How To Sleep Less And Have More Energy Than You...
Still, it may be possible to teach yourself to get by on sleep less, according to Jim Horne, a sleep expert and former director of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University in England. He argues the number of hours people need to sleep is more flexible from person to person and that concerns about not getting your nightly seven or eight hours are often overblown.
How To Sleep Less and Have More Energy Than You...
Dr. Raj Dasgupta is an ABMS quadruple board certified physician specializing in internal medicine, pulmonology, critical care, and sleep medicine. He practices at the University of Southern California, where he is an associate professor of clinical medicine, assistant program director of the internal medicine residency program, and the associate program director of the sleep medicine fellowship. Dr. Dasgupta is an active clinical researcher and has been teaching around the world for more than 18 years.
Although most of us need about eight hours a night to feel refreshed during the day, what counts as sufficient sleep is highly individual. It makes sense that getting less sleep than you need might leave you feeling tired, but you may be surprised to learn that getting more sleep than you need may not leave you refreshed and energized. In fact, many people find that on days when they hit the snooze button more times than usual, they feel more lethargic and unmotivated.
There is a quite a range in the number of hours we like to sleep. As Jim Horne writes in Sleepfaring, 80% of us manage between six and nine hours a night; the other 20% sleep more or less than this. But how easy is it to change your regular schedule? If you force yourself to get out of bed a couple of hours early every day will your body eventually become accustomed to it? Sadly not.
The most energy-intensive sleep stage is rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. During REM sleep, our heart rate increases and our brain exhibits activity patterns similar to daytime levels. The heightened brain activity requires more glucose, leading to a higher metabolism.
Given that the brain burns more calories during REM sleep, sleep interruptions that affect the time spent in this stage can have an impact on the calories you burn. Adopting proper sleep hygiene habits and creating a cool, dark, quiet bedroom environment can encourage your body to cycle naturally through the sleep stages and optimize your metabolism while sleeping.
Some studies have found that eating too close to bedtime Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source can lead to weight gain, though a more important factor seems to be the type of food you eat. If you feel compelled to indulge in a midnight snack, stay away from junk food, and opt for a light and healthy snack instead. As a bonus, a healthier diet, in turn, improves sleep quality Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source .
While halogens are more efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs, they use the same technology and are far less efficient than CFLs and LEDs. Therefore, it is best to turn these lights off whenever they are not needed.
The operating life of CFLs is more affected by the number of times they are switched on and off. You can generally extend the life of a CFL bulb more by switching it on and off less frequently than if you simply use it less.
In any case, the relatively higher "inrush" current required lasts for half a cycle, or 1/120th of a second. The amount of electricity consumed to supply the inrush current is equal to a few seconds or less of normal light operation. Turning off fluorescent lights for more than 5 seconds will save more energy than will be consumed in turning them back on again. Therefore, the real issue is the value of the electricity saved by turning the light off relative to the cost of changing a lightbulb. This in turn determines the shortest cost-effective period for turning off a fluorescent light.
Despite this, many people report needing much less sleep each night and some even declare that less sleep keeps them more energised throughout the day. For some, they have a unique genetic mutation that causes a condition known as Short Sleeper Syndrome (SSS). This is thought to affect about 1% of the population. However, for those without SSS genes, being sleep deprived will take its toll on their overall health. Generally, getting less sleep can create more scattered and manic thinking that feels more energised but is much less effective.
Despite this, after a poor night's sleep, it isn't unusual to feel energized throughout the day. In fact, our reactions can become quicker and more exaggerated if we have not had enough sleep. A study by Marcello Massimini, a neurophysiologist at Milan University, discovered that the brain increases in sensitivity throughout the day. This is because our brain is constantly forming new connections while we are awake. The longer we are awake, the more active our minds become. Scientists believe that this is partly why sleep deprivation has been shown to reduce symptoms of depression.
A whole sleep cycle takes around 90 minutes to complete. Because of the way our brains gradually prepare for waking, it is clear that waking up during deep sleep has a negative effect on our ability to perform everyday cognitive tasks. For this reason, many sleep experts recommend trying to wake at the end of a sleep cycle, declaring this as more important than the duration of the night's sleep.
The stages of sleep have critical uses for our functioning. When we are sleep deprived, our energy levels and mental health are compromised. We can also observe strange and unhealthy alterations in our hormone levels, such as the stress hormone, cortisol.
One way to help the process of natural waking is to set an alarm with a low sound that can keep ringing until we are at a stage of sleep where it is easier to wake up. During deep sleep, we are much less conscious of our surroundings and therefore we require a more shocking alarm. It is best to wake up from a lighter stage of sleep, even if that means getting slightly less resting time overall.
Missing sleep can be helpful only in some rare cases, such as when we have previously been oversleeping or if we are suffering from depression. Oversleeping is as dangerous as not getting enough, and it carries risks such as cognitive impairment, depression, and increased inflammation. Oversleeping is both a cause and a symptom of depression. In cases such as this, it is important to reduce the sleep cycle to a more healthy routine. However, overall it will cause more harm if we stay awake for too long.
Sleeping less than 8 hours per night is something we all end up doing from time to time. The way that impacts most people is by accumulating sleep debt, but usually, this can be remedied with more rest. However, prolonged issues with sleeping have a knock-on effect on our circadian rhythm and general health.
We can cut down on excessive sleeping by focusing on the sleep cycle and planning to wake up while we are in a lighter stage of sleep, rather than deep sleep. This will help to increase alertness so we can complete our work load more efficiently throughout the day.
When we miss out on sleep, the brain goes into overdrive, leaving us feeling both disconnected from reality and easily startled. We may feel a strange buzz of energy from not sleeping much, but that is because the brain has formed too many connections and requires sleep to filter itself. We are more likely to hallucinate or even have seizures when we are sleep deprived. We also have higher stress levels and a lessened ability to concentrate or problem solve.
While we all experience acute sleep loss from time to time, you may consider seeking medical advice if your sleep loss is chronic, as it could be symptomatic of a sleep disorder. Lack of sleep is also associated with certain health problems, including heart disease and high blood pressure, and it can be a side effect of certain medications. Talk to a healthcare provider if you believe you have one or more of these medical conditions.
Perhaps the best way to sleep less on occasion is to not sleep less the vast majority of the time. Your sleep need is greater when you are sleep deprived, so keeping your sleep debt low (under five hours) will allow you to be more strategic on the occasions when short sleep is necessary, to recover more quickly from a night of poor sleep, and to sustain higher energy levels despite the hit. The RISE app shows you your sleep debt, so when you do get a night of poor sleep, you can create a plan to pay back the debt by getting more sleep than usual with some of the tips in the following section.
Though some people insist you can train yourself to sleep less, no scientific evidence supports this. Instead, a mountain of evidence suggests people who regularly sleep less than they need risk an almost endless list of cognitive, emotional, and physical health problems.
You no doubt have compelling reasons to want to know how to sleep less. Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to change your sleep need, and short-changing yourself on sleep will only make you less able to do all the things you want to do (not to mention undermine your physical and emotional health in the near and long term). Thankfully, the RISE app will help you learn your sleep patterns and use them to your advantage to create a healthier sleep schedule.
The smaller the difference between the indoor and outdoor temperatures, the lower your overall cooling bill will be. You can easily save energy in the winter by setting the thermostat to around 68F while you're awake and setting it lower while you're asleep or away from home. In the summer, you can follow the same strategy with central air conditioning by keeping your house warmer than normal when you are away, and setting the thermostat to a setting as high as is comfortable for you when you are at home and need cooling and to ensure humidity control if needed. 041b061a72