What happens to the body if you sleep less than 5 hours a day? Somnologist answers

The first thing we sacrifice in the modern rhythm of megacities, when we realize that 24 hours a day is sorely lacking to achieve our goals, is sleep. Many experts and my mother say that it’s in vain. There is an established opinion that a person needs to sleep at least 8 hours a day. What if you simply don’t feel like sleeping? Together with an expert from Osteo Poly Clinic, neurologist and somnologist Olga Begasheva

Let's figure out whether lack of sleep is so terrible and how many hours of proper rest are enough to restore the body.

How much sleep do you need?

The need for sleep is determined genetically, and on average it ranges from 5 to 8 hours. And in some cases, even 10 hours of sleep is the norm. Problems with falling asleep occur mainly in old age and are more common in women. By the age of 50, almost 40% of all women suffer from insomnia. And after 65 years, sleep disturbances no longer increase. An American survey of 70-year-olds showed that on average, if they have problems sleeping, they sleep only 6-7 hours, if not - 7.5 hours.

The need for sleep increases during periods of intense growth in children - this is the first growth spurt at 6-7 years and approximately at the age of 13-16 years. Long and healthy sleep is also necessary for athletes. During intense physical activity, a somatotropic hormone is needed, which is released in the first third of the night and affects the growth and development of the body.

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Do people get enough sleep regularly: statistics

Not long ago, a social survey was conducted, according to which it was possible to find out how much modern people sleep on average.

Surprisingly, the percentage of those who strictly adhere to sleep standards turned out to be high - more than 40% of respondents.

But, as expected, most of those who rest 8-9 hours a day were not among those who get enough sleep regularly.

In fact, only a small percentage of respondents were able to answer that they get enough sleep often or regularly.

Other people get enough sleep only occasionally, and their quality of rest leaves much to be desired.

What happens to the body during sleep?

Sleep is the same altered state as wakefulness. It is essential for recovery, for immunity, for growth, for memory. But the most important function of sleep is the preservation of a person as an individual: memory and images. At this time, our inner self is restored and rested.

An experiment was conducted: a competition was held among the subjects to see who would stay awake the most nights. Unfortunately, during the experiment, the person who, by the way, won, gradually began to go crazy. It was an irreversible condition. Since then, such experiments have been prohibited, but the results of the study have proven that sleep is the main function of restoring not only the body, but also the internal state. This is a very important psychological aspect.

Another important point concerns circadian rhythms. The fact is that according to the “internal clock”, from about one to three in the morning the stomach is restored - this is its biologically active time, from 3:00 to 6:00 - the intestines, in the morning the adrenal glands are actively turned on, cortisol is produced. And, naturally, those people who abuse sleep disorders and have a deficiency of it, end up with health problems.

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The benefits and harms of 6 hours sleep

Benefit:

• the opportunity to do more things (albeit in a tired state);
• the opportunity to devote more time to family;
• the opportunity to watch your favorite movie or read a good book.

Harm:

• a person with lack of sleep looks unattractive, skin aging accelerates;
• a sleep-deprived employee or student feels tired and depressed;
• the body is at risk of catching a cold, because during sleep it releases cytokine proteins, which are necessary for the synthesis of antibodies that fight infections;
• constant stress and bad mood are possible;
• a person who has slept only 6 hours becomes more emotional, since the centers of the brain cannot correlate emotions with the situation that has arisen;
• a high chance of getting into a traffic accident, because the visual coordination of a sleep-deprived person is not so acute;
• frequent hunger, which leads to abuse of fast food, sweets and other high-calorie foods;
• life expectancy decreases.

Each person has the right to choose what would be better for him - to do more things, but in a depressed state, or less, but well-rested and happy.

What problems arise with sleep deficiency?

First of all, performance suffers: headaches, impaired memory, attention, a person is no longer able to cope with the amount of work that he did before. The mood changes very dramatically. This is called the simple everyday word “depression,” but depression in the academic sense is understood as a violation of the production of all neurotransmitter systems. First of all, dopamine, and this hormone affects mood, strength, and endurance. Then - norepinephrine - and this is concentration, attention, these are the functions of finishing what you started. After – serotonin – this again affects mood, maintaining vascular tone and muscle tone.

In severe cases, sleep deficiency leads to serious psychosis, and insomnia is one of the severe syndromes. In age groups, there is a risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, sclerosis and other diseases. That is, in sleep, due to its lack, the cells of the nervous system do not recover.

Lack of sleep leads to a decline in immunity, the production of antibodies, memory, and attention are disrupted. Moreover, it increases the chances of a shortened life due to sudden disruptions in circadian rhythms. That is, those who have clear circadian rhythms live long. The key to health is the so-called Swiss regime - falling asleep and waking up at the same time every day.

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TOP 6 most important conditions for a good night's rest

The use of methods on how to sleep 6 hours and get enough sleep is impossible without taking into account the basic rules of a full, comfortable night's rest. These include the natural requirements of a healthy lifestyle, which every person can follow if desired. If you listen to the tips described below, you can achieve easy, quick sleep and cure insomnia naturally.

