Healthy sleep — scientific methods that really work

A mod­ern per­son does not fill up the 8 hours required for health. Instead, the aver­age adult sleeps around 6 hours or less.

Med­ical experts rec­om­mend using the 10–3‑2–1 method in order to learn how to get enough sleep and feel much more alert. Unfor­tu­nate­ly or for­tu­nate­ly, this approach is not quite suit­able for peo­ple who love cof­fee, watch movies before bed and eat at night. But every­thing is fix­able, any habit can be changed.

Causes of sleep deprivation

The speed of life and the fast pace of every­day life are the most obvi­ous rea­sons that a per­son does not get enough sleep. The habit of “sit­ting on phones” and oth­er gad­gets before going to bed makes us sac­ri­fice our health. Here are oth­er relat­ed rea­sons:

• mal­nu­tri­tion;
• low phys­i­cal activ­i­ty;
• stress.

An approach called “10–3‑2–1” helps to rebuild and improve sleep. Because pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, pos­i­tive mood and per­se­ver­ance depend on healthy and high-qual­i­ty sleep.

Coffee 10 hours before bed

Accord­ing to the method pro­posed by doc­tors, the use of cof­fee and caf­feinat­ed drinks should be min­i­mized. The last dose should be 10 hours before going to bed.

This is how long it takes the body to com­plete­ly elim­i­nate caf­feine, which has an invig­o­rat­ing effect. As a result, falling asleep even by 23:00 can be very dif­fi­cult. The stim­u­lant slows down the stage of deep sleep and in the morn­ing the per­son feels tired.

Caf­feine intake no lat­er than 13:00–14:00 improves cog­ni­tive func­tion and pre­vents com­pli­ca­tions asso­ci­at­ed with dif­fi­cul­ty falling asleep and poor sleep qual­i­ty.

Snack until 20:00

The sec­ond fac­tor includ­ed in the 10–3‑2–1 for­mu­la is that the last meal should be no lat­er than 20:00 hours, or 3 hours before bed­time. Peo­ple who like to eat at night or even drink a glass of alco­holic drink are unlike­ly to fall asleep well.

Eat­ing late before bed can lead to cramps or acid reflux. Such urges pro­voke the diges­tive sys­tem to noc­tur­nal activ­i­ty.

Experts say that the fast­ing win­dow before going to bed has a ben­e­fi­cial effect on the body. At the same time, the stom­ach is not emp­ty, but not full either. And falling into a deep sleep phase will be much eas­i­er.

There is anoth­er opin­ion: that if you drink a glass of wine short­ly before bed­time, you can fall asleep sound­ly and almost instant­ly. Yes it is. But the dream of such a per­son will be dif­fer­ent. The deep sleep phase will shift or dis­ap­pear alto­geth­er. A per­son can wake up at night also because of a full blad­der. Oth­er cons of a late din­ner are:

• excess weight;
• bloat­ing and heav­i­ness;
• constipation/diarrhea or both;
• headache;
• lack of ener­gy;
• weak­ness;
• lack of con­cen­tra­tion.

Work until 21:00

Accord­ing to the 10–3‑2–1 the­o­ry, at least two hours before a night’s sleep, the brain should begin to rest. At this time, experts rec­om­mend avoid­ing activ­i­ties that irri­tate the ner­vous sys­tem. These include:

• work at the com­put­er;
• read­ing email;
• tele­phone calls and con­ver­sa­tions;
• think­ing about prob­lems or plan­ning for the day ahead.

In order not to keep in mind all the infor­ma­tion nec­es­sary for life and work, experts advise keep­ing a note­book. You can write down impor­tant work moments, house­hold notes or reminders, etc. in it. This is how we help the brain unload and not think about every­thing, espe­cial­ly at night. This approach will allow you to quick­ly fall asleep in the evening and sleep well.

Exces­sive strain on the eyes, brain and oth­er organs and parts of the body leads to chron­ic stress. Con­stant anx­i­ety and a state of eter­nal race increas­es the risk of devel­op­ing dis­eases of the car­dio­vas­cu­lar sys­tem. In addi­tion, jumps in blood pres­sure and the appear­ance of oth­er dis­eases are observed.

In a state of stress or an end­less thought process, it is very dif­fi­cult to fall asleep. There­fore, those patients who most often com­plain of rest­less sleep often have a his­to­ry of chron­ic stress or depres­sion.

Watching movies only until 22:00

With the devel­op­ment of mod­ern tech­nolo­gies, a per­son spends more and more time with gad­gets. Phones, com­put­ers, tablets, head­phones — these and oth­er devices sur­round us every day. More­over, many new pro­fes­sions are asso­ci­at­ed with activ­i­ties that involve work­ing with these devices.

Sci­en­tists and doc­tors say that elec­tron­ics and tech­nol­o­gy dis­rupt the nat­ur­al bio­log­i­cal rhythms of a per­son. When the sun ris­es in the morn­ing, the stress hor­mone cor­ti­sol is pro­duced in the body. At this time, a per­son feels as vig­or­ous and filled with vital­i­ty as pos­si­ble.

And in the evening, when the sun sets and gets dark­er, mela­tonin is secret­ed in the body, a hor­mone that caus­es a feel­ing of drowsi­ness.

Numer­ous facts prove that watch­ing TV shows and movies before bed­time, using a phone, tablet and oth­er bright screen inter­fere with the pro­duc­tion of mela­tonin. As a result, sin­gle, and then reg­u­lar, sleep dis­tur­bances appear:

• it is dif­fi­cult for a per­son to fall asleep;
• sleep becomes not deep;
• feel­ing bro­ken in the morn­ing;
• there is not enough ener­gy and strength even for the most ele­men­tary actions;
• devel­op dis­eases and dis­or­ders of the organs and sys­tems of the body.

Hav­ing the habit of “stick­ing” on the phone or tablet before going to bed, a per­son will soon­er or lat­er face health prob­lems.

In addi­tion to the fact that experts rec­om­mend not using devices 2 hours before bed­time, they insist on reduc­ing oth­er light sources. 2–3 hours before going to bed, it is bet­ter to turn off the main light of the chan­de­lier or lamp and turn on the night­lights. The reti­na of the eye, which per­ceives a bright stream of light, is irri­tat­ed and the pro­duc­tion of mela­tonin decreas­es. Hor­mone defi­cien­cy in the body can lead to more than just sleep prob­lems. It also affects:

• weight gain;
• decreased libido;
• dif­fi­cul­ties with con­ceiv­ing a child;
• aging rate;
• for­ma­tion of insulin resis­tance;
• the risk of devel­op­ing dis­eases of the gas­troin­testi­nal tract.

The key to health and longevi­ty is high-qual­i­ty, full sleep. Use the 10–3‑2–1 sys­tem and be healthy!

Med­AboutMe also rec­om­mends read­ing How to Improve Sleep: Sim­ple Ways for healthy lifestyle steps and rit­u­als to help you sleep bet­ter.