a successful person, and attention to one’s well-being and care for it are regarded as traits of an outsider.
As a result, life turns into a chaos of rapidly changing events, a bright rotating kaleidoscope, a frantic race with rare pit stops.
Those who have made themselves slaves to obligations are constantly looking for the most important resource that they always lack. Time to get everything done. How to get it? Business madmen quickly find an answer to this question - they decide to sleep less. Restricting sleep makes them more tired and spoils their mood, but this does not bother people who are eager to work. It’s possible to maintain more or less working condition – that’s nice. Although lack of sleep interferes, it interferes significantly...
Many super-busy people say that through experience they have calculated the optimal amount of time that they are willing to “sacrifice” for rest. Following the precepts of Napoleon, they are ready to allocate about 4 hours for their sleep. It is impossible to sleep less - turning into a zombie is guaranteed. Sleeping more – well, that’s already overkill...
How to get enough sleep in 4 hours and is it even possible?
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Determine how much sleep you need
We are all different: according to chronotype, people are divided into larks, owls and pigeons. The work schedule, as a rule, does not take into account individual biorhythms: traditionally, offices open at 8–9 am. A difficult test for owls, as well as for those who for some reason could not fall asleep on time.
The advice is simple: first study your body.
Go to bed as soon as you want. Turn off your alarm and sleep as long as you want.
In order to determine your natural biorhythms and habits, you need a few days off from work. These could be long holidays or at least weekends. In such “free swimming” a person usually sleeps from 7 to 9 hours - this is the same time during which the body fully recovers.
Determine what sleep rituals you have. Do you watch TV before going to bed? Do you wake up at night to drink water or eat something? You can't change your habits unless you study them.
The body is being repaired in a dream
- The brain does some vital things only in sleep. For example, it cleanses itself of harmful substances and restores blood pressure. It induces homeostasis, so to speak.
- There is a hypothesis that during wakefulness, internal organs do not communicate much with the brain - they say, it has more important things to do. And at night, the brain pays attention to the intestines, stomach, liver, etc. And looks at what needs to be done: repair, cleaning, tissue restoration, hormone correction, etc. You can imagine that this is a doctor who visits the patient a couple of times per day to adjust medications.
- If you don't sleep for a long time, cognitive abilities also decrease, but you don't die from it.
- They die not from lack of sleep itself, but from diseases that have accumulated due to missed “examinations” by the brain - and they just happen in a dream. Rats that were experimentally deprived of sleep for several days died from intestinal inflammation. Most likely, the brain did not have time to diagnose the intestines, and it became inflamed uncontrollably.
Choose your bedtime
Don't try to go to bed as early as possible. This is a vague goal that is almost impossible to achieve. Instead, clearly schedule your bedtime based on what time you need to get up.
Let's say the experiment described in the previous paragraph showed that you need to sleep 8 hours. And you need to get up at 7:00. Then go to bed at 23:00 or a little earlier.
To get into a routine, try to stick to it on the weekends as well. But sometimes, as an exception, allow yourself to sleep until lunch or go to bed later.
Advice from sleep specialists that should not be ignored
- Night rest should begin at 10 pm, since 1 hour of body recovery from 10 to 12 is equal to 2 hours after 12.
- If you are sleep deprived, it is better not to drink coffee at all; it is easy to become addicted to caffeine. The more cups, the less productive your sleep will be. If the nervous system is exhausted, then coffee will not add vigor in any way; on the contrary, problems with blood pressure will appear.
- Alcohol helps you relax and fall asleep faster, but your rest will be intermittent and incomplete.
- Energy drinks are extremely unhealthy for the body; cases of death have been recorded with frequent use.
- A glass of milk at night is recommended due to the tryptophan content in the drink. The substance helps you fall asleep quickly.
- If you need to go to bed early, then you should start preparing 2-3 hours before: dim the lights, relax, take a bath.
