How long should a person sleep every day to be healthiest

Sleeping is not as simple as falling on the pillow, covering yourself with a quilt, closing your eyes for the night, and then opening your eyes to wake up. It is a complex and gradual process. Why is it that sometimes our bodies miraculously regain strength after waking up, but sometimes we feel more tired than before we went to bed? This is due to the different depth and state of sleep.

Sleep is a systematic project

In fact, sleeping is not as simple as falling on the pillow, covering yourself with a quilt, closing your eyes for a night, and then opening your eyes to wake up. It is a complex and gradual process. Why is it that sometimes our bodies miraculously regain strength after waking up, but sometimes we feel more tired than before we went to bed? This is due to the different depth and state of sleep.

After recording the brain waves of thousands of volunteers during sleep, researchers at the University of Chicago revealed the human body's sleep cycle: during sleep, the human body first enters a slow-wave sleep period, followed by a rapid eye movement sleep period, and then repeats itself, with about 4-6 sleep cycles a night.

A US study found that falling asleep after 2 a.m. can easily disrupt the biological clock, have a serious impact on the body's lipid metabolism, and easily increase the risk of heart disease.

How long do we need to sleep?

Do you often feel "spacey" or drowsy during the day? Do you always have a hard time getting out of bed on Monday mornings? If so, you will definitely conclude: "I'm not getting enough sleep!"

I believe we are all familiar with the harm caused by lack of sleep: lack of energy, slow reaction, memory loss, reduced immunity, and even premature aging of the body. The most common saying at present is that an adult should have 7 to 8 hours of sleep, but an experiment at the University of California, USA, came to a sensational conclusion: "Sleeping 8 hours a day will make you die faster."

The six-year experiment was conducted in collaboration between the University of California, San Diego School of Pharmacy and the American Cancer Society. They looked at one million subjects between the ages of 30 and 102. In this experiment, the subjects' age, medical history, health condition, etc. have been taken into account, and they are compared with subjects with similar physical conditions.

Studies have found that people who only sleep 6 or 7 hours a day have a much lower mortality rate than those who sleep more than 8 hours a day or less than 4 hours. Among them, people who sleep 7 hours a day have the lowest mortality rate, and even for those who only sleep 5 hours, the coefficient is lower than that of those who sleep 8 hours.

The vicious cycle of sleep rhythm

People who often wake up at night or wake up before they get enough rest have very chaotic sleep rhythms. Their EEG shows fast, sharp rises and falls and suppressed waves in each stage, which is not seen in normal sleep.

Therefore, only by fully completing stages 4-5 of deep sleep can the body's physiological functions be fully repaired, the immune system be strengthened, and energy be fully replenished. Prolonging sleep time does not necessarily make up for lack of sleep. On the contrary, if you just stay in bed without getting high-quality sleep. This is actually harmful to the human body and may even shorten your life.

This vicious cycle continues over and over again, and the result is that your sleep system is weakened. The physiological rest period is disrupted, the body does not get enough energy, and your immunity is reduced.

Sleeping too much and eating too much are the same thing.

Those who sleep more do not do so because they need to sleep longer, but because they do not take good care of their sleep system, which causes the system to be weakened and unable to work efficiently. When they feel a lack of energy during the day, they tend to think, "I'm not getting enough sleep. I need to get more sleep," instead of asking themselves, "Is my sleep quality not good enough? How can I improve it?"

In fact, for those who wake up naturally after only 6 or 7 hours of sleep, you don’t have to force yourself to lie down for 8 hours after waking up. As long as you feel clear-headed and feel good, you can get up and move around without worry. For those who feel that they are chronically sleep deprived and can never get enough sleep, perhaps you should be stricter with yourself, set the alarm clock, and control your sleep time and cycles more regularly. Sleeping too much and eating too much are the same thing. Eating until you are 80% full may be the healthiest. Therefore, even if you still feel sleepy after the time comes, you should convince yourself not to stay in bed any longer.

Tips from the National Sleep Association

1. Rise and set with the sun: Try to get up when the sun rises, or light a very bright lamp when you get up. Bright light can help the human body clock adjust to the best state. Spending an hour in the morning sun every day will help you feel more energetic and make it easier to fall asleep at night.

2. Don’t just lie in bed and stare: If you really can’t fall asleep, don’t just stay in bed. Get up and go somewhere else to do something relaxing, such as reading a book or newspaper, listening to music, or even watching TV, until you feel tired. Just avoid getting too excited. The anxious feeling of lying in bed often makes it more difficult for you to sleep well.

3. Adjust the room temperature: Adjust the room temperature to a comfortable level. A room that is too hot or too cold will make your body tense, making it more difficult to fall asleep.

The above conclusions point out that sleep rhythm is the most important. Sleeping too much or too little will make you die faster. So in addition to the length of sleep time, have you paid attention to your sleeping habits? Bad sleeping habits will make you sleep longer and older!