Pleasant ritual for the night

This is the main condition for how to quickly fall asleep and get a good night's sleep. Daily repetition of pleasant actions that become a habit guarantees complete rest. Usually recommended:

• take a walk at night;
• listen to pleasant, relaxing music;
• get a massage or exercise for relaxation (yoga);
• take a bath with the pleasant aromas of lavender or essential oils of citrus, fir and other plants.

Features of nutrition and drink consumption

To get a good night's sleep, pay attention to these tips:

1. Do not eat food 4 hours before falling asleep. If the body is too hungry, you can eat fruit or drink broth, low-fat kefir, or eat light yogurt.
2. Drinking strong tea or coffee also occurs no later than 4 hours. For people suffering from high blood pressure, it is better to avoid these drinks after lunch.
3. Drinking energy drinks in the afternoon is not allowed - this interferes with falling asleep and getting a good night's sleep.

It is believed that drinking alcohol helps you fall asleep quickly, which is true, but only partly. Chronic consumption of strong drinks at night leads to sleep disorders.

Physical activity and walking

Sports activities are excluded no earlier than 3-4 hours before the expected night's rest. However, you can take a walk an hour before, and also do light relaxing exercises (for example, yoga). If you turn an evening walk into a daily habit, you will get better sleep.

Conditions in the bedroom

Even a healthy person will not be able to get enough sleep if the appropriate conditions are not created in the bedroom:

• dim, dim light or its complete absence;
• absence of extraneous noise and sharp, intrusive sounds;
• normal air temperature (no more than 20-22oC);
• pleasant, cozy design;
• optimal position of the bed (determined individually);
• lack of a large number of home appliances (computers, televisions, etc.).

Modern technical means provide great opportunities to skillfully relax the body and actually create an atmosphere of relaxation with your own hands in the bedroom.

For example, the use of white noise (sounds of the forest, rain and other natural sounds) muffles extraneous noises. Thick curtains or a blindfold protects against light from outside the window. And dim night lights create a cozy atmosphere in the room.

Optimal selection of bedding

Choose a pillow of sufficient softness/hardness, optimal size and materials. It is also difficult to fall asleep under a blanket that is too hot, on a mattress that is too soft, etc. It is important to take care of all accessories and guarantee yourself a comfortable stay. For example, if you can’t get enough sleep and regularly have a headache, a stiff neck, and tense muscles, the reason is obviously due to an unsuitable pillow (and possibly even a mattress).

Pros and cons of sleeping naked

Doctors and psychologists recommend sleeping without clothes, even without pajamas, because this has its advantages:

• body temperature drops faster, you can quickly fall asleep and get enough sleep;
• the level of the stress hormone cortisol decreases;
• thanks to the reduced temperature, metabolism accelerates and the body recovers faster;
• Psychologically, self-confidence increases.

There are no downsides as such - sleeping without clothes really helps you get a good night's sleep thanks to a comfortable rest.

These tips should be applied not only to those who want to get six hours of sleep, but to all people. Healthy sleep is the basis for normal performance, and chronic lack of sleep gradually undermines the body's strength. Therefore, saving on time for a night's rest is unacceptable.

What are the main causes of insomnia?

Insomnia is a severe condition for the body. If a person has a toothache or pulpitis occurs, he must go to the dentist and treat the problem. This also applies to any other diseases. But in the case of insomnia, a person sometimes remains in such a serious condition for a long time, for years. The body, finding itself without help, loses its last resources. Although today treating insomnia is no more difficult than treating a tooth. The topic has been studied, there is such a somnology and specialists - somnologists who deal with this.

psychological reasons

:

• stress;
• anxiety states;
• neuroses.

Physiological

:

• hormonal imbalance;
• insufficient insulin production (for example, in diabetes mellitus);
• painful sensations.

External

:

• violation of the regime;
• excessive consumption of tonic drinks;
• overeating or starvation;
• unventilated room;
• abuse of gadgets.

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How to leave everything and go to bed on time

Previously, I considered sleep a waste of time and slept little in order to get more done.
But gradually life began to deteriorate: I remembered poorly, felt unwell, lost concentration and spoiled relationships with people. After falling asleep while driving at a traffic light, I studied the topic of sleep and tried out practical tips. I spent a month recovering and found out the three main characteristics of sleep: quantity, quality and time of awakening. Every morning I planned to go to bed before 11 pm. But at one in the morning I found myself watching unimportant articles and videos. The next day everything was repeated. One day I got tired of it and figured out the problem. I’ve been going to bed before 11 for over a year now and I know what it takes.

Understand why you can’t go to bed on time

In the morning one person plans and promises for the evening, and in the evening another person executes it. The frontal lobes are responsible for prioritization, conscious choice, critical analysis and willpower. Over the course of a day, the frontal lobes exhaust their strength and a person becomes weak-willed and driven: he does not follow plans and priorities, and is distracted by stupid videos. This behavior is called reactive. Because of it, we go to bed late, don’t get enough sleep, the frontal lobes don’t rest, and the evening problem gets worse. This is a vicious circle:

Attempts to go to bed on time fail because we rely on conscious choice and willpower when they are absent or weak. The “Priority List” and “Evening Ritual” help a reactive person easily do what a proactive person plans to do in the morning.

