A night’s sleep is considered “restful” when you sleep at least 4 to 6 sleep cycles of 90 minutes each.
Sleep is the keystone of all our health: it allows us to recover from fatigue, eliminate stress, promote memorization of information, strengthen creativity… If we have a bad night, everything falters. “When you wake up, you may feel tired despite a good night’s sleep because the body is not fully awake, it is relaxed, numb and not very aware of its surroundings. What really matters is to see what state we are in 30 minutes after getting up, then throughout the day“, advises Caroline Rome, sophrologist and sleep specialist. If you feel tired throughout the day, you need to take a closer look at your sleep rhythm.
“It is not very advisable to align yourself with your partner’s bedtimes every day. Either it’s too early for us and we’ll toss and turn in bed without falling asleep. Either it’s too late and we’re fighting fatigue. At least 3 times a week, we try to “take our own sleep gate”, otherwise the brain loses its bearings.“, she continues. And we all have a different way to sleep. The right time to go to bed is the so-called “pleasant” time, in other words the time when the first signs of fatigue appear: the most obvious (itchy eyes, heavy eyelids or yawning) to the more subtle (the body becomes heavy, being cold or having little chills, rereading the same sentence from your book 3 times or no longer understanding anything about the film… ).”Find this time and get ready to go to bed a few minutes before“, insists the sophrologist.
To help you determine this time, “observe the pace you naturally take during your vacation, especially the 2nd week of vacation (generally the first week of vacation “serves” to make up for sleep debt and is not representative of your actual sleep needs)“, explains Dr. Marc Rey, neurologist and sleep specialist, and ask yourself the following questions: If you lived at your own pace (the one that you like most), what time would you go to bed if you were free to organize your evening? What time do you naturally wake up in the morning? Are you productive and in a good mood with 8 hours of sleep?Based on the answers, make observations, draw conclusions“, continues our interlocutor.
Generally speaking, a night’s sleep is considered “restful” when you sleep at least 4 to 6 sleep cycles of 90 minutes each, or 6 to 9 hours (short sleepers will need 6 hours while heavy sleepers will need to have their 9 hours to be well). For example, if our alarm rings at 7 a.m., it is preferable to go to bed between 10 p.m. (to get 9 hours of sleep) and 1 a.m. (if we only need 6 hours), obviously with the right reflexes such as : no screens 1 hour before bed, avoid alcohol in the evening, light dinner, avoid overheated rooms, etc.