SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Sleep Myths 'Damaging Your Health':
Widely held myths about sleep are damaging our health and our mood, as well as shortening our lives, say researchers.
A team at New York University trawled the internet to find the most common claims about a good night's kip[*].
Then, in a study published in the journal Sleep Health, they matched the claims to the best scientific evidence.
They hope that dispelling sleep myths will improve people's physical and mental health and well-being.
So, how many are you guilty of?
Myth 1 - You can cope on less than five hours' sleep
[...]Myth 2 - Alcohol before bed boosts your sleep
[...]Myth 3 - Watching TV in bed helps you relax
[...]Myth 4 - If you're struggling to sleep, stay in bed
[...]Myth 5 - Hitting the snooze button
[...]Myth 6 - Snoring is always harmless
Another myth is that one should have 7-8 hours of continuous sleep. There is ample evidence that this is a relatively recent phenomenon. Consider embracing a bi-phasic or two-sleep schedule, instead.
I was at first concerned when I found myself waking after 3, 4 or even 5 hours sleep -- I became worried that I might be trending into insomnia. Instead, knowing this is a "thing", I just accept it, now. I get up for an hour or so. Use the bathroom. Maybe do some light reading (SoylentNews FTW!). And, after an hour or so, am ready to go back to bed for the rest of my night's sleep. Naps can be helpful, too.
How well do you sleep?
*kip: chiefly British : sleep, nap
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 18 2019, @02:16PM (2 children)
Really?
Way back 30 years ago it was common knowledge that:
-you needs (should get) a good 8 hours of sleep each night
-alcohol disrupts and interferes with deep sleep.
-watching TV in bed keeps you up
-it's best to get of bed when the alarm goes off and not hit the snooze button
-and loud snoring can be a symptom of sleep apnea.
I find it fascinating that so much simple common knowledge from just a few decades ago did not become innate.
(Score: 2) by Taibhsear on Thursday April 18 2019, @04:08PM
I was also alive 30 years ago and have never heard a single one of the myths listed in the article.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 18 2019, @06:23PM
You don't know how stupid people are about sleep until you've slept in a room with 30 people for an extended period of time.
When I was in the navy. There was like 10% of the population who would fucking wake up early so they could spend an hour "waking up" by hitting snooze every 15 minutes.
When I was in A school I had horrible insomina and one of my roommates did this in essentially a 4 man dorm room, there was another guy who thought it was ok to softly play Shaggy on repeat all night long but that's a different story. I liked all of my roommates but they were different people once sleep routines were involved. I started telling him I was unplugging the alarm clock and if he went back to sleep without reprogramming it he was going get punished for waking up late. Sometimes I was awake for 4 days at a time. One day I realized I couldn't remember last time I took a shower. I was failing school (and ended up getting dropped from the program to spend the next 4 years doing hard labor) It wasn't even a hard school I just couldn't think. One time I literally forgot which order the vowels went in my first name.
I observed that if you force yourself to wake up instantly it gets easier and easier. It wasn't an exercise in willpower either you could see the difference in how fast people would get fully booted up. Their eyes would open faster, they'd be fully cognizant quicker. I'm sure the extra 20-60 minutes or so of deep sleep they were fucking themselves out of made a bit of difference too. Especially since a sleep cycle is 90 minutes so it would be common to only hit deep sleep once or twice with the amount of rack time you had.
When I became a petty officer I totally eradicated the practice in my division as one of my first actions. Your alarm clock went off and I woke up. You were not going back to sleep without at least putting on your uniform and taking it off. Even if it meant I was up the rest of the night softly whispering that you're a piece of shit buddy fucker who steals sleep from his shipmates. I would usually give people a mulligan if they accidently forgot to unset their alarm. But the problem was people would do this an hour before official reville or they'd spend an hour waking up before a late night watch. Fuck you buddy I know you wouldn't have completed boot camp if you can't wake up. Now get the fuck up.
Oddly enough after two weeks of pain all these fucks who claimed to be biologically incapable of rapidly waking up were cured and had reclaimed an hour of sleep or free time. This was in a world where you might only get an hour of sleep or free time for days at a time so it's a huge deal and I have tried to maintain that discipline since because I know snooze is such a bullshit life trap.
Then there is the idiocy of trying to entertain yourself to sleep. Go ahead and read a book or check your stocks or whatever while you're settling in but don't kid yourself that it's the only way you can get to sleep when you're up doing it until 1am every night. Get up and run your fatass around the block until you puke I assure you that your sleep problem will be solved in under an hour even if the act of running temporarily wakes you up.
Eh I need therapy people are fucking morons and I can't change that. I don't want to deal with another depression but if everyone had to miss a few meals or sleep on the ground a few times at least I could enjoy the rest of my life without getting into some fuck's battle to defend his first world self made problems.