International Student Scientific Bulletin. How to get a good night's sleep if you're a teenager How much sleep you need at 16

According to doctors, teenagers should sleep 8-10 hours. However, according to the National Sleep Foundation, only 15% of teenagers get eight and a half hours of sleep on weekdays. Not getting enough sleep negatively impacts a teenager's health. Sleep deprivation is a cause of depression and chronic headaches, and children who don't get enough sleep find it difficult to concentrate on their studies. Therefore, it is extremely important for teenagers to develop healthy sleep habits.

Steps

Part 1

Clean up the room. You will sleep better in a clean and comfortable room. According to research, decorating your bedroom with flowers has a positive effect on your mood when you wake up. Your room should have a pleasant and calm atmosphere.

Establish and follow a regular bedtime ritual. Since the life of a teenager is quite active, following the ritual of going to bed is the key to a good night's rest. Pay attention to the following tips when creating a bedtime ritual:

Determine your bedtime and wake up time. It all depends on what time you start your day.

• Set a goal to get at least eight but no more than ten hours of sleep each night. Thanks to this, you will follow the sleep schedule. Plus, you won't feel sleepy.
• Stick to a sleep schedule, even on weekends. This will make it easier for you to stick to your weekday sleep schedule.

1. Set an alarm. Over time, the body will get used to waking up without an alarm; however, at first you can use the alarm clock to wake up at the same time.

   • If you are a heavy sleeper, set multiple alarms or set the alarm to maximum volume; if you wake up easily, you can use a regular alarm clock or download the phone app.

2. Sleep on your right side. According to research, sleeping on your right side improves the quality of sleep and promotes a good mood the next day.

   Wake up right in the morning. The first step to healthy sleep is proper awakening. In addition, it contributes to the normalization of circadian rhythms.

   Make sure your bedroom is quiet. Turn off music before bed. Use earplugs to block out noises that can interfere with good sleep.

   Use the bed only for sleeping. Do not read, study, write, or draw in bed, as these activities promote wakefulness rather than sleep. Your brain should only associate bed with sleep, not with the above activities.

   Avoid long daytime naps. If, despite a night's sleep, you still feel tired, take a 15-30 minute nap. However, don't overdo it, as long daytime naps contribute to fatigue and interfere with a good night's rest.

   Avoid caffeine. Caffeine, even in small doses, can disrupt sleep. If you notice that caffeine is having a negative effect on your sleep, cut out caffeinated drinks from your diet.

Part 3

Imagine a calm place. Try to imagine a calm place that makes you feel good. It could be a museum, a park, or a hiking trail. Mentally begin the walk, paying attention to the details: colors, light, shadow, and other elements of the environment. Remember what emotions you experienced when you took this walk. This activity distracts your mind from the present, promoting relaxation and sleep.

Practice the progressive muscle relaxation method. This simple relaxation technique helps to relieve stress and calm down. Progressive muscle relaxation consists in tension and relaxation of all muscle groups of the face and body in a certain sequence, starting with the toes, then the muscles of the thighs, buttocks, abdomen, shoulders, neck and face. Hold the tension for at least 30 seconds. Then relax the tense muscle.

Practice the BFB method. Biofeedback is one of the effective non-drug methods that helps to cope with insomnia. Biofeedback allows you to change a person's response to stress, reduce anxiety and promote relaxation.

People rarely think about such a concept as "sleep norms and how much a person should ideally sleep." If he gets up in the morning refreshed and well-rested, then it would seem that it makes no difference whether a person slept for five, seven or ten hours. However, there are medically sound averages for healthy sleep duration, which can fluctuate for subjective reasons.

Definition and rules of healthy sleep

From the first days of the existence of a little man, they begin to accustom him to the daily routine, developing such concepts as “day is the time of wakefulness” and “night” is “time of rest”. These behavioral responses and sleep norms are further fixed for life.

But life is not a courier train moving exactly on schedule. Therefore, over time, the duration and rate of rest undergo changes. And what should be a healthy sleep, how much does a person need to sleep a day in order to feel rested, efficient and energetic?

In a dream, many biochemical processes take place that have a beneficial effect on all human organs and systems, relieve the mental and physical fatigue accumulated during the day, and tone the body as a whole. Actions aimed at improving the quality of sleep are the key to its usefulness and viability.

