Almost all of us have been taught to "sleep for 8 hours" since childhood. Have you ever doubted the correctness of this kind of education? Have you ever tried to sleep for eight hours and still feel tired? Have you ever slept for only four and a half hours and felt energetic?
This is an article that has attracted a lot of attention on the Internet. In a sense, it subverts people's long-standing unscientific understanding of sleep. People fall asleep naturally without any other external interference, and wake up after an average of 90 minutes. The human sleep cycle is about 90 minutes. As long as the sleep time is a multiple of 90 minutes, the quality of sleep can be greatly improved. The primitive nature of human beings is more suitable for polyphasic sleep, that is, sleeping many times a day, rather than monophasic sleep (sleeping at night and working during the day) that we are used to. _psytopic.com
It should be pointed out that the author is neither a doctor nor a rehabilitation expert, nor even any professional practitioner related to medical care. In fact, he is just a guy who happened to experience the magical effect of the sleep cycle and was tempted by it. Then he got to the bottom of it and found a bunch of relevant research reports to prove that what he said was true.
If you're still not interested, then I'll tell you that the author is an absolutely prolific person. He has several roles: Flash animation developer, game developer, music producer of Harper Communication Company and its TV show oprah winfrey Show (the most famous talk show in the United States), and also a writer (ten books have been published in the past five years, and two will be published in the next few months). The key point is that he didn't sleep more than others, but also maintained a high work enthusiasm and efficiency, good health and low cholesterol, which is enough to show that this article is not nonsense.
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1. The focus of this article is not whether we lack sleep, but how to sleep smarter and discuss what is the way to sleep that conforms to our natural nature. I always tell others that it is enough to sleep only 6 hours or even 4.5 hours a day. The secret is not the quality of sleep, but the time of sleep itself-if the sleep time is a multiple of 90 minutes, it will change your life.
1 half hour
3 hours
Four and a half hours.
6 hours
Seven and a half hours
These numbers should be the sleep time you deserve, which is also the natural physiological demand of your body. I promised Chairman Mao that if you turn off the alarm clock, go to bed and wake up to look at the clock, you will find that you have slept for multiple of 90 minutes. And this 90 minutes is the so-called sleep cycle.
Generally speaking, sleep for 3 hours at night and take a 90-minute nap at night. Four and a half hours add up to a * * *, and my brain can always stay awake, feeling full of sleep and energy. If you want to know why, just look at the scientific explanation below. ...
"The research team of Harvard University trained volunteers in a special visual task, which required volunteers to identify specific patterns from some rapidly changing patterns on the screen. /kloc-When tested again after 0/0 hour, the volunteers who rested for 90 minutes performed better than those who didn't. In fact, they did almost as well as volunteers who had a night's rest. "
— ):
"Some studies have pointed out that sleep time is not the reason for waking up, but the key is the number of sleep cycles completed during sleep. Each sleep cycle has five different stages, showing different brain wave signals. From our research, this means that each sleep cycle has an average of 90 minutes: 65 minutes of normal sleep or non-rapid eye movement (REM); Then there is a 20-minute REM sleep period (when the brain dreams); The last five minutes were non-rapid eye movement. Generally speaking, the duration of REM phase is shorter (less than 20 minutes) in the early sleep cycle and longer (more than 20 minutes) in the late sleep cycle. If we fall asleep naturally without setting an alarm clock and any other external interference, we will wake up in multiples of 90 minutes on average-for example, like four and a half hours, six hours, seven and a half hours or nine hours instead of seven or eight hours, because these are not multiples of 90 minutes. In the period between the two periods, we are not really in a state of sleep: during this period, people's consciousness is hazy, if there is no interference at this time (such as light, cold, urgency, noise, etc. ), they will enter the next 90-minute sleep cycle. A person who has only slept for four sleep cycles (that is, six hours) usually feels more rested than those who have slept for 8 to 10 hours but have not completed the (last) sleep cycle. "
So this also explains that even after sleeping for 8 hours, I still feel tired and dizzy, or it is almost impossible to wake up after sleeping for 4 hours. As ordinary people, almost all of us are taught to "sleep for 8 hours". Nevertheless, some people feel that they sleep better than others. Why is this? Is the above theory wrong? Of course not. In fact, those who seem to have not finished their last sleep cycle, but still feel well rested, actually slept for almost seven and a half hours, or nine hours (another reason is that the length of each person's sleep cycle is different, which is explained at the end of the article).
