How to build a consistent sleep schedule Treat yourself. So how do you actually get yourself to bed and wake up on a schedule? We asked sleep doctors to share tips. “Keeping a regular, set schedule is more likely to put your body in a place where it needs to be to get a full night’s sleep going forward.” Marri Horvat, a sleep specialist at the Cleveland Clinic, “but it usually doesn’t help,” she said. People often think that sleeping in after several nights of limited sleep or insomnia will make them feel better, said Dr. And a mounting body of research shows that catching up on your sleep during the weekends can’t compensate for staying up during the week, he added. One theory for why consistent sleep helps your heart is that maintaining your circadian rhythm - the 24-hour cycle of your body’s internal clock - helps regulate cardiovascular function, Dr. Last summer, the American Heart Association added sleep duration to its checklist for measuring cardiovascular health. Over the last decade, researchers have strengthened the link between sleep and heart health, specifically. Researchers have even tied irregular sleeping patterns to high cholesterol and hypertension. An analysis of over 90,000 people linked circadian rhythm disruptions with a greater risk of mood disorders. A 2020 study found that people ages 45 to 84 with erratic sleep schedules were nearly twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease as those with more regular sleep patterns. on a Saturday, you’re probably better off sleeping until noon and avoiding some of the acute effects of sleep loss than forcing yourself awake at the time you get up for work, he said.īut the new study supports what previous research has theorized: Consistent sleep is crucial for health. “It’s more about the long-term pattern.”įor most people, if you have a night or two of inconsistent sleep timing, you’re likely not going to throw off your entire circadian rhythm, said Aric Prather, a psychologist and sleep specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. Tianyi Huang, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a co-author of the study. And the findings don’t necessarily mean that the occasional late night or very early morning should be off the table. The study could not confirm that inconsistent sleep patterns definitively caused the heart issues, Dr. People whose overall sleep amounts varied by two or more hours from night to night throughout the week - getting five hours of sleep on Tuesday, say, and then eight hours on Wednesday - were particularly likely to have high levels of calcified fatty plaque built up in their arteries, compared with those who slept the same number of hours each night. Researchers examined a week’s worth of sleep data from 2,000 adults over 45 and found that those who slept varying amounts each night and went to bed at different times were more likely to have hardened arteries than those with more regular sleep patterns. Full is the lead author of a new study that tied irregular sleep to an early marker of cardiovascular disease. “It’s a luxury, right?” said Kelsie Full, a behavioral epidemiologist and an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.ĭr. Similar to changing time zones, heading to bed at vastly different times from night to night may throw off your circadian rhythm.Īnd still, as anyone who’s worked a night shift, taken care of a toddler or fumbled back home after a party might tell you: Going to bed and waking up at the same times is easier said than done. Sabra Abbott, a sleep medicine specialist at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. Sleep experts refer to this as “social jet lag,” said Dr. And please, they beg: Keep your sleep schedule consistent.įlip-flopping between wake-up times - jolting awake at 7:30 on a Friday morning and then dozing until the afternoon on Saturday - wreaks havoc on our internal body clocks. There are a few tried and true pieces of advice that sleep doctors always give for battling insomnia: Watch those alcoholic drinks at dinner, cut the afternoon coffee, stop scrolling before bed.
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