Stop working in the bedroom
Once you've decided on the amount of time you need to get enough sleep, create your own set of rules that will help you relax. This could be dim lighting, not watching TV an hour before bedtime, and so on.
Keep in mind: work and rest should not happen in the same place! This is important for developing good sleep habits. Don't check your email in bed or finish an article or report. Otherwise, you will not be able to fully relax.
The main principle is this: the bed is for sleep and sex.
Turn off gadgets 30 minutes before falling asleep
This is advice that we all ignore (I want to read an e-book, check social networks, and so on). But in vain.
The light that comes from the smartphone imitates the sun.
It signals the brain to stop producing melatonin. It is an important hormone that regulates the circadian rhythm (sleep and wake cycles) and signals when it's time to fall asleep and when to wake up.
Disruptions in the circadian rhythm not only lead to poor sleep: they are also fraught with vision problems, the development of depression and cancer. So it's better to put your gadgets away.
Optimal conditions for sleep
To decorate your bedroom, it is better to choose the quietest room, the windows of which do not face a busy street. The bed should be spacious and as comfortable as possible. Pay special attention to choosing a mattress. It should be neither too hard nor too soft, and should provide the body with the opportunity to relax as much as possible. It is better to choose a low pillow so that the spine remains in a straight position while sleeping.
When choosing bedding, give preference to natural, breathable materials. The best option is 100% cotton underwear.
Sleep will be healthier and more sound if you sleep in complete darkness. Always turn off the lights at night and cover the windows with thick curtains or blinds. If you get up to go to the toilet at night, try not to turn on a bright lamp. A night light with a reddish light is best; it will not interrupt the production of melatonin.
It is also very important to breathe fresh air, so the room must be well ventilated. Keep in mind that in 1 hour an adult processes about 3 cubic liters of oxygen. To refresh the air, it is better to leave the window ajar.
The optimal temperature in the bedroom is 20-22 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the body fully relaxes, but does not overheat. If this temperature seems cool, dress warmly and cover yourself with a warm blanket, but keep your head cool.
When going to bed, try not to think about problems, better think about something pleasant, or even better - completely get rid of thoughts and concentrate on your breathing.
What else needs to be considered
If you follow the above recommendations every day, you will fall asleep faster, sleep will become more sound, and in the morning you will feel cheerful and full of energy. If sleep still does not return to normal, there may be some health problems or a lack of certain substances. You should not self-medicate and resort to sleeping pills. They are aimed at fighting the effect, not the cause. In addition, sleeping pills quickly become addictive, and then the problems will only get worse.
To find out the cause of insomnia and find the appropriate treatment, it is best to consult a doctor. You can find a qualified specialist in Volgograd, Volzhsky and Mikhailovka at DIALINE clinics. We provide a wide range of medical services. All patients are accepted by appointment, eliminating the need to wait in line. To quickly and easily make an appointment with specialists and gain access to additional opportunities, we recommend registering in your personal account on our website.
Relax for 30–60 minutes
Here are some recommendations from the National Sleep Foundation of America.
- Read a book or magazine (not electronic, but paper, and not related to work).
- Write down your thoughts. Experts say journaling before bed can help manage stress and anxiety.
- Follow rituals that will send a signal that you are getting ready for bed: brush your teeth, wash your face.
- Try meditation. Research has shown that it promotes psychological well-being.
Do morning exercises
Exercise coupled with sunlight will turn off the production of melatonin and make you feel more alert. A new cycle will begin that will prepare your body for sleep.
By the way, exercising in the afternoon will also help you fall asleep on time in the evening, just don’t load yourself up too late.
CrossFit after 21:00 is definitely contraindicated - replace it with yoga.
In any case, the load for good sleep must be selected individually.
How to behave after waking up
It is important how the first minutes after waking up pass. They definitely need to be put to good use:
- Admire the sunrise.
- Listen to pleasant music.
- Read some motivational quotes.
- Chat with your four-legged friend.
