Do you stay up late on weekends but are in bed by 10pm during the week? It’s no wonder that even if you get enough sleep, you don’t feel well rested. Find out here what happens to your body when you actually go to sleep at the same time every day.
Hardly anyone goes to bed at exactly the same time on a Monday as they do on a Friday evening. If you want to keep your body healthy for a long time, you should do exactly that.
Researchers have found that people who always go to bed and get up at the same time are more productive and successful during the day.
However, some days there is still too little sleep. This can have various reasons. It’s easy to lose track of the time when you’re watching a streaming evening or eating out with friends.
This often results in persistent tiredness, which persists even if you go to bed earlier the next day.
Researchers from Birmingham published a study in which they observed the sleeping habits of 61 Harvard students. The students kept a sleep diary for four weeks.
The result: Those participants with an irregular sleep rhythm had a lower grade average than those who always went to bed at the same time. The students were not only more productive, but also had fewer problems falling asleep and getting up.
The amazing thing about this result is that both groups got about the same number of hours of sleep. Only the bedtimes were different.
The study’s lead author, Andrew J. K. Philips, emphasizes: “Our results suggest that going to bed and waking up at the same time is just as important as the number of hours you sleep.”
Some evenings you find it difficult to fall asleep for seemingly no reason. A possible reason for this could be different bedtimes. If you go to sleep at 10 a.m. one day and don’t go to sleep until after midnight the next day, your internal clock gets out of sync.
If you consistently go to bed at a set time instead, you will help the body’s natural sleep-wake rhythm. In this way, the body knows, regardless of external influences, that it is time to sleep at a certain time. Then it starts producing the sleep hormone melatonin in good time.
You’ll be more productive if you go to bed at the same time every day. You don’t have to be in bed exactly at the same time. It’s just about not having too many fluctuations in your bedtime.
An irregular sleep rhythm disrupts the release of melatonin. But if you always go to sleep at the same time, you ensure a regulated release of sleep hormones and can sleep deeper and more restfully, which in turn leads to more energy in everyday life.
Another study, in which students also kept a sleep diary, found that those who had a regular sleep rhythm were happier.
On the other hand, those who went to bed at very irregular times are more unbalanced and generally unhappy.
So going to bed at the same time leads to better and more restful sleep. Those who sleep better are less stressed.
People with regular bedtimes have been proven to have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. According to the study, people who are genetically susceptible to cardiovascular disease also minimize their risk of having a stroke or heart attack by going to bed at the same time.
Because an irregular sleep rhythm also means that we are more stressed, have higher blood pressure and are generally more susceptible to illness.
The researchers believe that the reason why people with irregular sleeping times have trouble falling asleep is due to a disruption in the secretion of melatonin. Melatonin is the hormone that is supposed to make you sleepy.
In people with irregular sleep patterns, melatonin release occurs up to 2.6 hours later than in those who more or less always went to bed and got up at the same time.
If you always go to bed at the same time, your body can adapt better to sleep and stimulate melatonin production.
The original for this post “Always go to bed at the same time – this is what happens in your body” comes from FitForFun.
