Is it worth saving on sleep?
There is no consensus on this matter. Many well-known Luli and scientists have their own views on issues related to sleep. Many are of the opinion of Napoleon that healthy people need such a sleep schedule: "four hours for men, five for women, six for idiots." But this peremptory opinion of Bonaparte, it turns out, concerned only sleep until midnight. The commander himself went to bed at 9 o'clock in the evening, and in a vigorous state he got up at one o'clock in the morning.
With his censures, Winston Churchill simply destroyed sleep-lovers - he considered inferior those people who spent more than six hours a day in a dream. Among such "inferior" was Professor Albert Einstein, who spent almost half of his life in a dream. This genius took twelve hours to get a good rest.
Everyone knows that great people have their own quirks, therefore, much more often we listen to the recommendations of doctors. But even they have no consensus about the normal duration of sleep . For example, doctors at the Japanese University of Nagoya conducted a large-scale study that lasted 12 years. During this time, they observed 110,000 people, and found that the life expectancy of people who sleep 7 hours a day is longer than those who sleep 6 and 8-9 hours.
The medical opinion is almost unanimous that women need more sleep than men, and that a person should sleep a little longer in winter than in summer. As for the normal duration of sleep, this figure is individual for each person and depends on the needs of his body. It is important to remember that oversleeping is just as bad for the body as not getting enough sleep . Therefore, doctors recommend that adults adhere to a regimen in which 7-8 hours of sleep are given.
In these hectic times, most people don't get enough sleep. There was even such a thing as "sleepy bulimia". It is characterized by the fact that a person who does not get enough sleep during the work week tries to make up for lost hours of sleep on the weekends by spending half the day in bed. But such a regime is nothing more than a deception of the body, and it will not lead to anything good, but it can result in serious health problems.
A more reasonable solution, albeit more complicated, is to establish a uniform daily routine both on weekdays and on weekends. And one more tip - if lack of sleep is inevitable in your life, remember that for normal health and mental work, the average person needs to sleep at least 6 hours 30 minutes a day.
Research into the possibility of reducing the duration of sleep also concerned the search for an optimal regimen. Will you be able to save a little time if you break up your daily sleep time into parts? At one time, Leonardo da Vinci approached this issue most radically. He gave up all night sleep, and during the day he dozed for 15 minutes every four hours. In total, he spent an hour and a half on sleep a day, getting enough sleep and not feeling tired.
However, it is too risky to advise such a regime to everyone. Although modern sectarians adhere to a similar sleep pattern, urging people to pray every 2-3 hours. But frequent waking up during the night leads to depletion of the body, since a person does not have time to reach the rapid phase of sleep. The next morning he is not able to critically evaluate information and loses volitional qualities.
In some Mediterranean countries, a night and afternoon nap is practiced. According to doctors, siesta reduces the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. But who can say for sure that this is the merit of an afternoon nap, and not the healing sea air and Mediterranean cuisine rich in vegetables and fish?
Be that as it may, but no one has yet found harm from a short afternoon nap. But for a modern person who spends all day at work, this luxury is not available. We can only relax in a chair for half an hour at lunchtime.
In our age of catastrophic lack of time, many are trying to save on sleep. For this, people master some oriental practices that contribute to enlightenment. Yogis really live according to a different regime, but they spend the time taken from sleep on meditation , and not on finishing an urgent report. So is it worth depriving yourself of normal sleep and health for the sake of the daily rush?