Cheatcode or self-deception: Is it possible to sleep in 15 minutes
"Five more minutes" - a phrase familiar to almost every person since school time. It seems that sleep in modern life is sorely lacking - and, frankly speaking, it does not seem at all. A Californian cruise company, but quite representative research has shown that lack of sleep is a worldwide problem. More than 50% of the population of our planet sleep less than they need.
The consequences of regular sleep deprivation are not limited to lethargy during the day — the risk of cardiovascular diseases, obesity, anxiety disorders and depression, and certain types of cancer, including breast cancer and prostate cancer, increases. Lack of sleep, which has turned from an annoying exclusion into a rule, is capable of changing the expression of genes associated with neural plasticity, brain function and cognition. You can often hear that with the help of special techniques, in 5-10 minutes of sleep, you can compensate for a sleepless night, increase productivity and improve your health. We understand how these techniques work, when and to whom they are needed and in what cases they will not help.
Text: Marina Levicheva
Is it possible to sleep off at the weekend
Despite the fact that the habit of sleeping at the weekend, according to new data, can compensate for the lack of sleep during the work week, there are also problems with this approach. First, the effect seems to decrease with age. Secondly, in the framework of the study, and this is noted by the authors themselves, only the risk of death was considered, but not other indicators, such as quality of life. Thirdly, the study was not fully controlled - and this is understandable, because it is impossible to drive 43,000 people into the laboratory, and it would be unethical to follow them in the “natural environment” around the clock - so that methodological errors remain.
Finally, there are studies that say that rejoicing over a compensatory sleep at the weekend is not worth it. Such a “social jetlag” can be associated with bad mood, fatigue, and chronic diseases (and not at all with recuperation and a positive attitude, as everyone hoped). Not to mention the fact that, sleeping on weekends, we lose time - truly precious in terms of our usual rhythm.
Why scientists advise to sleep at least 7 hours
Back in 1938, American neurophysiologist Nathaniel Kleitman and his student Bruce Richardson went to the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, one of the deepest and darkest in the world, where they spent thirty-two days trying to increase the daily cycle to twenty-eight hours. Despite the fact that at first the goal was different, when analyzing the results, it turned out that, in complete isolation from sunlight, they slept for eight to eight and a half hours. That is, they did exactly what is today considered to be a dream of optimal duration.
Many years later, in 2003, David Dines of the University of Pennsylvania decided to see how lack of sleep affects a person’s cognitive abilities. Dividing the volunteers into groups, during the two-week experiment, he found that the group that slept six hours a day was as cognitively weak in the final as those who did not sleep at all during the night. The group, which slept for three hours, took only three days to achieve a similar level of cognitive impairment. And the most interesting thing: when participants were given three nights of “restorative sleep,” allowing them to sleep as much as they wanted, they still did not return to the same brain functionality with which they entered the experiment.
Both studies are not random. The first shows that the norms of sleep, about which so much is said today, are not taken from the ceiling. Moreover, it seems that seven to nine hours of sleep is indeed the optimal duration for an adult. Sleeping less than seven hours can be no less dangerous than depriving oneself of sleep on a regular basis - like sleeping for more than ten hours.
How many sleep successful people
It is known that Margaret Thatcher, coping with a huge number of cases of increased importance, slept only four hours a day. Her biographer Bernard Ingham says that this happened only on weekdays, while at the weekend Thatcher allowed herself to sleep a little longer. It is believed that Voltaire also preferred to sleep no more than four hours, leaving time for his philosophical works. All this, in all fairness, he accompanied coffee, which he could drink up to thirty cups a day. Napoleon Bonaparte slept a few more, but also did not get a bit up-to-date to the specialists of the norm. "Six hours for a man, seven for a woman, eight for a fool," was his formula.
Leonardo da Vinci slept for fifteen to twenty minutes every four hours, which allowed him to get six "extra" hours each day.
But if you had time to think that successful people, as a rule, sleep less than they should be, then this is not quite so. The physicist and humanist Albert Einstein, for example, slept for ten hours every night - and did not miss the opportunity to take a nap during the day. However, this is no match for the needs of the English mathematician of French origin, Abraham de Muavre, who reportedly sometimes slept twenty hours a day. It seems that this is something that each of us sometimes lacks.
Many have probably heard about the "Leonardo da Vinci method" - the artist slept for fifteen to twenty minutes every four hours, which, in his own words, made it possible to get six "extra" hours every day and, as a result, twenty bonus years to 67 years of life. This method, by the way, is also widely known as "Uberman's sleep schedule." Another well-known fan of polyphasic sleep is the British politician Winston Churchill, who slept for about five hours a night, but always recuperated, going to bed during the day for a couple of hours. The Prime Minister himself called it a habit of siesta, acquired in Cuba.
The scientist Nikola Tesla rested only five hours during the day, and only two of them were devoted to sleep. The problem, however, was not the lack of time. Biographers unanimously claim that the reason is nightmares that developed Tesla's sleep disturbances even when he was a child. Before going to bed, Tesla did the gymnastics of the toes, being sure that it stimulates brain cells.
