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It
would be six months before he saw daylight again.
Siffre was a French scientist and a pioneer in chronobiology, which is the
study of biological rhythms. The most well-known of these biological rhythms
is the circadian rhythm, which controls the human sleep-wake cycle, and
Siffre was on a mission to learn how it works.
Siffres life in the cave was spartan-esque at best. He lived in a tent that sat
on a small wooden platform with a bed, a table, a chair and a phone, which
he could use to call his research team above ground.
His underground home was equipped with a single light bulb, which provided
a soft glow to the piles of frozen food and 800 gallons of water nearby. There
were no clocks or calendars, no way for him to discover what time it was or
whether it was day or night.
This was how he lived, alone, for six months.
Within a few days, Siffres biological clock began to take over. He would later
recall his experiments by writing:
My sleep was perfect! My body chose by itself when to sleep and when to
eat. Thats very important. We showed that my sleep-wake cycle was not
24 hours, like people have on the surface of the earth, but slightly longer
about 24 hours and 30 minutes.
On several occasions, Siffres body transitioned to a 48-hour sleep-wake
cycle, where he would stay awake naturally for 36 hours and then sleep for
12 hours.
Siffres work, along with the experiments of a handful of other researchers,
helped kick start a scientific interest in sleep that has resulted in sleep
performance centers at major universities, like Harvard and the University of
Pennsylvania.
Given that we spend almost a third of our lives sleeping, its hard to believe
the topic has only gained a large scientific following in recent years.
In this article, Ill share the science of sleep and how it works, discuss why
many people suffer from sleep deprivation without knowing it and offer
practical tips for getting better sleep and having more energy.
During this study, the players slept for at least 10 hours per night (compared
to their typical eight hours). During five weeks of extended sleep, the
researchers measured the basketball players accuracy and speed compared
to their previous levels.
Free-throw shooting percentage increased by 9 percent, three-point shooting
percentage increased by 9.2 percent and the players were 0.6 seconds faster
when sprinting 80 meters. If you place heavy physical demands on your
body, slow wave sleep is what helps you recover.
REM sleep is to the mind what slow wave sleep is to the body. The brain is
relatively quiet during most sleep phases, but during REM, your brain comes
to life.
REM sleep is when your brain dreams and reorganizes information. During
this phase, your brain clears out irrelevant information, boosts your memory
by connecting the experiences of the last 24 hours to your previous
experiences and facilitates learning and neural growth. Your body
temperature rises, your blood pressure increases and your heart rate speeds
up.
Despite all of this activity, your body hardly moves. Typically, the REM phase
occurs in short bursts, about three to five times per night.
Without the slow-wave and REM sleep phases, the body literally starts to die.
If you starve yourself of sleep, you cant recover physically, your
immune system weakens and your brain becomes foggy. Or, as the
researchers put it, sleep-deprived individuals experience increased
risk of viral infections, weight gain, diabetes, high blood pressure,
heart disease, mental illness and mortality.
To summarize: Slow wave sleep helps you recover physically while REM sleep
helps you recover mentally. The amount of time you spend in these phases
tends to decrease with age, which means the quality of your sleep and your
bodys ability to recover also decrease with age.
At any age, most adults need seven and a half to eight hours of sleep to
function at their best. Since older people often have trouble attaining this
much sleep at night, they frequently supplement nighttime sleep with
daytime naps.
This can be a successful strategy for accumulating sufficient total sleep
over a 24-hour period. However, if you find that you need a nap, its best to
take one midday nap, rather than several brief ones scattered throughout
the day and evening.
Harvard Medical School
As it turns out, the body is incredibly adept at making up for a short-term
lack of sleep. In fact, even if you got a brutal two or four hours of sleep last
night, your body can usually recover fully if you get a solid nine or 10 hours
of sleep tonight.
Your body will simply spend more time in REM and slow-wave sleep cycles
the second night to make up for the first. In other words, the two main sleep
cycles are largely influenced by the amount and type of sleep you had during
the previous night.
