Some people go through short nights and find that their fatigue becomes dangerous over time. Is it possible to clear this tile? Make up for the hours lost to too many lies or naps?
If we spend almost a third of our lives asleep, some nights we are severely sleep deprived. According to the results of a 2020 survey conducted by the National Institute of Sleep and Vigilance, 28% of French people sleep less than 6 hours a day. Among them are “light sleepers” who naturally settle for less and others who, by not sleeping enough for their body to function normally, experience sleep debt, in other words, a lack of sleep that builds up over time.
The effects on the body of just a few shortened nights are far from insignificant. As a result, sleep debt affects alertness, daytime performance, and is associated with long-term risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and depressive disorders. Is it possible to make up for those “lost” hours of sleep? To remedy the situation, can we pay off this debt by sleeping more the next day?
In the video, five signs that indicate that you are in debt in your sleep
Find the balance
Jean-Arthur Miculot-Franchi, professor of physiology at Bordeaux University Hospital, psychiatrist and sleep doctor, wants to be encouraging. He confirms that “there is no irrevocable debt of sleep”. According to him, a step back is possible, provided that the balance is restored in the days following the shortened nights. In practice? We extend the duration of our sleep. “The average sleeping person sleeps 7 to 8 hours a night. Sleep duration varies from person to person, but to better understand your own needs, you should pay attention to your level of wakefulness throughout the day, he explains. If you feel that you need to sleep as soon as there is no more stimulation, for example during a meeting, it is probably because you need to extend your sleep time.
A common mistake is to try to make up for lost hours by sleeping more the next day or on the weekend. “Sleeping internally is a consequence of sleep debt, not necessarily the solution,” notes Dr. Jean-Arthur Nicolas-Franchi. We sleep more on weekends because we have accumulated fatigue all week. Except that by waking up late in the morning, especially on Sundays, you risk going to bed late at night and continuing to eat into your sleep time because you have to wake up at 6:30 am to go to work the next day. »
Sleeping internally is a consequence of sleep debt, not necessarily a solution
Dr. Jean-Arthur Mikula-Franchi, sleep doctor
A vicious cycle, then. Not forgetting that fatty mornings disrupt our rhythm, and this has consequences for the body. In a previous article, Sylvie Royant-Parola, a psychiatrist and sleep doctor, explained to us: .
Make siesta a priority
To recover from one or more shortened nights without disrupting our internal biological clock, experts recommend taking naps during the day instead. According to sleep doctor Jean-Arthur Michelaud-Franchi, this break, even a short one, helps counterbalance the harmful effects of sleep debt, especially if it’s chronic. “People in Japan practice regularlyany more, or the fact of “sleeping in presence” for less than 5 minutes. Obviously, we sleep and stay alert for what is happening around us. The desired effect is to improve responsiveness and concentration, reports the health professional. If we extend this sleep by 20-30 minutes, we restore alertness and reduce metabolic and cardiovascular risk factors.
Find strict sleep hygiene
In general, in order to break the vicious cycle of debt, one should pay attention to the regularity and balance of the sleep-wake rhythm. Dr. Jean-Arthur Miccolo-Franchi insists that it’s important to wake up at the same time every day and keep the same amount of time to bed each night.
To optimize sleep, it is also necessary to take care of the environment and sleeping conditions. Thus, the sleep doctor advises to promote exposure to natural light every morning, reactivate the sleep-wake rhythm synchronisers, and in the evening gradually move away from any source of stimulation that may disturb the night. coffee, screens…
Source: Le Figaro
