You sleep for seven to eight hours most nights, only to feel tired during the morning or even most of the day. How can you be following a golden rule of sleep so right, but feel so wrong?
This discrepancy is usually due to a heightened state of sleep inertia a circadian process that modulates memory, mood, reaction time and alertness upon waking, according to a 2015 study.
Some people experience poor performance and drowsiness in this period after turning off the alarm for the first time. The effects of sleep inertia usually wear off after 15 to 60 minutes, but can last up to a few hours.
Sleep inertia impairs more sophisticated cognitive skills such as evaluative thinking, decision making, creativity and rule use, and gets worse the more sleep deprived a person is.
But even if your job isn’t saving lives or driving a truck at night, experiencing sleep inertia for hours can still affect your quality of life.
The way to solve this starts with assessing your sleep using the “two Qs” – quantity and quality, said lung and sleep specialist Raj Dasgupta, an associate clinical professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in the United States. “If you’re getting a good amount of sleep, the next question is, ‘Am I getting good quality sleep?
Dasgupta suggested seeing a sleep specialist, who can check for an underlying or primary sleep disorder. But there are other, more easily modifiable factors that could be interfering with the restoration and recovery processes — such as memory consolidation, hormone regulation, and emotional regulation or processing — that need to happen during sleep.
1. Fatigue
“There are many conditions that cause fatigue, but they don’t necessarily make people feel like they’re ready to fall asleep,” said Jennifer Martin, professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, David Geffen School of Medicine and president of the American Academy. of Sleep Medicine.
These can include chronic pain conditions, metabolic or thyroid conditions, anemia, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
If you’re experiencing unexplained fatigue, “an important first step might just be a routine physical exam with your GP,” Jennifer said.
Additionally, the US National Sleep Foundation states that healthy adults need seven to nine hours of sleep every night, so you may need more than eight hours of sleep to feel energized.
You can try going to bed an hour earlier or waking up an hour later than usual and see if that makes a difference, said Christopher Barnes, a management professor at the University of Washington who studies the relationship between sleep and work.
2. Sedentary lifestyle
If you are sedentary your body can get used to only expending low levels of energy — so you might feel more tired than you should when trying to do basic daily activities, Jennifer said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that adults get at least 150 minutes (2.5 hours) of moderate to intense physical activity weekly, while pregnant women should get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic and strengthening exercise per week.
3. Anxiety or depression
Having anxiety or depression can be energetically draining, Dasgupta said. These conditions can also negatively influence the time it takes to fall asleep, as well as whether (and how often) you wake up during the night, he added.
And sometimes drugs used to treat depression or anxiety can have side effects, such as insomnia or blocking deeper stages of sleep, Dasgupta said.
4. Inconsistent sleep
Sometimes our hours differ on weekdays and weekends, Barnes said. Hours may also vary for people with shift-based jobs.
“A very common practice would be to say, ‘Okay, well, it’s Friday night. I don’t have to work tomorrow morning, so I can stay up a little later,’” Barnes said. Maybe you stay up late on Saturday night, since you don’t have to work on Sunday either, and then go to bed early on Sunday, before the work week.
But by now, you’ve already adjusted your sleep schedule by a few hours in a short amount of time. “This is very analogous to jet lag,” Barnes said. “That quick reset doesn’t work very well.”
5. Dehydration
More than 50% of your body is made of water, which is needed for various functions, including digesting food, creating hormones and neurotransmitters, and delivering oxygen throughout your body, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Being dehydrated has been linked to decreased alertness and increased sleepiness and fatigue.
The Institute of Medicine recommends that women consume 2.7 liters of fluids daily and that men consume 3.7 liters each day. This recommendation includes all liquids and foods rich in water, such as fruits, vegetables and soups. As the average ratio of water intake between liquids and food is about 80:20, this equates to a daily amount of 9 cups for women and 12 ½ cups for men.
6. Bad environment or sleep routine
have a good sleep hygiene it includes keeping your bedroom dark, quiet and comfortable at night – and using it only for sleeping and having sex.
Avoid consuming caffeinated beverages less than six hours before bed, and limit your consumption of alcohol and heavy or spicy foods at least two hours before bed. Alcohol can disrupt deeper stages of sleep, and these foods can cause digestive problems that interfere with restorative sleep.
7. Partner’s Sleep Problems
“The person (or pet) you share a bed with has a big impact on your sleep,” Martin said.
Perhaps your bed partner has a sleep disorder and snores or tosses and turns. Or maybe they have a different schedule that is disruptive to your sleep. Pets can also disrupt your sleep schedule, as they don’t have the same sleep patterns as humans, he added.
“The most important thing – if your bed partner snores – is to get them to a sleep specialist and have them evaluated for sleep apnea,” Jennifer said. Sleep apnea — a condition where breathing stops and starts while someone sleeps — is common in people who snore, she added.
8. Sleep Disorders
On that note, sleep disturbances are another factor that can dramatically decrease sleep quality, Barnes said.
Someone with sleep apnea may wake up 50 times, 100 times or even more during the night, he added.
“Once you’re awake, you’re no longer in deep sleep and you usually can’t immediately fall into deeper sleep,” Barnes said. “Bringing people out of that deep sleep by waking them up will generally result in less time spent in the deepest stage of sleep.”
Other sleep disorders that can affect daily energy levels include narcolepsy and restless legs syndrome, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The ideal way to track sleep quality and quantity — especially if you think you might be diagnosed with a sleep disorder — is to get a polysomnography at a sleep clinic, Barnes said.
Apps and electronic devices — like watches or rings — that measure sleep aren’t as accurate as clinical trials, but they still provide enough information for healthy adults, Barnes said. “I would like to know if they were developed and validated against another, more accurate device.”
CNN’s Lisa Drayer and Sandee LaMotte contributed to this story.
Source: CNN Brasil
