A good night's sleep is the key to health and mental balance. This truth has long been proven and is not disputed by anyone. But a sudden awakening at the wrong moment can practically nullify the result of a good rest. Who is not familiar with the situation when, waking up in the morning, even after ten hours of sleep, you experience a feeling of fatigue and a complete lack of energy? And all because our sleep is subject to strict patterns, which must be taken into account to determine when it is better to wake up in order to immediately feel alert.
Sleep phases
People have been interested in the unusual state of sleep for a long time.
But scientists were able to fully explore this phenomenon only in the last century, when instruments appeared that made it possible to record electrical impulses created by the human brain. Electrodes were connected to the subjects' heads and they observed how the brain behaved during and after falling asleep. Many interesting discoveries have been made, but the most important is still considered to be the identification of sleep phases, which cyclically change several times throughout the night.
Falling asleep
During this period, a person’s reaction to external stimuli slows down, blood pressure drops, heart rate decreases, breathing becomes smooth and deep, and brain activity slows down.
Typically, the period of falling asleep lasts from 20 to 40 minutes. If sleep does not come within an hour, then we can talk about sleep disorders.
But with severe fatigue or mental overload, a person can switch off instantly. Because of this, accidents often occur on the roads or during night shifts in production.
slow sleep
After falling asleep, brain activity continues to decrease, and the slow-wave sleep phase begins, which has two degrees of immersion.
- During the superficial phase, periodically appearing bursts – “sleep spindles” – are clearly visible on the encephalogram. At such moments, a person reacts sensitively to sharp sounds, his own name, and the mother - to the cry of a child.
- This does not happen during the deep sleep stage. The person completely switches off, and even if there is a dream (often these are nightmares), after waking up he does not remember anything.
REM sleep
The slow-wave sleep phase is replaced by fast sleep. It is also called paradoxical, since brain activity is very similar to the waking state. But at the same time, under closed eyelids, a person quickly and chaotically moves his eyeballs and sees a dream, which he can tell in detail immediately after waking up. Gradually, memories of dreams are erased and by lunchtime even their plots are already difficult to remember.
In this phase, we sleep very lightly, and the brain easily reacts to external stimuli. It is this that doctors and psychologists recommend using for easy awakening.
General cycle
The duration of the slow phase of sleep is usually 15-20 minutes of the superficial stage and 35-45 minutes of the deep stage. Then come 15-20 minutes of REM sleep.
In total, this works out to be about an hour and a half, which forms a standard sleep cycle. In order to get enough sleep, you need 5 or 6, but for some people four cycles or six hours of sleep are enough.
There may not be an ideal time for falling asleep and waking up for everyone. And to restore strength, we need a different number of sleep cycles. But how then can you calculate the stages of your sleep at home, without any equipment, and catch the best time to wake up? It's not as difficult as it might seem at first glance.
Experts' opinion
It is good for health to sleep in the dark - these are the most favorable hours for resting the central nervous system and recuperating. The best time to get up is after a full, long sleep. The exact hours are not critical. From a physiological point of view, it is optimal to wake up 1-2 hours after sunrise. The forced deficit of night sleep must be compensated for by daytime sleep, otherwise there is a risk of developing chronic fatigue and somatic diseases.
The bedroom needs to be equipped with maximum comfort, getting rid of everything that could interfere with rest. Rest - if possible, on a normal bed, without using folding structures in the form of armchairs, couches or sofas.
Seize the moment
Now many give recommendations on how to properly fall asleep and wake up. They help some, but others complain that things only got worse after using tips and tricks from the Internet from the newly minted sleep gurus.
The thing is that each organism is individual and several important points have to be taken into account at once.
Natural chronotype
After multiple observations, scientists discovered an interesting pattern. Some people wake up more easily in the early morning, and the peak of their mental and physical activity falls in the first half of the day. Others feel sluggish and lethargic for a couple of hours after waking up, but in the afternoon and evening they are full of strength and energy.
So we were divided into “larks” and “night owls”. A little later, another group appeared - “pigeons”, whose representatives do not have pronounced peaks of activity.
You can determine which chronotype you belong to using tests developed by psychologists. Most of them are now easy to find on the Internet and go online:
- Horn-Ostberg test;
- Hildebrant test;
- Breus classification;
- temperature test.