Healthy sleep - the principles of its formation

The mechanism of strong normal dreaming is based on a number of observations, tips and recommendations from sleep experts.

1. Compliance with the daily routine. Try every day, regardless of weekends and vacation periods, to go to bed at night and get up in the morning at the same time. This contributes to a clear adherence to their internal biological clock - biorhythms. Villagers can serve as a good example - the centuries-old rural way of life with agrarian and livestock concerns has developed in them the habit of going to bed at sunset and getting up at dawn. Of course, today, especially in urban conditions, such a schedule is unattainable, but the very principle of constancy of the hours of going to bed and getting up in the morning is important here.
2. Optimal sleep duration. A healthy adult should sleep, according to scientists, at least 7-8 hours. However, sleep time is not the only metric that determines its benefits. The qualitative component is also important, because a healthy rest is a dream without awakening, lasting continuously. Therefore, a person often feels completely asleep, falling asleep even for 5-6 hours than if he slept for 8-9 hours, but restlessly and intermittently. However, it is generally accepted that healthy sleep should last 6-8 hours.
3. Waking up in the morning should not be accompanied by a long rise, you should not luxuriate in bed for a long time - there is a chance to fall asleep again. You can stretch a little to stretch your joints and limbs, and cheer up a little before starting a hard day.
4. The last hours before leaving for the realm of dreams should be spent in a calm, mood-setting atmosphere. It is better to refuse action films, programs with a high intensity of emotions or negative news. You don't need to be physically active either. Thoughts, feelings, all human organs should come into a state of harmony and peace.
5. You should not kemar during the day, especially for those who have trouble falling asleep. True, 15-20 minutes of a light nap often gives strength and clarity of thought, so a daytime siesta is a purely individual matter.
6. Physical activity, emotions, worries should fill the daylight hours. In the evening, you need to create a relaxing environment, with a light, light dinner, at least 2 hours before diving into the arms of Morpheus. Alcohol, smoking, coffee are the main enemies of healthy sleep.

A cozy bed, cool air in the bedroom, a positive attitude, complete darkness in the room - these factors will help you fall asleep quickly and serenely.

Average sleep duration

It should immediately be clarified that advice on how much a person needs to sleep per day is given for healthy people. For patients, long-term rest is necessary, he himself is a healing tool for restoring and increasing the body's defenses, to fight the disease.

If we consider the recommended sleep duration of 6-7-8 hours, then, based on the individual characteristics of the body, 5 hours is enough for someone to get up alert and rested (Napoleon can serve as an example). The well-known German physicist Einstein needed at least 10-12 hours to sleep.

A person, according to his own feelings, well-being and observations of the state of health, decides how much he needs to sleep.

And although the duration of dreams is influenced by the human factor and subjective reasons, for the average citizen, the figure of 8 hours is the most acceptable. In addition, the optimal duration of sleep varies depending on the age and gender of the person.

Sleep variability by age and gender

American scientists from the National Foundation for Somnological Problems have developed recommendations regarding the required number of hours of rest for various age groups. The inverse relationship between age and sleep duration is clearly shown in the table.

In addition, it was found that fluctuations in the duration of sleep negatively affect its quality and well-being. That is, the same number of hours of rest contributes to physical and spiritual health.

Men and women need about the same amount of time for healthy sleep - 8 hours. Finnish medical scientists calculated to the minute the required number of hours for men - 7 hours 42 minutes, for women the time was 7 hours 38 minutes. The data were determined on the basis of a survey of 3,700 respondents of both sexes.

However, there is another point of view: a woman needs at least 8 hours to fully recover, while a man needs 6.5-7 hours.

This postulate is substantiated by the differences in brain activity in the representatives of the stronger and weaker sex. It has been proven that women have more complex brain activity, they are able to simultaneously solve multiple tasks and process the amount of information 5 times faster than their male counterparts. And since sleep is the time to "reset" the neurons of the brain, women need additional time to resume vigorous activity.

Regardless of the gender of a person, those whose work is related to solving complex problems and making important decisions need longer rest than workers with less responsible responsibilities.

The most useful time for sleep

People who prefer to go to bed well after midnight and get up at 10-11 o'clock in the afternoon believe that they fully fill the need for a good rest. But this is far from true. The centuries-old experience of our ancestors indicates that it is most useful to go to bed 3-4 hours after sunset.

