How to get adequate sleep

How to get adequate sleep

The main function of sleep is to rejuvenate the mind.   Apparently your body only needs about an hour of rest each day and the remainder of your sleep time is for the benefit of your mind; to resort, refresh and organize the events for the day. 

To help facilitate this process of rejuvenating your body and mind when you are sleeping, you go through a regular series of events called a sleep cycle.   At the end of this sleep cycle you enter REM sleep, or dreaming.  A typical sleep cycle is about one and a half hours long. 

You must complete an entire sleep cycle to get the benefit of that time sleeping.  If you wake up after only one hour into the sleep cycle, you do not get full benefit from the hour of sleep because the process has not completed itself.

To get effective sleep, you must complete an entire one and a half hour sleep cycle, or a series of compete sleep cycles.

Therefore, when scheduling sleep it is important to allocate time that is a multiple of the sleep cycle duration plus a half hour to fall asleep.  The time intervals are shown in the accompanying chart.

Also, it is important to not use an alarm clock if at all possible.  An alarm clock interrupts your sleep and frequently interrupts a sleep cycle if you do not plan correctly.  If your alarm wakes you up a half hour before the natural end of your sleep cycle, it is as bad for your body as if you had been awakened an hour earlier, or possibly worse.

Also, alcohol, sleeping pills and other medications interfere with REM sleep and don’t leave you as refreshed as natural sleep. 

Therefore, plan your sleep time allocation by following the chart to get the full benefit of the time you spent sleeping; so you enjoy maximum health and quality of life.

Copyright©2015

William Schaeffer