Wake up, people: you're wrong about sleep, according to a study

(CNN) – Hey, sleepy. What you believe about sleep is perhaps a pipe dream.

According to researchers at NYU Faculty of Medicine Langone Health, who conducted a study published Tuesday in the journal Sleep Health, many of us have notions about sleep that are actually groundless and may even be harmful for our health.

"There is such a link between restorative sleep and our wake up success," said Rebecca Robbins, lead investigator of the study, a postdoctoral researcher at NYU's Department of Population Health Langone Health. "And yet, we often find ourselves debunking myths, whether it's with media outlets, friends, family or patients."

Robbins and his colleagues browsed 8,000 websites to find out what we thought we knew about healthy sleep habits, before presenting them to a hand-picked team of sleep medicine experts . They determined the myths and then ranked them according to their degree of falsity and their importance to health.

Here are 10 very bad and unhealthy assumptions that we often make about sleep, an act in which we spend about a third of our lives – or, if we lived up to age 100, about 12,227 days combined.

Stop yawning. It's time to put these sleep myths on sleep.

1. Adults need five hours or less of sleep

"If you wanted to be able to function at your best during the day, not be sick, be mentally strong, have the lifestyle you would like, how many hours do you have to sleep?" Senior Investigator of the Girardin Jean-Louis Study, Professor in the Department of Population Health.

"It turned out that many people thought that sleeping less than five hours a night was a good thing," he said. "It's the most problematic assumption we've found."

We are supposed to sleep between seven and ten hours each night, depending on our age, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that one-third of Americans sleep less than seven hours a night. According to World Sleep Day statistics, sleep deprivation threatens the health of nearly 45% of the world's population.

"We have ample evidence that sleeping five hours a night or less, consistently, dramatically increases the risk of adverse health effects, such as cardiovascular disease and early mortality," Robbins said.

In a longitudinal study published in 2007 on 10,308 UK officials, researchers found that those who reduced their sleep by seven to five hours or less per night were almost twice as likely to die from all causes, especially cardiovascular disease.

Science has also linked sleepy sleep with high blood pressure, weakened immune system, weight gain, lack of libido, mood swings, paranoia, depression and an increased risk of diabetes, stroke, dementia and some cancers.

2. It is healthy to fall asleep "anywhere, anytime"

Sitting asleep as soon as the car / train / plane starts to move is not the sign of a well-rested person, say sleep specialists. In fact, it's the opposite.

"Sitting down instantly anywhere, anytime, is a sign that you are not getting enough sleep and that you are falling into episodes of" micro sleep "or" mini sleep, "Robbins said. "It means your body is so exhausted that whenever it will have a moment, it will begin to pay off its sleep debt."

You feel sleepy because of the accumulation in the brain of a chemical called adenosine, which occurs throughout the day as you head towards the night. A good night's sleep reduces this chemical so that when you wake up, the levels are at the lowest and you feel refreshed.

But the more you stay awake and the less you sleep, the more your adenosine levels increase, creating what is known as a sleep load or sleep debt.

Do you want to check your level of sleepiness? Watch the Epworth Sleepiness Scale and, if you are worried, consult a sleep doctor who can perform more in-depth tests in a sleep lab.

3. Your brain and your body can adapt to less sleep

People also believed that the brain and the body could adapt and learn to function optimally with less sleep. That too is a myth, say the experts. This is because your body goes through four distinct sleep phases to completely restore itself.

In the first step, you start to sleep lightly and you disengage from your environment in the second stage, where you will spend most of your total sleep time. Steps three and four contain the deepest and most restful sleep and dream state of paradoxical sleep, or rapid eye movement sleep.

"During REM, the brain is very responsive," Robbins said. "It looks like your brain is awake if we connect you to two extra electrodes and if we are able to monitor your brain waves."

REM sleep can occur at any time during the sleep cycle, but on average, it starts about 90 minutes after falling asleep. REM is when your body and brain are busy storing memories, regulating mood and learning. It's also when we dream. The muscles of your arms and legs are temporarily paralyzed during REM sleep, so you can not realize your dreams and hurt yourself.

As a good night's sleep gives time to your sleep cycle, you will go through several EMR cycles, which account for about 25% of your total sleep time.

Deep sleep is another important stage of sleep, when your brain waves slow down in what is called delta waves or slow sleep. This is the time when human growth hormone is released and where memories are treated further.

"The deeper sleep phases are really important for neural generation, muscle repair and immune system restoration," Robbins said.

It is difficult to wake a person from deep sleep. If you wake up, you may feel groggy and tired; Studies show that mental performance can be affected for 30 minutes.

4. Snoring, although boring, is generally safe

In your dreams, maybe. In fact, "noisy and noisy snoring interrupted by breathing pauses" mark sleep apnea, a dangerous sleep disorder that, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, increases the risk of heart attacks, fibrillation ear, asthma, blood pressure, glaucoma, cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, and cognitive and behavioral disorders.