A table of the value and importance of sleep has been compiled, and according to it:

• The time from 22 o'clock is the stage of the revival of the central nervous system.
• The dawn hours from 4 to 5 in the morning are the time of Aurora, the goddess of the dawn, the symbol of the new coming day.
• The next hour symbolizes harmony and peace.
• The interval from 6.00 to 7.00 is a period of freshness and cheerfulness.

Thus, the effective time for overnight recovery is the hours before midnight. During this time period, the regeneration of nerve cells of the whole organism occurs, sleep has a rejuvenating and healing effect.

Is sleeping during the day good or bad?

A number of European countries, especially the Mediterranean countries, practice a daytime siesta - a short afternoon rest. Of course, this is also due to the peculiarities of the climate (it is hard to work in the midday heat), but it was also noticed that even a short half-hour rest gives a new influx of energy, increases visual and mental concentration, and increases efficiency.

In this case, the main thing is not to overdo it. The optimal time for a daytime nap is no more than 30 minutes. Prolonged daytime sleep leads to an imbalance in the human biological clock, causes headache, lethargy and apathy. And at night there will be difficulties with falling asleep.

Many beliefs are associated with a bad dream at sunset. The time between 16 and 17 hours is considered the worst for rest, because according to the legends of the ancient Slavs, the sun, leaving the horizon, draws and takes away the energy of a sleeping person. During this period, Morpheus does not add strength, but shortens the hours of life, a person gets up not rested, but exhausted. To believe or not to believe in myths is everyone's business, but doctors do not recommend sleep during this time period. Even if you really want to sleep, it is better to wait a little, endure and lie down closer to the night.

Lack of sleep or oversleeping - two phenomena with negative consequences

As you know, there are 24 hours in a day. In the case of a person's daily routine, the rule of three eights applies: 8 hours for work, 8 for rest, and the remaining 8 for sleep. Eight hours of sleep for work is a constant established by labor laws. But with the other two eights, any transformations take place. The hours of night rest are subjected to especially great changes. People either solve pressing matters through sleep, or prefer to get away from problems, plunging into night dreams.

The result is lack of sleep or oversleeping. Both of these have a negative effect on the body.

• Lethargy, apathy, isolation.
• A decrease in the production of serotonin - the hormone of joy, as a result, a depressive complex develops, a person becomes nervous and irritable.
• Decrease in working capacity, analytical abilities, logical thinking.
• There are signs of external aging and physical deterioration.
• Health problems of all organs and systems.

Consequences of oversleeping:

• Depression, drowsiness, causing a person to fall into oblivion again.
• Pain of a neuralgic and somatic nature, as the normal oxygen supply of the blood flow is disturbed, plus a long position of the body in one position causes numbness of the limbs and muscles.
• Weak physical activity leads to weight gain.

Even a Russian proverb was invented about the danger of a long sleep: Whoever sleeps the most lives the least.

As can be seen from the comparison of two negative disorders of somnological behavior, it is most useful to stick to the golden mean and practice 7-8 hours of rest. Healthy full sleep indicates a clear and well-established work of human organs and systems, any violations, especially chronic ones, serve as an indicator of the manifestation of failures in the functioning of the body, which cannot be ignored.

SLEEP IS ONE OF THE BASIS OF STUDENT HEALTH

It is unlikely that anyone will question the importance of a good night's sleep. After all, it is a vital necessity for every person: a third of life passes in a state of periodically occurring daily sleep. Sleep is a universal restorer after all types of stress: physical, intellectual, emotional, etc. Classical physiology interprets sleep as follows: sleep is a state of the body that is characterized by a cessation or a significant decrease in motor activity, a decrease in the function of the organs of touch (auditory, tactile, etc.), a reduction in contact with the environment, a more or less complete loss of consciousness .

As scientists have found out, during sleep there are phase changes in muscle tone (most of the muscles of a sleeping person are relaxed), a sharp weakening of all types of sensitivity - skin, vision, hearing, taste, smell. Unconditioned and conditioned reflexes are inhibited. The supply of blood to the tissues decreases, which is accompanied by a decrease in the intensity of metabolism by 7–8% and a decrease in body temperature.