2. Napping is the key to directly improve θ brainwaves. θ brainwaves, that is, super-conscious brainwaves. When awake, more theta brain waves mean higher creative intelligence. It is said that most of the "prolific" celebrities in history know this well and abide by it. Leonardo? Da? Finch Thomas. Jefferson and Buckminster? Furong has been using this "skill". Does anyone else like Nicholas? Tesla, Thomas? Edison, Napoleon and Winston? Churchill and other clever "brains" benefited a lot from taking a nap at the same time.
In addition, taking a nap seems to have the benefit of longevity. Furong lived to be 87 years old, and Leonardo da Vinci died in his 60 s-they both lived twice the average life expectancy of men in their respective eras!
Interesting knowledge: When the brain is in theta brainwave state, brain cells will reorganize the ratio of sodium to potassium. The ratio of sodium to potassium is related to osmosis, which is a chemical process in which various chemicals enter and leave brain cells. After being in the state of β brainwave for a long time, the ratio of sodium to potassium will be unbalanced, which is the main reason of so-called "mental fatigue". However, a short θ brain wave cycle (about 5 ~ 15 minutes) can restore the normal sodium-potassium ratio, that is, restore the mental state.
3. The primitive nature of human beings is more suitable for polyphasic sleep than the monophasic sleep behavior we are used to.
Monophasic sleep is equivalent to people's common sleep behavior, that is, sleeping at night and working during the day.
Polyphasic sleep means that there are many sleep/waking events in a day. If the daily sleep plan includes a nap, this is an example of polyphasic sleep.
First of all, the behavior of almost all animals in nature is multiphase and complex. Moreover, polyphasic sleep is the dominant sleep mode in human infancy, and children are gradually isolated from the concept of nap only when they are a little older. In addition, when people are isolated from the external environment-it is guaranteed that they cannot judge the actual time from natural factors (such as sunlight) or artificial hints (such as clocks and watches, TV programs)-they tend to show more short-term sleep behavior instead of maintaining monophasic sleep that only occurs at night. Finally, a nap-that is, a short sleep-is more refreshing than a long sleep.
But unfortunately, we all seem to have "forgotten" this physiologically natural way of sleeping, and kept the same sleeping habit from nine to five.
It is not difficult to change from monophasic sleep habit to polyphasic sleep-but it should be done step by step.
Gradually reduce sleep at night and take a nap at night-you should only choose two kinds of naps: 20 minutes or 90 minutes (or multiples of 90 minutes). Because a 20-minute nap can only get you into the first stage of sleep, and you won't fall into deep sleep, and you can still get some rest after waking up.
There are two key points about how to change and adapt to polyphasic sleep:
1, measure the length of your sleep cycle. 90 minutes is just an average, and different people are different. For example, I was 90 minutes a few years ago, but now it's shortened to 75 minutes. So if I fall asleep in bed at 7 o'clock now, the first time I wake up, the clock will point to 8 o'clock. 15 doesn't use an alarm clock.
It is very important to have at least two clearly defined sleep stages every day. If you only sleep for four and a half hours in a row, it is absolutely impossible to say "I have slept enough today", so if you don't sleep for the remaining 19 hours, you will feel like you are in hell. A day's sleep must be divided into two (or more) stages, so that the effect achieved in the REM stage of sleep can be completely "infiltrated" into these 24 hours.
5. Frequently asked questions
Physical exercise will make me sleep more?
Indeed, moderate physical exercise will make you sleep more deeply and provide more motivation when you are awake. The key is to do what you can, so sleep time will be the same as usual. Of course, if you exercise too much, you may need more sleep cycles than usual to recover your strength.
How to accurately measure your sleep cycle?
Just like doing experiments in middle school, measure many times and take the average. But it should be noted that we are creatures, not instruments, and not every sleep cycle is exactly the same.
In addition, the so-called "waking up" means opening your eyes for the first time and feeling the surrounding environment. Even if you think you only slept for five minutes, it is entirely possible that you have slept for a sleep cycle.
Also, if you wake up after 160, 170, or even 180 minutes, it means that you have slept for two cycles. Or 240 or 270 minutes, that is, three cycles.