It is important to remember that the results of these tests are also very relative. Some may be a pronounced night owl, while others may be more inclined to this chronotype.
But in general, based on the test results, you can get a general idea of what time it is better to wake up in the morning and when it’s time to go on vacation.
Acquired habits
It is believed that a person’s chronotype is determined genetically. But numerous experiments have shown that with conscious effort, it can be changed. The only question is whether this should be done.
Going against your own nature is not a good idea. Therefore, ideally, it is better to adapt your schedule to your natural circadian rhythms.
Undoubtedly, if a lark is forced to work night shifts, then after a certain time the body will have to readjust to fit into a difficult schedule for it. But the adaptation period will be long, it may be accompanied by depression and sleep disturbances. Often people can’t stand it and simply change jobs to something more convenient for them.
conclusions
The best time to go to bed and wake up will vary from person to person. In general, however, people should aim to fall asleep within a few hours of darkness and wake up during the first hours of sunlight in the morning whenever possible.
General guidelines suggest that the average adult needs about 7-9 hours of sleep each night. Sleeping and waking up at the same time every day can help maintain healthy sleep patterns.
Anyone who is concerned about their sleep patterns or feels like they are not getting enough rest can see a doctor who can help evaluate you for physiological sleep disorders.
When is it time to get up
Since the division into pigeons, owls and larks is the most popular, we will focus on this classification in further recommendations.
Here's what experts tell them about the best times to sleep and wake up.
Larks
It is easiest for them to wake up around 6 o'clock in the morning, in winter - closer to seven o'clock. Their condition is closely related to the sunrise, so in winter they sleep a little longer, but they can also go to bed earlier.
It is better to plan important things before lunch or for 16-18 hours - during periods of maximum performance. It’s great if during the day from 1 to 3 p.m. you can take a nap for half an hour. This will restore your strength and help you end the day effectively.
The ideal bedtime is 21-22 hours. By 23, they already feel like a squeezed lemon and may have problems falling asleep due to overwork.
Owls
They are considered sleepyheads, since they regard the need to get up before 9 am almost as a personal tragedy. Owls fully come to their senses and can work successfully by about 11 o’clock. It is among them that most people love morning coffee - it helps shake off lethargy and at least somehow cheer up after waking up.
It is better to postpone important matters until 13-14 hours or move them to the evening. Owls' last peak activity is around 11 p.m., so they don't want to sleep past midnight.
But after 24 hours, melatonin production decreases and then it will be more difficult to fall asleep. This means that even night owls must go to bed at midnight.
Pigeons
Quite versatile. They wake up easily between 7 and 9 am and are moderately active throughout the day. Therefore, they can make up their schedule completely arbitrarily.
Their bedtime is also flexible, but it is advisable to go to bed no later than 23:00. For proper rest, it is very important for them to sleep the standard eight hours, otherwise they will experience a lack of energy.
The famous psychologist Breus made a more detailed classification. He divided people not into three, but into four chronotypes: dolphins, lions, bears and wolves. Each of them has pronounced psychological characteristics. But even this was not enough. To wake up quickly, it is also necessary to take into account the stages of sleep.
What time is best to go to bed?
The best time to sleep is when the hormone melatonin begins to be produced in the body. The thyroid gland releases a substance into the blood from 22:00 in the evening, finishing it by 2:00 in the morning. With the maximum dose of the hormone, it will be easy for a person to fall asleep. Therefore, anyone who goes to bed no later than 11 pm will wake up refreshed. This will be felt by activity during the day, increased efficiency, and lack of fatigue.
But it’s better to prepare yourself for falling asleep. 2 hours before falling asleep, stop watching movies and TV shows. It is useful to engage in quiet activities, it's time to take a walk or do light exercises. Before going to bed, you can drink a glass of warm milk or water. But after eating you can’t go to bed right away. A full stomach will keep you from falling asleep.
But if you are hungry, you can eat salad or yogurt. You should avoid drinking alcohol, coffee, and strong tea. It is also better to give up cigarettes. Only calm music and a boring book will help you fall asleep quickly. The body itself will tell you that it is time to sleep. You can go to bed before 22:00 if you are very tired. This applies to people engaged in heavy physical labor.