"Sleep apnea is extremely exhausting," Robbins said. "These patients sleep and wake up again and again; then, they fight against sleep all day because they are so exhausted. It is also very badly diagnosed. We think this affects about 30% of the population and about 10% are diagnosed. "

5. Drinking alcohol before going to bed helps you fall asleep

Do you think that a drink before going to bed will help you fall asleep and stay asleep? Dream.

Alcohol can help you fall asleep, but that's where the benefits stop, Robbins said. Instead, it traps you in the clearest phases of sleep and "dramatically reduces the quality of your rest at night."

"He continues to pull you out of quick eye movements and deeper sleep phases, which forces you to wake up without feeling like being restored," Robbins said.

6. not sleeping? Stay in bed with your eyes closed and try and try

You have to admit that it makes sense: how can you fall asleep if you're not in bed trying? Yet sleep experts say that keeping sheep counting for more than 15 minutes is not the smartest solution.

"If we stay in bed, we will associate the bed with insomnia," Robbins said. She equates this to "go to the gym and stand on a treadmill without doing anything".

In reality, Robbins said, it takes about 15 minutes for a healthy sleeper to fall asleep. If you have to turn and spin longer than that, you should get out of bed, change the environment and do something stupid: "Reduce the lights and fold the socks," she suggested.

Some people also think it's refreshing for your body to stay in bed with your eyes closed without sleep. Nope. It's another dream, say the experts.

7. No matter what time of day you sleep

Sleeping experts say that's another myth that can negatively affect your health.

"We recommend that people have a regular sleep schedule because it controls what we call the biological clock, or circadian rhythm, of the body," said Jean-Louis. "It controls all the body's hormones, body temperature, diet and digestion, and sleep-wake cycles."

When your internal clock and the outside world are out of sync, you may feel disoriented, mentally foggy and sleepy when you need to operate at optimal levels. Just think about what happens when you are crossing time zones or the time is ticking.

Studies of shift workers, who work unusual schedules and do not respect their normal biological rhythm, show that they are at increased risk of heart disease, ulcers, depression, obesity and some cancers, as well as a higher rate of work-related injuries and injuries due to a slower reaction rate and poor decision-making.

8. Watching TV in bed helps you relax

Come on, we all do it – or check our laptop or smartphone before we turn off for the night. Unfortunately, it prepares us for a bad night.

"These devices emit a brilliant blue light, and that's the blue light that tells our brain to become alive and alert in the morning," explained Robbins. "We want to avoid blue light before going to bed, from sources such as television or your smartphone, and do things that relax you."

According to the National Sleep Foundation, blue light affects the release of melatonin, the sleep hormone, more than any other wavelength of light. Watching television or using an electronic device less than two hours after bedtime means that you will need more time to fall asleep, that the state of your dreams or your paradoxical sleep is lesser and that even if you sleep at least eight hours, you wake up groggy. .

If you or your children can not perform this two-hour break because of homework or night tasks, experts suggest dimming the screen or installing an application that can warm up the screen in the colors of the sunset. Red and yellow have longer wavelengths and do not affect melatonin.

9. Hit snooze is awesome! No need to get up right away.

Raise your hand if you press the snooze button. Why not, right?

"Resist the temptation to fall asleep, because unfortunately, your body will go back to sleep – a very light and poor sleep," Robbins said.

At the end of your sleep, your body is probably approaching the end of its last EMR cycle. Press this repeat button, and the brain falls back into a new EMR cycle. Now, when the alarm rings a few minutes later, you'll be in the middle, not at the end of this cycle, and you'll wake up groggy and stay longer.

Have trouble getting rid of the usual snooze button? Place the alarm on the other side of the room, so you have to get up from the bed to turn it off.

And no, you can not tell Google or Alexa to turn it off. It's cheating.

10. Remembering your dreams is a sign of good sleep.

"It's a myth because we all experience dreams four to five times a night," said Jean-Louis. "And we do not remember it because we did not wake up and did not disturb our sleep."

A study out of France showed that people who often remember their dreams have higher brain activity in the brain information treatment center. They also woke up twice as often during the night and were more sensitive to noise when they slept or woke up.

"Now, I'll tell you that if you have a dream with a strong emotional context, it may come back to you at two o'clock in the afternoon, when you have time to relax," said Jean. -Louis. "Sometimes something triggers that. But if it's a strange little social dream, most of us who sleep well do not remember it.

More myths

The research team has found more myths that we tend to accept as facts, said Jean-Louis, such as "more sleep is always better" (no, you can really sleep too much and harm your health), "taking a nap in the afternoon can repair insomnia" (in fact, if you sleep long enough to enter a paradoxical or deep sleep cycle, this may even more ruin your biological clock), and "it's better to have a warm room than cold" (no, you sleep better in cold weather).

Which means we could all use a little education on good sleep hygiene, a set of habits to train that will prepare you for a healthy sleep life. The National Sleep Foundation has advice, as does the CDC.

After all, there is no amount of caffeine that can help you manage the negative consequences of poor sleep, nor can you train to adapt to sleep deprivation, Robbins said.

"Sleep is a very active process," she said. "In fact, it is crucial to restore the body and is actually the most effective and efficient way to do it."

Sweet Dreams!

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