According to modern ideas, sleep is not only rest, but also work aimed at processing various information accumulated during the day. The fact that the work of the brain does not stop during sleep can be judged by the preservation of its bioelectrical activity during these hours.

Sleep, according to the teachings of I.P. Pavlov about higher nervous activity, is an inhibition that has spilled over the entire cortex of the cerebral hemispheres. Inhibition affects all functional systems of the body. The function of the gastrointestinal tract is reduced, muscle tone, metabolism, functions of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems are reduced. During this period of time, breathing is rare, superficial, pulmonary ventilation is relatively small, the minute volume of blood is reduced, blood and lymph flow in the muscles is reduced, which sometimes leads to congestion.

During a night's sleep, there are several (4 - 5) ups and downs in the frequency of fluctuations in biopotentials. With the help of EEG, two types of it were revealed: calm-slow (orthodox) without dreams and active-fast (paradoxical) with dreams. Characteristic features of slow sleep - a decrease in the frequency of breathing and heart rate, slowing eye movements. During REM sleep, these indicators change, and such a dream is deeper than slow sleep (it is more difficult to wake the sleeper, the muscles are extremely relaxed). Slow-wave sleep usually takes 75 - 80% of the total duration of a night's sleep, fast - 20 - 25%. Their alternation is typical for healthy people; after such a dream, the student feels well-rested and alert. Deviations in the duration of REM and non-REM sleep, frequent awakenings during REM sleep lead to disturbances in the nervous system, affect the state of the psyche, attention, and emotional state.

Sleep is an essential and most complete form of daily rest. For a student, it is necessary to consider the usual norm of a nightly monophasic sleep of 7.5–8 hours. A watch meant for sleeping should not be regarded as a kind of reserve of time that can be used frequently and with impunity for other purposes. This, as a rule, is reflected in the productivity of mental work and psycho-emotional state. Disordered sleep can lead to insomnia and other nervous disorders.

Intense mental work must be stopped 1.5 hours before going to bed, as it creates closed excitation cycles in the cerebral cortex, which are highly resistant. Intense brain activity continues even when a person has finished exercising. Therefore, mental work performed immediately before bedtime makes it difficult to fall asleep, leads to situational dreams, lethargy and poor health after waking up. Before going to bed, it is necessary to ventilate the room, and it is even better to sleep with the window open.

For low-sleeping students, 5-6 hours of sleep is enough for good health and high performance. These are, as a rule, students who are energetic, actively overcome difficulties, and do not draw excessive attention to unpleasant experiences. Multi-sleeping students need 9 hours of sleep or more. These are predominantly people with increased emotional sensitivity.

The most common sleep disorders include increased drowsiness (hypersomnia) and such a violation when it seems to the student that he has not slept all night. In this case, the sleep disorder can be of three types: difficulty falling asleep, superficial sleep with frequent awakenings, and early final awakening. Students suffering from sleep disorders usually complain of lack of sleep, but, as objective studies have shown, their sleep duration is not so small and is equal to 5-5.5 hours (normal sleep lasts at least 6.5 hours). It's all about sleep quality.

During daylight hours, a person works, then he needs rest. Sleep is a normal and vital period for every organism. What should it be? How much sleep does a person need to stay healthy? Is it important to go to bed and wake up at the same time?

Healthy sleep - what is it?

Let's start with an interesting fact that scientists have established: people who sleep the same number of hours at night live longer than those who have a change in sleep duration. The same experts drew attention to the fact that lack of sleep contributes to the development of diseases of the cardiovascular system. The body is subject to wear and tear, changes occur even at the level of biochemical reactions. But more on that later.

Let's see what advice experts give to ensure that our sleep becomes healthy.

