Myth You can make up for lost sleep on weekends
Many people think that if theyve missed out on their full eight hours during the week they can make up for it by sleeping longer or binge sleeping over the weekend Most people might call this sleep debt while Harvard sleep expert Robert Stickgold refers to this sleep pattern as sleep bulimia Studies have found that sleep bulimia or trying to cancel out your sleep debt upsets your body clock
Sleeping more at the weekend makes getting to sleep at a normal time even harder when the week rolls around again resulting in another week of sleepless nights If youre guilty of sleep bulimia try to get to bed and rise around the same time every night even on weekends
Myth Old people need less sleep
Many people think that people need less sleep as they age an idea that is often backed up by elderly family members rising earlier than everyone else The truth is however that as we age we tend to need roughly the same amount of sleep
The reason older people sleep less is because it becomes harder for our bodies to stay in a deep sleep as we get older Studies have shown that older people struggle to sleep through the night and thus sleep less even though their sleep needs dont change
Myth Drinking alcohol aids sleep
A lot of people like to unwind after a hard day with a drink and many people think that a night cap can help you to drift off more easily if youre feeling stressed However alcohol can affect your sleep patterns and not for the better
Having alcohol in your blood stream when you go to bed can cause your body to go straight into deep sleep missing out the interim stage of rapid eye movement REM sleep REM sleep is important for processing information and is the sleep level where most dreaming occurs
As the alcohol wears off it can cause your body to come out of deep sleep and into REM sleep which is much easier to wake from This explains why you often wake up early after a heavy night
Drinking before bed can also result in dehydration and cause snoring and other side effects Find out more about how alcohol can affect your sleep at Drink Aware
Myth We all need eight hours per night
The magic number eight is widely believed to be the optimum number of hours sleep that everyone should aim for However as Russell Foster explains in his TED talk eight hours is simply an average
There are numerous factors that can affect the amount of sleep you need to feel adequately rested the following day including age quality of sleep and lifestyle The truth is some people just dont need as much sleep as others
Infants and toddlers require nine to ten hours per night plus two to three hours of naps School age children should get between nine and 11 hours while adults require seven to nine hours
Remember that long term sleep problems are detrimental to your health and life If you believe that you are suffering with sleep apnea call one of our board certified sleep specialist at Alaska Sleep Clinic