Some really need less time to recover - for this speedy regeneration is responsible mutation of the gene associated with the regulation of circadian rhythms
It is believed that Charles Dickens also suffered from a sleep disorder and, in order not to reduce productivity, tried to solve the problem by any available methods. So, he always slept his head to the north and allegedly even took a compass to bed to make sure that the bed was right. If the dream did not come, he went to roam the streets of London, then to fall asleep from fatigue. Emily Bronte did something similar — she walked around the room until she felt tired enough.
Finally, every second stumbled upon the legend that Salvador Dali practiced “dream with the key”. Considering sleep to be a waste of time, he fell asleep, squeezing a heavy metal key between the thumb and the index finger of his left hand, and placed his hand over a large plate. When the key fell, the artist woke up from the ringing. According to Dali himself, this method he spied on among the Capuchin monks.
Difficult age and "sleepless elite"
As a rule, the older a person becomes, the less sleep he needs. Requests are decreasing gradually, so we almost do not notice, but the difference between the elderly and young people becomes obvious. Why is this happening? Scientists from the University of California at Berkeley suggest that the case may be age-related changes in brain mechanisms. Simply put, over time, the brain no longer effectively captures the signal that a person is tired.
People sleep differently - and it's not just about the posture or habits necessary to fall asleep. Some really need less time to recover - the mutation of the hDEC2-P385R gene associated with the regulation of circadian rhythms is responsible for this speedy regeneration. It is quite possible that just those 1-3% of the population who retain energy and productivity, even with an extremely limited amount of sleep, for which they received the name "sleepless elite", are carriers of such a mutation.
Sleep with a break as a biological necessity
In the early 1990s, psychiatrist Thomas Weh conducted an experiment in which he invited a group of volunteers to stay in a dark room for fourteen hours each day (instead of the typical eight hours). By the fourth week, almost all participants came to a clear two-phase picture of sleep: they slept for four hours, then woke up for one to three hours, then fell asleep for another four hours. Does this mean that biphasic sleep is natural for a person? And is it why we sometimes wake up in the middle of the night, even if there is no need, for example, to go to the toilet?
It is useful here to recall the 2000 study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health, which showed that the practice of siesta increases the risk of heart attack due to a repeated “awakening” of the cardiovascular system - complications from its side tend to occur in the morning after sleep. This is an important risk - although, of course, siesta has its advantages: in a study with the participation of sailors, the use of daytime for restoring the body with continuous and hard work was confirmed.
Imperfect sleep patterns can be an evolutionary mechanism, once absolutely necessary to protect against night threats.
There is also good news: if you are not sleeping well, then a sedentary lifestyle, “blue light” from screens or applications provoking orthosomality, is not necessarily to blame. In one study on Hadza, the indigenous people of the north of Tanzania, it was found that they also had nighttime awakenings, and sleep patterns in general were very different. This allowed the authors of the work to suggest that imperfect sleep patterns may be an evolutionary mechanism, once absolutely necessary for protection against night threats.
In general, despite all the risks associated with lack of sleep and nighttime awakenings, global statistics are implacable. And if in 1942 it was eight hours of sleep that was an average figure, now this figure has dropped to 6.2 hours. Is it worth it at such baseline to further reduce sleep? The question is rhetorical. But if you really want, you can try one of the ways approved by science.
5 ways to quickly fall asleep and sleep
Scientists, at least most of them, do not support REM sleep techniques used by great minds. But they, however, are well aware that the ability to quickly fall asleep and get enough sleep today is more important than ever. And they offer some options on how to modify your dream.
Watch the light level. Blackout curtains, the absence of night light, perhaps even a sleep mask - all this contributes to the release of melatonin, which is necessary for a soft sleep.
Sleep with the person you love. Studies show that there is a direct relationship between the quality of sleep and the relationship in a couple. The more you are attached to the person with whom you fall asleep, the better you sleep and the easier you wake up.
Come up with a ritual. Of course, this method will not work right away. But if you make it a rule to listen to an audiobook before going to bed for 20 minutes, read at least one chapter, or write down the most important points of the past day in a notebook, over time this activity will become a stimulus for sleep, scientists say.
Keep your feet warm. Experiments have shown that comfortable socks, a hot-water bottle, or just a bottle of warm water in your legs can speed up sleep and improve overall sleep much more than it seems.
Use the trick of paradoxical intent. - Try to convince yourself that you are not up to sleep. You can try to lie with your eyes open or, on the contrary, close them and repeat to yourself “I am not sleeping”. The point is to stop trying to sleep and let your sleep reach you.
How to sleep in 15 minutes
Sometimes, however, it is not just possible, but necessary, to afford ten to fifteen minutes of sleep — for example, during responsible work or if fatigue caught driving. Daytime sleepiness, as studies show, affects our body like alcohol intoxication. And this is especially important when it comes to activities requiring increased concentration.
How to make the process as easy as possible so that a fifteen-minute sleep does not precede a half-hour sleep? Sarah Mednik, a psychologist, a short but effective sleep specialist from the University of California, is confident that if you really need it, basic techniques will work. Namely sleep mask, phone off (because even the most important things can wait fifteen minutes), a comfortable body position and an atmosphere of complete peace of mind.
Photo: DOIY Design, Urban Outfitters (1, 2, 3)
