sleep health concept

There are no standardized rules that are universally applicable. To judge whether your sleep is healthy, you only need to look at three criteria - whether it adapts to your individual work and rest rhythm, whether it affects normal daytime functions, and whether it will bring additional psychological burden to you. Those widely circulated statements that "you must sleep for 8 hours" and "not sleeping before 11 o'clock is chronic suicide" are essentially one-sided marketing rhetoric.

If you have ever tried to make up for 8 hours by lying down even though you were not sleepy, tossing and turning until two or three o'clock but keeping your eyes open until dawn, you will know how deceptive this standardization requirement is. Two years ago, I met a client who works in the Internet industry. He usually goes to bed at 1 a.m. and wakes up at 7 p.m., and his work efficiency is quite high during the day. Later, he saw a few health posts saying that 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. is the time for liver detoxification, and he will get cirrhosis if he doesn't sleep. He was so scared that he forced himself to go to bed at 10:30 every day. As a result, he was still awake until 12 o'clock. Later, I went to the sleep department for monitoring. The doctor said that he was born with a late-sleeping rhythm. As long as he didn't feel dizzy or tired when he woke up the next day, he would be fine even if he went to bed at 1 o'clock every day. There was no need to forcefully change his schedule. After he let go of his anxiety, he never had insomnia again.

It's interesting to say that the current academic circles' intervention in sleep health is actually divided into two schools. No one is right or wrong, but they are suitable for different groups of people. The traditional school of sleep hygiene emphasizes rules: fixing the time for getting in and out of bed, using the bedroom only for sleeping and sex, not touching electronic devices one hour before going to bed, and keeping the bedroom dark and cool. This method is especially effective for teenagers with sleep phase disorders and people with chronic schedules and jet lag. , I used to help a sophomore in high school to adjust his sleep schedule. He used to use his mobile phone until 2 o'clock every day before going to bed, and he dozed off during the first two periods of class. I used this method and went to bed at 10:30 a.m. and woke up at 6:30 a.m. every day, and put his mobile phone in the living room. He adjusted it back in two weeks, and his mock test score increased by more than 20 points. However, the flexible sleep school that has emerged in recent years does not follow this approach. They advocate that sleep should be as natural as eating and drinking. They sleep when you are sleepy and wake up when you wake up. Even if you divide it into several sleep periods, it is no problem. An independent illustrator I know is a typical "two-stage sleep". She goes to bed at 2 a.m. and wakes up at 10 a.m. every day, and takes a 1-hour nap in the afternoon. She has calculated that her output is 30% higher than when she was forced to work 9 to 5, and there is no problem with her annual physical examination.

What's interesting is that the academic community currently has no unified conclusion on many issues, such as "whether catching up on weekend sleep is useful or not" has been debated for several years. One group believes that sleeping in on weekends will disrupt the circadian rhythm and lead to "Monday syndrome", where the more you sleep, the more tired you become. ； The other group came up with research data from the 2023 "Sleep Medicine Review" and said that as long as the total weekly sleep time reaches the standard, sleeping 1-2 hours more on weekends than is missed during workdays can actually reduce the risk of metabolic disorders and emotional disorders. In fact, both sides are right, but the key is a matter of degree: if you sleep until noon on weekends and wake up four or five hours later than usual, it will indeed disrupt your rhythm. If you only sleep 1-2 hours more, it is completely fine.

Oh, by the way, there is another point that many people get wrong: having more dreams does not mean sleeping poorly. The first thing many visitors say when they come to me is, "I've been dreaming every day recently. Is my sleep quality particularly poor?" In fact, dreaming during REM is a normal physiological phenomenon. As long as you don't feel dizzy or weak when you wake up, having three or four dreams in a night is perfectly normal. I once had a programmer visitor who thought he was suffering from neurasthenia because he had nightmares every day. He spent thousands of dollars on sleep aid products to no avail. After doing sleep monitoring, he discovered that his deep sleep time was longer than that of many people who claim to "sleep until dawn without dreaming." However, he happened to wake up in the REM period every time and could remember his dreams.

To be honest, I have been doing sleep-related consultation for so many years, and my biggest feeling is that people nowadays take sleep too seriously, and instead put too much burden on themselves. Sleeping is something that people are born with. Eat when you are hungry and sleep when you are sleepy. There is no need to impose other people's standards. If you are used to going to bed late and are not sleepy during the day, you don’t have to force yourself to follow the regimen of people who go to bed early. ； If you sleep for 6 hours, you will be full of energy. There is no need to lie down for 8 hours to make up for it. After all, sleep that makes you comfortable is healthy sleep.