Definition of fast phase
As soon as we fall asleep, no matter what time we go to bed, the brain begins to sequentially go through all the phases listed above. Since a person feels best when waking up in the REM stage of sleep, it is very important to learn to calculate this moment and set an alarm clock for it.
If the bell time is constant, the body gets used to it, and after a couple of months you will notice that you wake up a few minutes before the signal - this is how our biological clock works.
The easiest way to calculate an individual sleep cycle is with equipment. Some clinics provide such services - they connect a person to devices that record brain activity throughout the night and then get a clear picture of the changes in sleep phases. But even here there is a certain error - in new conditions a person always falls asleep longer and sleeps more lightly than at home.
You can ask someone at home to watch you for at least the first 2-3 hours of sleep. It is easy to determine deep sleep by very slow, even breathing. And in the fast phase, the eyeballs running under the lowered eyelids are clearly visible.
Individual schedule
By recording the start and end times of each phase, it is easy to create a personalized schedule of sleep cycles and calculate the time of awakening when the REM phase occurs at a suitable time in the morning.
For example, you went to bed at 22.00. After 20 minutes you fell asleep, after another 25, it became clear from your even breathing that the stage of deep sleep had arrived. Later, in it, a person can toss and turn, moan and rush about, or lie quietly, but the eyeballs are motionless. After 40 minutes, the observer noticed chaotic eye movements. A quarter of an hour passed - they ended, and then everything repeated all over again.
We count, excluding the period of falling asleep, and we get a sleep cycle equal to (25+40+15=75) 1 hour 20 minutes - slightly less than the standard (1.5 hours). Then it’s easy to calculate the optimal time to wake up.
You need to sleep for at least five cycles – that’s 6 hours 40 minutes in our case. Plus 20 minutes to fall asleep - it turns out exactly 7 hours. This means that if we plan to go to bed at 22.00, then the alarm clock should be set for 5 am or 6.20. If going to bed shifts in any direction, then the time of awakening changes by the same amount.
Disadvantages of technology
At first glance, everything is calculated quite simply. But in practice, this requires:
- persuade someone to agree to long-term monitoring of your sleep;
- be sure that all readings are recorded accurately;
- choose a time for observation when the sleeper does not know about it (otherwise it will affect the results);
- know for sure that the quality of sleep during observation was not affected by the physical or mental state of the subject.
In fact, one cannot rely one hundred percent on the reliability of such results either. Fortunately, scientists are seriously concerned about this problem and have found an effective solution. This is how one of the most fashionable and useful gadgets was born - the “smart alarm clock”.
To wake up easily, you need to sleep
We continue the saga of determining the best time to wake up! To determine what time to wake up, you must, among other things, take into account your genetic need for sleep. For the vast majority of people, 7-8 hours of rest is enough. For some, 4-5 hours are enough to get enough sleep, while others need 10-12 hours to gain vigor (and this is not a sign of laziness!).
You will sleep less - and neither the "early owl" tests, nor arithmetic calculations, nor the smartest alarm clocks in the world will help you wake up refreshed. If you want to wake up at the best time, then you should sleep as much as your body requires. And not an hour longer or less!
Smart alarm clock
It turns out that during different phases of sleep, not only brain activity changes, but also body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate and even muscle tone.
A smart alarm clock reads all these indicators throughout the whole night and thus clearly determines the stage of REM sleep.
Everything else is just a matter of technique. On the alarm clock you need to set the expected time of awakening, and this is done completely arbitrarily. For the clock, this is the upper limit of the period when you need to get up in the morning. Based on individual indicators, they calculate the onset of the fast sleep phase shortly before the boundary you have designated and give a signal - sound or vibration.
Reviews and price
Most people who have used this device are very satisfied. The only downside of a smart alarm clock is that it can make you wake up even half an hour before the set time. But, since the brain is in an active phase, this is not critical - the person still feels great. So the unexpectedly appeared time can be usefully spent on yourself.
The cost of smartwatches can vary greatly depending on the manufacturer. For Chinese gadgets, it is relatively low - simple models can be bought for 20-30 dollars. But the quantity and accuracy of reading indicators are corresponding.
A high-quality smart alarm clock costs between 100-150 dollars, the price of exclusive models can go over 200. So the choice of this gadget is a matter of personal taste and financial capabilities.
Author: Anna Alexandrova