1. Mode required. In order for sleep to bring maximum benefit and minimum harm, you need to go to bed and get up at the same time. When this regime is violated, our biological clock, biorhythms, gets off. It must be said that even on weekends, the mode of sleep and wakefulness should not change. Let's look at young children who don't care if it's a weekend or a weekday - they get up at about the same time. Let's take an example from them.
2. Sleep duration. Scientists answered the question of how much sleep you need: on average, the sleep period should be 7-8 hours. However, healthy sleep is uninterrupted sleep. It is more useful to sleep soundly for 6 hours than 8 hours with awakenings. Therefore, WHO data on this issue expand the boundaries of healthy sleep: an adult needs to sleep from 6 to 8 hours a day for normal life.
3. Do not lie in bed after waking up. There is a danger of falling asleep again. In addition, the body must get used to the fact that the day begins precisely after waking up at the set time. This will quickly become the norm for you.
4. Avoid exciting environments 1 hour before bedtime. Prepare your body for sleep by eliminating fussy activities, vigorous exercise at least 1 hour before bedtime.
5. Do relaxing treatments before bed. Make it a tradition, especially for those who have trouble falling asleep. Set up your “ceremony” before bed, in which you include what helps you relax. If a person performed active actions and, without calming down, went to bed, he can toss and turn in bed for a long time.
6. Try not to sleep during the day. This can lead to problems falling asleep in the evening.
7. Create a cozy and relaxing environment in your bedroom. It has no space for a TV and a computer. The mattress on the bed, the pillow should provide comfort and meet orthopedic standards. The bed should be associated with sleep, so it’s absolutely impossible to watch TV on it, consume, read. Be sure to ventilate the room before going to bed. Oxygen promotes fast falling asleep and healthy sleep.
8. A good dream indicates a good day. Spend daylight hours actively, do not neglect physical exercises and walks in the fresh air.
9. Avoid eating before bed. The last time it is recommended to eat no later than 2 hours before bedtime. And dinner should not be plentiful.
10. Smoking, drinking coffee, alcohol closer to the time of falling asleep interfere with healthy sleep. Give it up for the sake of your health.

What is the danger of lack of sleep

So, we found out that a person needs to sleep 6-8 hours a day. Now let's see what lack of sleep can lead to - a violation of the duration of sleep. If short sleep enters the system, we are faced with the dangerous phenomenon of chronic sleep deprivation. The habit of many today is a short nap during the week. On weekends, a person allegedly compensates for lack of sleep with sleep until 12-13 pm. Alas, this not only does not make up for what was lost, but also worsens the picture. Doctors gave this phenomenon the name "sleepy bulimia".

Consequences of lack of sleep:

• decreased immunity;
• decreased performance, concentration, memory;
• cardiovascular diseases;
• headache;
• obesity (the body, as if defending itself, is trying to make up for the lack of energy with extra calories);
• in men, due to lack of sleep, testosterone levels decrease by 30% (the belly begins to grow even in thin men, there is a risk of inflammation of the prostate gland);
• increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol;
• depression, insomnia may develop;

The main danger of lack of sleep is a violation of the normal biological rhythms of the body. During the day, each organ and system has its own periods of activity and rest. Chemical reactions occur inside the body, which also depend on biorhythms. Violation of sleep and wakefulness, the duration of rest leads to very serious internal disorders, the cause of which is desynchronosis. Unfortunately, the list of disorders that can result in desynchronosis is not limited to the above.

Until a certain time, a person can cope with lack of sleep by changing his lifestyle by an effort of will. However, over time, chronic lack of sleep can lead to sleep disturbances that he cannot cope with on his own.

What are sleep disorders?

• Insomnia (insomnia) - it is difficult for a person to fall asleep and stay in a state of sleep.
• Hypersomnia is unhealthy sleepiness.
• Parasomnia - sleepwalking, night terrors and nightmares, bedwetting, epileptic seizures at night.
• Situational (psychosomatic) insomnia is insomnia of an emotional nature that lasts less than 3 weeks.
• Presomnic disorders - when a person has difficulty falling asleep.
• Intrasomnia - frequent awakenings;
• Postsomnicheskie disorders - disorders after awakening, fatigue, drowsiness.
• Sleep apnea - slowing down and stopping breathing during sleep (the patient himself may not notice anything)
• Bruxism is a spasm of chewing muscles during sleep - the jaws are compressed, a person grinds his teeth.

Sleep disturbances can lead to diseases of the cardiovascular and endocrine systems, obesity, decreased immunity, irritability and memory loss, muscle pain, convulsions, and tremors.

In case of sleep disorders, it is necessary to contact a neurologist, a psychotherapist.

Is long sleep helpful?

Well, if lack of sleep is so harmful, we think, then you need to sleep for a long time. Sleeping 10-15 hours a day is considered excessive. It turns out that lack of sleep and too much sleep are equally harmful for a person. With an overabundance of the sleep hormone, a person very quickly begins to overwork. It happens that such people say: the more I sleep, the more I want.

