Habits play a major role in sleep quality
Both good and bad habits directly affect sleep. Therefore, review your habits to get good sleep. The effect may not be immediate, and changing habits may not be easy. Habits are repeated in our lives without thinking about them once they are ingrained. When you think of sleep in the aggregate, improving your habits will dramatically improve the quality of your sleep.
I start sleeping around 10pm.
We cite and refer to the research article 生体機能変化による日内リズムの修飾－特に運動・睡眠と日内リズムの関係－.
The golden hour of sleep is from 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. The rationale for this is that deep sleep is more common immediately after falling asleep, and growth hormone secretion is more active during this time.
Below is a depth of sleep graph I got from sleeping with my Fitbit on; I went to bed at 22:07 and woke up at 6:29. The time of sleep is shown as 7 hours and 29 minutes, and a line like a wave is drawn below it. The upper part of the graph indicates shallow sleep, and the lower part indicates deep sleep. The deepest sleep is dark blue and appears only in the first half of sleep. The brain rests in this first half of deep sleep, which is a very important time. If we calculate the duration of deep sleep, it is 58 minutes. If the brain only rests for about one hour out of a 24-hour period, this shows the importance of deep sleep. Getting good quality sleep is important for the brain.
On the other hand, the graph below shows that the secretion of growth hormone occurs from around 22:00 to 2:00, with the maximum secretion around 24:00. Therefore, starting to sleep around 10:00 p.m. is the best time to get a good night’s sleep.
If you compare going to bed at 10 p.m. and getting up at 4 a.m. with going to bed at 1 a.m. and getting up at 7 a.m., even with the same six hours of sleep, going to bed at 10 p.m. and getting up at 4 a.m. is definitely a better choice. If you have to do some work, going to bed early and getting up early is more efficient and better for your body. But you will have a hard time because you cannot go to sleep early. So don’t think that you have to go to bed early. I have to go to bed early! If you think that you have to go to sleep early, you will not be able to sleep. If you cannot sleep, there is no need to rush and force yourself to sleep. As shown in the figure below, even if you fall asleep late, deep sleep comes immediately after sleep.
Fixed wake-up time
Going to bed early is not easy. Sleep is not something you can do by trying. The harder you try, the harder it is to sleep. This is because you are in a hurry and your brain is active. So, fix your wake-up time. It is easier to fix the time you wake up than to fix the time you go to sleep. Sleeping late is not good for sleep because it disrupts the rhythm of your life. It is important to wake up on weekdays and maintain the same lifestyle on holidays as on weekdays. Cut down on sleeping hours on weekdays and get plenty of sleep on weekends. Do many people lead such a lifestyle? It is understandable to try to make up some of the short sleep time on weekdays during the holidays, but the lifestyle habits that slow down during the weekdays are carried over to the weekdays. Mondays can be very hard, and by the time you get back to your weekday pace, it may be Wednesday, and your work performance will not be as good as it would have been during the weekday as a whole. So, if you fix your waking time on weekends and holidays, and if you fix your waking time in the morning and get some sunlight, your nighttime sleepiness will gradually adjust to the same time. This is because the substance melatonin, which controls time, is regulated by sunlight.
Use of bedding is for sleep only
Bedding should be utilized as a tool for sleep only. Therefore, it is not recommended to do anything on the bed other than sleep. For example, you should not play games or do homework. Doing things will activate your mind. If you experience activation on the bed, a switch is created that your head will be activated when you get into the bed. This is habit. Using habituation will help you when you want to accomplish something. This is off topic, don’t do anything on your bedding. Smartphones are especially bad. They are packed with factors that make it hard to sleep: they are fun, they require you to reply, and they are bright. The blue light emitted by smartphones decreases the secretion of melatonin, which causes the body’s internal clock to go haywire, making it difficult to sleep. Not only will you be able to fall asleep more smoothly if you make your bedding a tool only for sleep, but also if you make your bedroom a room only for sleeping.
Get under the covers when you feel sleepy, and get out of the covers if you can’t sleep.
When sleeplessness persists, the rule of going to bed when you feel sleepy works better than the rule of going to bed at 10 p.m. If you are in the habit of always getting into bed at 10:00 p.m., there is no problem. However, if you get under the covers to go to bed a little earlier today, you will not be able to sleep. It is easier to sleep if you are habitual as usual. Even if you do go to bed early, it is better to keep it to 10 to 15 minutes of your usual time. If you get into the bed early and cannot sleep, please get out of the bed once. If you stay in the bed for a while, the bed will be warmed by your body heat. It is said that you feel drowsy when your skin temperature and deep body temperature are close to each other. Once the bed is warm, heat dissipation from the skin does not work properly and you will not be able to sleep. For this reason, I recommend turning the comforter inside out when leaving the futon. This cools the warmed mattress and comforter.
Bedrooms are tidy and organized
The state of your bedroom is the state of your head. If your bedroom is uncluttered, your mind is not organized and is riddled with worries, things you want to do, and many other things. The more organized you are, the clearer your mind is and the easier it will be to fall asleep.
Decide on a bedtime routine
Creating a bedtime ritual, a routine of your own, will help you sleep. You do not have to do anything special. For example, take a 40°C bath for 30 minutes at 8:30 a.m. After the bath at 9:10 a.m., wipe down and dry your hair. Eat dinner at 9:15. After dinner, eat yogurt. 9:45, brush teeth and go to the bathroom. 9:55, turn on aroma diffuser and open a dictionary. Too boring, I go to bed. Thus, you don’t have to do anything special.
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