Set the internal clock
Time change: Five tips to still get a good night’s sleep
Healthy sleep is not happiness, it is based on healthy habits.
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Sleeping is fundamental to our physical and mental health. And yet every fourth person in Germany suffers from sleep disorders at least temporarily. How to prevent? The sleep scientist Theresa Schnorbach gives tips for healthy sleep.
For more than 60 years, the sandman has been sending children and adults into the world of dreams with his magical sleeping sand. And it is not for nothing that the children’s program continues to enjoy great popularity among all generations: sleep is elementary for our physical and mental health. As important as it is, it is also prone to disruption.
A major disruptive factor, for example, is the upcoming time change. On March 26, 2023, clocks will go forward one hour from 2 a.m. An hour of precious sleep that is being stolen from us. And that can mess up your sleep rhythm and, in the worst case, cause insomnia.
Why healthy sleep is so important
Sleep scientist and psychologist Theresa Schnorbach von “Emma – The Sleep Company” says in conversation with him stern about it: “We all have an internal rhythm. And the time change always has an impact on our inner clock.” Chronic lack of sleep can therefore cause long-term damage to our health and mental health.
“Sleep is fundamental to our health and our performance,” says the expert. Too little sleep has a negative effect on our concentration, memory and impulse control. Our ability to react also decreases significantly with lack of sleep. Schnorbach draws a drastic comparison: “But we now know that tiredness can have about the same effect as drinking and driving.”
mental health
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If you don’t sleep enough, you also tend to have emotional outbursts. According to Schnorbach, this is because our amygdala – the area in the brain that is responsible for our emotions – is much more activated when we sleep less. In turn, our prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for rational thinking, is less connected to the amygdala due to sleep deprivation. A dangerous mixture, as the psychologist explains: “That means I not only have a stronger emotional accelerator pedal, I also lack the rational brake.”
And as if that weren’t enough, our risk of infection also increases as our sleep frequency decreases. Because when we sleep, natural killer cells are formed and strengthened in the body. These, in turn, are responsible for recognizing and eliminating pathogens. “If I now sleep four days less, the effectiveness of these killer cells can drop drastically. Our immune system is weakened and we get sick more quickly,” Schnorbach sums up.
how much sleep do we need
But how much sleep do we actually need? According to the sleep scientist, there is no universal answer to this. The ideal sleep duration is somewhere between seven and nine hours: “I always recommend trying this value. If you slept longer without the alarm clock ringing, you should increase the sleep duration even more; On the other hand, if you lie awake in bed and If you’re not (anymore) tired, you should shorten it a bit. It’s important to listen to your body.”
In order to prepare our body as well as possible for the time change and to prevent sleep disorders in everyday life, the sleep scientist gave us five tips for healthy sleep:
Five tips for healthy sleep
- Preparation is the be-all and end-all
Theresa Schnorbach advises preparing for the new sleeping times a few days before the time change. Going to bed earlier can help. “Or you try to get out in the sun very quickly in the morning. Sunlight is the best way to get your sleep-wake cycle back on track.” - Bring structure into your sleep rhythm
The most reliable method for healthy sleep is structure. It is therefore important to go to bed and wake up at regular times. The reason: “As a result, our body eventually knows when it’s time to sleep and wake up,” says Schnorbach. As a result, our body would then also release the right hormones - Only natural melatonin is helpful in the long term
Speaking of hormones. Schnorbach keeps one thing above all else from the many new melatonin products on the market that are supposed to promote sleep in a “natural” way: distance. Melatonin is essential for healthy sleep. But: “The problem with artificial melatonin is that the amount, i.e. the melatonin content of food supplements, often differs greatly from the information on the label, with the actual content being between around 80 percent less and up to 470 percent more.”The result: the dosage is more a matter of luck than targeted. And there is another problem: the more melatonin you take artificially, the less the body produces itself. In this case, it is better to rely on the body in the long term.
- Rely on the right bedtime treat
A little snack just before bed can’t be that tragic, can it? It depends what it is about. According to Schnorbach, you shouldn’t go to bed hungry or on a full stomach. It is better to avoid greasy or sugary foods in the evening. “But too much raw food in the evening can also mean that our digestion keeps us up at night.” The expert’s recommendation: you can eat light food up to about two to four hours before you go to bed. - Get up when the day begins
What may sound logical at first glance is actually what many of us do wrong: getting up when the alarm clock rings. The snooze button is a favorite companion of many late risers. It has more disadvantages than advantages, as the psychologist explains: “If I need it because I’m still too tired, it means that I haven’t slept enough. So ideally I should continue to sleep if that’s possible.”If this is not possible because of commitments, then you should start the day without delay. Because: “Falling asleep again and again and waking up, in the end you only torment yourself.” If you find this difficult in the dark season, you can help with daylight lamps or a wake-up light.