Already in the morning while the alarm clock is going off the effects of a night with bad sleep are noticeable. 80 % of all grown-ups are suffering under a chronical lack of sleep. And this lack of sleep is the reason why we are feeling weak and slow already in the morning. The lack of sleep constantly grows night by night and take on a scale that hardly can be compensated. On long term, this lack of sleep leads to increased stress and exhaustion, it favors diseases and may even lead to depressions. Everyone, who doesn’t wake up by himself in the mornings –- meaning, he or she needs an alarm clock -– is suffering under a sleep debt.
In the ideal case you should not need an alarm clock. The reason why almost no one is able to get up in the morning without one is that most people go to bed too late. So, the sleep is insufficient, the body is not ready to get up and needs an outside signal to do so. But, that isn’t the solution for the problem of lack of sleep. More sleep is the only way to compensate it. Often, you feel much more recreated in the morning only by going to bed 15 minutes earlier. Generally, the total sleeping time per night should be long enough to pass through the ninety-minute-sleeping-cycle five times. In 7.5 hours we constantly pass light- and deep-sleep as well as REM-sleep and ideally wake up by ourselves when the cycle is finished the fifth time.
Besides the length the quality of sleep is important, too. If the quality is high, you may start into the day relaxed -– even if you haven’t slept enough. Three factors are playing an important role for a high-quality-sleep: sleeping system, sleeping place and bed room.
To say “Good bye” to disturbed sleep and to find your way back to recreational nights you can orient yourself on three guidelines: it is only possible to compensate two hours of sleep debt during one night (on weekends, for example). Out of this reason you should go to bed half an hour or 15 minutes earlier every day. Step by step, you are able to reduce the accumulated sleeping debt like that. Additionally, two or three power naps per day (duration five to 10 minutes maximum) might tremendously increase your performance. Next thing is, to take care that your sleeping place fulfills all conditions of the sleep-healthy-concept. A natural sleeping system, a disturbance free sleeping place and a harmonious room climate are decisive for the quality of your sleep. In addition to that, one should check the own sleep efficiency. To create a high sleep efficiency it is important to actually sleep 97 – 98 % of the time spent in bed. Don’t give up if it should be less! Each per cent decides how well rested you get up in the morning!
Everything you need is the proper combination of sleep duration, quality and efficiency to sleep through undisturbed and relaxed again and to wake up in the morning relaxed and recreated.
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This post is also available in / Diesen Beitrag gibt es auch in: German
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