Don’t Fool Yourself About Your Sleep

It seems as though we’re learning more and more every day about how important sleep is to our ability to function at our very best, as well as to our overall health. Yet despite the growing body of scientific information available, we still like to fool ourselves with longstanding myths about sleep. The problem with doing this is that we may be making a very real sleep deprivation problem even worse. Here are some of the most popular mistakes that people make about sleep, and some solutions as well. 

• Myth #1: Staying in bed is the right thing to do if you wake up in the middle of the night.

There are some situations where this may work out – if you’ve gotten out of bed to go to the bathroom, or if you’ve experienced this problem before and know that you can fall back to sleep relatively easily then it’s fine to stay in bed and think relaxing thoughts. But if you’re the kind of person who’s going to work yourself into a state of worry because you can’t fall asleep, the best thing to do is to take yourself out of the physical situation. Go read a book or make yourself a cup of warm milk, even listen to a little relaxing music before trying to go back to sleep. Otherwise your bed and bedroom are going to become a source of anxiety for you, and you might find yourself caught in a stressful cycle.

• Myth #2: You can make up for sleep that you’ve missed by sleeping in on the weekend.

There is some truth to the idea behind this myth, but there is also a serious trap. Sleep deprivation from one night can be made up within the next night or two, so if you’ve cheated yourself of a couple of hours of sleep on a Monday and then go to bed a couple of hours earlier on Tuesday and sleep through the night, you’ll have made up for what you missed. But if you go more than a day or two without getting caught up on the sleep you’ve missed, or even worse if you keep adding to the shortfall by missing a couple more hours each night, by the time you get to the weekend it will be too late to be able to make up for what you’ve missed and the damage will have been done. Worse, if you do sleep too many hours over the weekend in an attempt to make up for the loss you’ve accumulated, you’ll likely have trouble getting to sleep the following day, thus starting the whole cycle over again.

• Myth #3: Snoring is not a big deal.

If your snoring is a temporary thing caused by having a cold or being congested due to allergies then it isn’t a worry. But if you are snoring on a consistent basis then there may be cause for concern, especially if you are also finding yourself feeling drowsy during the day.  If your sleep partner is complaining about your snoring then it is a good idea to mention it to your doctor and see if you can determine what the cause is. For many people it is the top warning sign that they have obstructive sleep apnea, a sleep disorder caused by their airway collapsing and blocking the flow of air while they are asleep. Sleep apnea can cause tremendous stress on the body, and is often associated with cardiovascular problems and stroke. The chances of developing obstructive sleep apnea increase as you get older, as well as if you are overweight.

• Myth #4: Everybody needs eight hours of sleep.

Though the generally accepted number for the most beneficial sleep is between seven and a half and eight hours, everybody is different, and the amount of sleep that your body needs can change throughout your life. The best way to determine what’s best for you is to give yourself a few days in a row where you allow yourself to sleep without setting an alarm and check to see what comes most naturally. You can also get a good sense of whether the sleep you’re getting is adequate by how you feel the next day. If you are feeling drowsy even though you got a full eight hours, your body may be telling you that you need a bit more rest, and if you find yourself unable to sleep when you get into bed it may be because the eight hours that you got the night before was a bit too much for you.

• Myth #5: There are tricks that will wake you up if you get sleepy while driving.

This is one of the most dangerous myths of all. The truth is that if you feel yourself getting drowsy when you are behind the wheel of a car then you need to pull over and catch a quick nap. Drowsiness while driving is your body telling you that you are not alert enough to be on the road, and there is no amount of crunchy snacking you can do or singing along to music with your windows open that will make your situation better. When you start feeling sleep it is a sign that your brain is slowly putting itself to sleep, and that means that your reaction time and ability to make the kind of quick judgments need while driving is already impaired.

• Myth #6: Insomnia means you’re not getting any sleep.

Even though you are exhausted and aware that you had a hard time falling asleep, have been up during the night, or woke up too early, don’t make the mistake of thinking that you haven’t gotten any sleep at all. Insomniacs underestimate the amount of sleep that they’re getting, and this can add to their stress and make the situation more difficult to solve. There is no doubt that you did not get enough sleep, but you did get some.