We have all realized that for quality sleep, it is necessary to maintain a regular schedule. But what does it mean? What time is more important: getting up or going to bed?
This is what sleep specialist Professor Pierre Philippe, head of the sleep medicine department at the University Hospital of Bordeaux, thinks: “WithIt is the period of wakefulness that is most important, since it is this period that allows one to calculate the “ideal sleep pressure” to promote good sleep and, ideally, avoid night awakenings.“.
Ideal sleep pressure, also known as homeostatic pressure, regulates the transition from wakefulness to sleep. It depends on the time that passed from the last time you woke up until you went to bed. Thus, sleep pressure depends on the length of our day, that is, the length of time we are awake, and not, as we tend to believe, on our level of activity, even if physical activity is necessary for good sleep.
It is obvious that social factors play a decisive role. Fishermen and bakers, for example, do not follow the same sleep patterns as waiters, nurses or truck drivers who work at night. It is the biological clock, regulated according to each person’s genes, that determines whether he is more of a morning person or an evening person.
How to calculate the time of waking up and going to bed?
For adults from 25 to 75 years old.”the starting point is his “social” wake-up schedule (to be ready for work, take care of children, etc.), which is most appropriate depending on his activity– explains Professor Pierre Philippe. Then simply add 17 hours to this wake time to get the time corresponding to good sleep pressure and the average good sleep time.“
Example: An alarm clock ringing at 6:30 am gives an optimal sleep time of around 11-11:30 pm, maximum. Going to bed later leads to the accumulation of sleep debt. Conversely, by going to bed much earlier, we run the risk of counting sheep for a long time to fall asleep, or even experiencing night awakenings associated with too little sleep pressure.
Finally, because the need for sleep decreases with age, older adults tend to sleep earlier. Therefore, it is advisable to feel free to get up earlier and add 18 hours to determine your ideal sleep time. Older people often go to bed too early, which is a mistake because it can lead to waking up during the night.
Bedtime doesn’t matter for restful sleep
For the restorative quality of sleep, it is not so much the time at which we go to bed that matters most, but rather the composition of the different stages of sleep. At the beginning of the night (before 2 a.m.), sleep is mainly characterized by phases of deep slow-wave sleep, necessary for optimal brain function (consolidating what was learned during the day) and restoring wakefulness (avoiding daytime sleepiness the next day). A sleep cycle lasting about 90 minutes, with the first two night cycles being the richest in deep slow-wave sleep, it is imperative that the first three hours of sleep take place in restful conditions, with a fairly cool ambient temperature and without stimulation. bright.
Kanopee, an app that helps you decipher your dreams
To improve sleep hygiene, the University of Bordeaux and the CNRS have launched Kanopée, a virtual companion app that deciphers your sleep and offers personalized advice on how to sleep better.
For people who have mild or even moderate sleep problems, the app helps implement therapeutic interventions to improve sleep. For more severe conditions and if the situation has not improved after 17 days of support offered by the application, Kanopée allows the user to contact a sleep center and make an appointment with medical professionals.
Available on IOS and Android
The Instagram account @pr.philip provides practical information about sleep.
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