There is no need to worry about optimizing how much REM or slow-wave
sleep you get. Your body is smarter than you are, and because it makes
adjustments based on previous sleep cycles, you cant really force yourself to
get more REM sleep.
For example, during a particular sleep session, all you can do is make sure
you get enough sleep and then let your body do the rest. This is particularly
important as you age because the percentage of time spent in REM and slow
wave sleep decreases as you get older.
A 60-year-old may need to sleep for 10 hours to get the same about of REM
sleep that a 20-year-old can get in seven hours. To put it simply: there is no
substitute for sleeping.
But, there is a limit on this recovery process, of course. Your body will do the
best it can, but it will never be able to turn a deficit into a surplus. If you
want to recover from a night of little sleep, you need to follow it with more
sleep than usual.
Avoid caffeine
If youre having trouble falling asleep, eliminating caffeine from your diet is a
quick win. If you cant go without your morning cup of coffee, then a good
rule of thumb to keep in mind is No coffee after noon. This gives caffeine
enough time to wear off before bedtime.
Stop smoking or chewing tobacco
Tobacco use has been linked to a long line of health issues and poor sleep is
another one on the list. I dont have any personal experience with tobacco
use, but I have heard from friends who have quit successfully that Allen
Carrs Easy Way to Stop Smoking book is the best resource on the topic.
Use the bedroom for sleep and sex only
Is your bedroom designed to promote good sleep? The ideal sleeping
environment is dark, cool and quiet. Dont make your bedroom a multipurpose room. Eliminate TVs, laptops, electronics and clutter. These are
simple ways to improve the choice architecture of your bedroom, so that
sleep is easier and distraction is harder. When you go to the bedroom, go
there to sleep.
Most people sleep best in a cool room. The ideal range is usually between 65
to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (18 to 21 degrees Celsius).
Sound
A quiet space is key for good sleep. If peace and quiet is hard to come by, try
controlling the bedroom noise by creating white noise with a fan. Or, use
earplugs (here are a good pair).
Alcohol
This one is a slippery slope. It is true that having a drink before bed a
night cap often does help people fall asleep. However, while it makes it
easier to fall asleep, it actually reduces the quality of your sleep and delays
the REM cycle.
So, you fall asleep faster, but its possible that youll wake up without feeling
rested. Its probably best to improve your sleep through other methods
before resorting to alcohol to do the job.
How To Go To Sleep
Stick to a regular schedule
The body loves ritual. The entire circadian rhythm we laid out earlier is one
big, daily routine. Go to bed and wake up around the same time each day.
Develop a power down ritual before bed
The light from computer screens, televisions and phones can hinder the
production of melatonin, which means your body isnt preparing the
hormones it needs to enter the sleep phase.
Specifically, it is the blue wavelength of light that seems to decrease
melatonin production. Developing a power down routine, where you shut
off all electronics an hour or two before sleep, can be a big help.
Additionally, working late at night can keep your mind racing and your stress
levels high, which also prevents the body from calming down for sleep.
Turn off the screens and read a book instead. Its the perfect way to learn
something useful and power down before bed. (Another option is to
download an app called f.lux, which reduces the brightness of your screen
closer to bedtime.)
Use relaxation techniques
Researchers believe that at least 50 percent of insomnia cases are emotional
or stress-related. Find outlets to reduce your stress and youll often find that
better sleep will come as a result.
Proven methods include daily journaling, deep breathing exercises,
meditation, exercise and keeping a gratitude journal (write down something
you are thankful for each day).
Use strategic naps
Generally speaking, one nap in the early afternoon is the best way to add
napping to your sleep cycle. This is particularly useful if you arent getting
enough sleep each night as your body may be able to make up the deficit
during your nap.
This is why, in the words of my friend Ben Greenfield, You may find you
need none or very little coffee in the summer or in times of high sun
exposure, but youre a complete monster if you dont get your morning cup
of coffee in the grey winter months.