Three Common Myths About Your Sleeping Habits

From MSN Health:
People need to get more sleep! A new study found that the average North American gets only six hours and 40 minutes of sleep each night – an all-time low! So let’s help you get more sleep by busting open three common sleep myths:

• Sleep myth #1: If I have a lot of energy, I can survive on only five hours of sleep a night. FALSE. Just because you feel wide awake, that doesn’t mean your brain is. In fact, new research from the University of Pennsylvania found that sleep deprivation puts your brain into “microsleep” mode. That means it randomly shuts down during the day for at least half a second, leaving you feeling unstable and disoriented! To find out if you’re getting enough sleep, try going to bed on a Saturday at the same time you would on a Tuesday, but don’t set your alarm clock. If you wake up the next day at your normal time, you’re fine. However, if you doze the day away, that means your body needs more rest.


• Another common sleep myth: A hard workout before bed will help me sleep better. That’s also FALSE. Studies show that strenuous exercise raises your core temperature, and it’ll take between four and six hours for your body to cool off enough to allow deep sleep! So save your workout for the morning, when you need energy the most. Then try taking a hot bath an hour before bedtime. Your body will cool down faster, and doctors say it’s easiest to fall asleep when your temperature goes from warm to cool very quickly.


• One more sleep myth: It’s no big deal if I keep waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. FALSE again. Waking up more than once every night could be a sign that you have obstructive sleep apnea. That’s where the soft tissue in your throat temporarily suffocates your breathing during sleep! When that happens, your heart pumps faster, and excess fluid builds up in your veins, triggering a natural diuretic which makes you need to pee. So to help keep your air passage clear, try sleeping on your side more. Otherwise, you’ll need to see a doctor about wearing a special device that forces oxygen into your throat while you sleep.