This is due to the fact that all the same biological rhythms of the body are upset. As a result, the level of hormones necessary for a healthy life changes. Such people feel lack of strength, laziness and apathy. As with lack of sleep, too much sleep reduces performance, all of which can lead to depression.

Often a person chooses sleep, consciously moving away from important matters, problems and traumatic situations. This further aggravates his condition and relations with loved ones, because these problems do not go anywhere, but only accumulate in a snowball.

Physically, excessive sleep can lead to an increase in migraine attacks, stagnation of blood in the vessels, increased blood pressure, edema, etc.

Conclusion

The norms of sleep time are conditional, because each person has his own time frame for the rest period. Someone needs 6 hours, and some need at least 8. However, we need to know the average indicators in order to build our regimen correctly.

It is also necessary to say that life sometimes puts us in situations in which a person is forced to sleep little. Usually such periods do not last long. After that, it is vital to get enough sleep to restore physical and emotional strength. In such cases, as well as in illness, long sleep is the remedy. However, most often a person himself changes his regimen, deliberately not getting enough sleep or oversleeping, harming his body.

Although the need for sleep in different people varies slightly, this difference is insignificant, and the vast majority of people (from the very young to the very old) need to sleep at least 7-8 hours a day.

Most people who consistently sleep less than 7 hours simply do not realize the damage to the body caused by fatigue and lack of sleep. “Although they think they get enough rest during the night, in reality they just don’t remember what it is like to be well rested,” says Robert Rosenberg, director of the Center for Sleep Disorders, USA.

The amount of sleep a person needs depends on several factors, including age, genetic predisposition, circadian rhythms, and quality of sleep. Generally:

Babies need approximately 16 hours of sleep.
A child from 2 to 5 years old - 11-13 hours.
Teenagers need an average of 9-10 hours of sleep.
Adults need 7-8 hours for the best rest, although for a small number of people this amount can vary from 5 to 10 hours.
Women during pregnancy usually need to sleep a little longer - 8-9 hours.

Adequate sleep is even more important for a child than for an adult. Overwork is one of the causes of health and behavioral problems in children. At school age, sleep deprivation occurs more often in children than at an early age. No wonder 10% of younger students fall asleep in class from time to time! And the older the child, the more likely it is that he is not sleeping enough.

Too much sleep or too little sleep has been found to increase the risk of early death.

An adult needs 7-8 hours of sleep. If you rest 9 hours or more, then the probability of dying in the next 11-17 years doubles. Oddly enough, but most likely the cause of death will not be cardiovascular diseases. Depression, low social status and cardiovascular disease exacerbate the situation. If you sleep 5 hours, then the risk of dying increases by 1.7 times, and the development of cardiovascular diseases - by 2 times.

If you sleep less than 7 hours, then you can:

Increase weight;
develop hypertension.
develop type 2 diabetes.

Little sleep is deadly!
According to research published last year, people who regularly get less than 7 hours of sleep perform just as badly as those who haven't slept for 2-3 days! What's more, these studies suggest that sleep deprivation increases the risk of death by 26% in men and 21% in women.

The cause of death can be both accidents caused by poor coordination and weakening of attention, and deterioration. Other studies have shown that lack of sleep impairs the body's hormonal system, immune system, and metabolism, and thus can lead to obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Lack of sleep can snowball into the previous days. If you deprive yourself of several hours of sleep for several days in a row, a “sleep deficit” appears, which is extremely harmful to the body.

Sleep deprivation can cause:

Memory problems.
Decreased reaction.
Weakened immunity.
Increased sensitivity to pain.
Violation of the vital systems of the body.
Sleep deprivation is especially detrimental to people driving a car. Studies show that coordination in people with a lack of sleep is just as impaired as people under the influence of alcohol. By the way, lack of sleep increases the effect of alcohol on the body. That is, sleep-deprived people get drunk faster and stronger than well-rested people.

Of course, everyone has their own body. And only he knows how much a person needs to sleep. The body itself controls and restores the functions of a person in a dream. Even lethargy and drowsiness in many diseases is a protective form of the body, in which it restores itself in this way. The main thing is to always find time for a rash, but not to stay in bed after waking up.