- Drink a cup of water with lemon or mint.
From these pleasant actions you can create rituals to perform daily in the morning:
- First minute. Open your eyes and think about something very good, about people who make you feel happy, about places you really want to visit. One can imagine the purchase living in one's dreams. This start of the morning will contribute to further planned actions.
- 2 minutes. To awaken the body, you should stretch to saturate it with oxygen - take 2-3 deep breaths.
- 3 minutes. To wake up refreshed, it is recommended to induce a rush of blood to the head by massaging the earlobes, back of the head, temples, and eyebrows.
- 4 minutes. To improve blood circulation, you need to rub each other with your palms, then rub your entire body.
- 5 minutes. Slowly get up, sit on the bed, drink a cup of water.
Sports will help
Starting your day with a run can help you feel an increase in vitality at any age. If you have just started training, 15-minute runs at a slow pace are enough. Jogging or brisk walking is allowed. You can select an individual pace by applying the following criterion: if while running it is possible to say a short phrase out loud without shortness of breath, the running speed has been chosen correctly.
Instead of running, you can take a bike ride, if you don’t want to run or ride a bike, do morning exercises accompanied by invigorating music on the street or at home
Don't worry about whether you can sleep
Of course, this is easier said than done. There are those who look forward to the night with fear, look at the clock, worrying that they will not be able to sleep again today. And after sleep really doesn’t come, they experience negative emotions: fear, anxiety, anger. This can lead to chronic insomnia.
In this case, doctors recommend removing clocks and other objects from the bedroom that remind you of possible insomnia.
You don’t need to consider the fact that you can’t fall asleep a disaster. Instead of worrying about the hard day ahead, think about how well you'll sleep the next night. Set yourself up for this.
Polyphasic sleep: a way out of the situation or self-deception?
For a person who has a normal need for sleep, but wants to get enough sleep in 4 hours, the only way to realize his idea is to switch to polyphasic sleep.
Of course, you can simply limit your nightly sleep to 4 hours, but practice shows that you can sleep for that long, but it’s unlikely to get enough sleep. A few days - and it will end with falling asleep at the most unexpected moment - for example, falling asleep at the workplace with profuse drooling on the computer keyboard. Or passing out at lunch and getting burns on your face from soup - who knows where you will succumb to the spell of sleep!
And polyphasic sleep is, although not a panacea, but at least a hope for the preservation of performance and mental processes. There have been no official studies of polyphasic sleep (and sleep specialists do not recommend its use!), but there are people who practice this practice. Several polyphasic sleep modes have even been proposed.
Dymaxion mode a person sleeps for half an hour every 6 hours.
U berman mode : sleep every 4 hours for 20 minutes. Leonardo da Vinci used approximately this technique in his time - however, it is believed that he slept more often and for 15 minutes.
E veryman mode : sleep for 1.5-3 hours at night, during the day - 3 times at equal intervals of 20 minutes.
Tesla mode : 2 hours at night, 20 minutes during the day.
Siesta mode : 5 hours at night and 1.5 hours during the day.
Many people who want to learn how to get enough sleep quickly choose and put into practice their favorite schemes. The Internet is full of communities, groups, websites, discussions dedicated to polyphasic sleep and gathering its followers, sharing experiences and successes.
Do they manage to sleep 4 hours and get enough sleep? Often yes. People achieve the greatest success in the “one night sleep and one day sleep” pattern. Moreover, they do not necessarily follow the minute-by-minute schedule of the above modes; sometimes lovers of the polyphasic sleep technique simply sleep for 1.5-2 hours at night and during the day.
This is quite logical. 1.5-2 hours is the duration of one sleep cycle. After this time, the person is in the phase of light sleep, at the moment when it is easiest for him to wake up and move to an alert state, which will last for several hours. If you then sleep for the same amount of time, it helps to get another boost of energy. Thus, gradually “interrupting” with small portions of sleep, a person leads an acceptable existence.