Make a “Priority List”

Every evening at 7:30 p.m., the computer tells you that it’s time to review the “Priority List.” The list contains two types of tasks: “Wait until tomorrow” and “Complete before lights out.” After a minute of watching, I understand that it will wait until tomorrow and I call it a day. This is the first point of the “Evening Ritual”, which helps you go to bed on time and get your brain ready for sleep.

The “Priority List” helps our reactive person to slow down and not think about priorities, but simply check whether it is possible to postpone an angry response to someone’s wrong on the Internet. This relates more to mechanical actions than to intellectual ones and therefore the chances of making the right decision increase. The chances even increase that we will simply put things off. Previously, there was no such list and I simply received a message to reflect: “Is what I am doing now important?” But a tired brain sabotaged this message because it was too lazy to strain. To mechanically check the list, you don’t have to strain and your chances increase.

The “priority list” consists of two columns: “Wait until tomorrow” and “Complete before lights out.” You need to make a list in the morning. So that the list does not take up several notebooks, we write down in the columns not specific tasks, but their type:

Suitable Answer to colleagues. Reading social networks. Urgent help for family and friends.

Not suitable Reply to the director when the report arrives. Read the message on FB from Anya. Pull Sergei's car out of the snowdrift.

My list of priorities

How to work with the “Priority List”:

1. Postpone your current activity. This doesn't mean you won't come back to him. You just need to take a break and bring awareness into the evening.
2. Check “planned” with the “Wait until tomorrow” column. If a case falls into this column, it is easy to forget until tomorrow or forever.
3. Check the remaining tasks with the “Complete before lights out” column. There are some that do not fall into the first column. This does not mean that they fall into the second. Even the slightest doubt that the matter belongs to the “Done before lights out” column means there is no doubt that it does not belong to this column.
4. Quit things that are not included in the second column. Quit even in the middle. An unfinished comment, an unread article or an unwatched video has only one goal: to drag you back into the pool of meaningless and useless activities. The truly important will remain like this in the morning and will not go anywhere.

Perform the Evening Ritual

“Evening ritual” is a list of understandable tasks that we perform mechanically and automatically. The hardest thing is to put it aside and move on to the first point. Therefore, learn to start automatically: your smartphone beeps, put aside work, turn to the “List of Priorities”, then look at the next item in the “Evening Ritual”, complete it, and so on until the end of the list. The main thing is not to give in to thoughts: “Now I’ll finish reading the paragraph...”.

How to create an evening ritual:

1. List the actions you want to do before going to bed.
2. Place them in the correct order.
3. Next to each, write how many minutes the action takes.
4. Decide on the time you want to go to bed.
5. Subtract the number of minutes of the last action from the hang-up time and set the resulting time as the beginning of the last action. Then subtract the number of minutes of the penultimate action from the start time of the last action. And so on until the beginning of the list.

The “Evening Ritual” will help if the checklist items are simple. Don't put activities you're just studying on your checklist. The brain will sabotage excess stress and choose to spend time on social networks. And simple daily actions help the brain tune in to sleep and prepare the body.

Incorporate all actions into the ritual. Even the self-evident things: wash your face, wash your feet, brush your teeth.

My evening ritual in the Things app

Now you have your evening ritual and start time. Set a reminder in your smartphone and learn to put things off when prompted. Don't treat your list of priorities and your evening ritual as eternal and complete. Analyze, check, test, change. Choose what helps.

What to do about insomnia?

There are different types of insomnia. There are shifts in sleep phases or manifestations of a reaction to stress - then the duration of such a period is only 2-3 months. Afterwards, the person’s condition can return to normal, and sleep will be restored. But there are long-term, severe, so-called endogenous insomnia. The treatment of such diseases is carried out either by a psychiatrist or a somnologist.

When studying insomnia, polysomnography is performed. Diagnosis is also made by questioning and taking an anamnesis. In addition, there are other possible somatic causes. Problems with the liver and intestines are often detected. In this case, the body does not produce serotonin - its deficiency affects sleep disorders. If there is a problem of intolerance to various products, for example, lectins, gluten, they become toxic to the nervous system. In these cases, doctors carry out comprehensive diagnostics, complete treatment, and intensive general strengthening of the body. Xenon therapy, massages and relaxing procedures are also recommended for the treatment of insomnia.

Polyphasic sleep

You can increase the value of every hour of rest using a polyphasic sleep system. It is believed that REM sleep is more important than slow sleep, and a reduction in REM sleep is supposed to worsen the health of the body. In fact, a person needs all stages of sleep to fully recover.

There are 7 main modes of polyphasic sleep:

• Siesta;
• Dymaxion;
• Biphasic;
• Triphasic;
• Uberman;
• Everyman;
• Tesla.

We wrote a whole article about polyphasic sleep. It describes in detail all of the above modes, and also gives advice on how to most painlessly switch to polyphasic sleep.