Healthy sleep is the key to your good health. Proper sleep as an element of a healthy lifestyle

How much sleep does a person need to be productive in life? Healthy sleep is very important, it affects our well-being, mood and performance. But as often happens that tired after a hard day's work, it is not possible to fall asleep for a long time. Tossing and turning in bed until midnight, or even longer, in the morning we get up with a headache and a bad mood. How to return sound healthy sleep into your life if sedatives and sleeping pills do not help?

According to scientists, sleep is a natural oppression of consciousness, a slowdown in metabolism. And this is something more than a rest from everyday worries. It is a vital necessity, as important as air, food and water.

Why do we need to sleep? There are different theories on this.

One of them is recovery. Sleep is rest and maintenance. During sleep, substances are released for the growth and repair of bodies. While we sleep, the immune system strengthens its defenses against harmful microbes. And the brain processes the mass of information received in it during the day, sifting out unnecessary information that would otherwise overload the nervous system.

A healthy night's sleep is an alternation of periods in the GD and without GD. REM - rapid eye movement. 75% of the time is non-GD sleep, the recovery phase. 25% of the time of the night - we see dreams. Periods with GD are more frequent and longer towards the end of the night. Fortunately for others, a sleeping person who sees dreams is practically paralyzed. He cannot actively participate in his dreams.

Scientists have conducted many different studies and came to the following conclusions.

• At night, the brain synthesizes information (not rest, not saving calories). The main thing, according to scientists, is the regeneration of information, understanding the world and the formation of memory.
• With insufficient sleep, 2 times more negative information is remembered. Scientists believe that lack of sleep is directly related to depression.
• During sleep, important hormonal changes occur in the body. Lack of sleep leads to weight gain and obesity.
• Sufficient healthy sleep increases the production of antibodies. When 2 groups of people were vaccinated against viral hepatitis A, one of which slept for a sufficient time, and the other suffered from lack of sleep. It turned out that the vaccine was ineffective in those who suffered from lack of sleep. Sleepy people developed antibodies by 97%.

sleep stages

A sleepy person has an alternation of slow-wave and REM sleep. Moreover, when a person falls asleep, the slow one prevails, closer to awakening - the fast one.

Non-REM sleep is divided into 4 stages.

1. In a normal state, it lasts 5-10 minutes. A drowsiness appears with half-asleep dreams and dream-like hallucinations. At these moments, a person may have ideas for solving some important tasks that he could not solve while awake.
2. Lasts 20 minutes. In this stage, every 2-5 minutes, the perception thresholds, the so-called "sleep spindles", increase. The auditory analyzer is especially sensitive. A sleeper wakes up easily at the mention of his name, or, for example, a mother wakes up when her child begins to cry.
3. Similar to the second stage, all the same signs are present here, including "sleep spindles".
4. Deep dream. It is difficult to wake a person at this stage, he sees dreams. In the phase of deep sleep, bouts of sleepwalking or nightmares are possible. But waking up, a person remembers almost nothing.

Stages 3 and 4 last no more than 30-45 minutes, then the sleeper returns to the second stage again. Slow-wave sleep helps us recover the energy that was expended from the previous day.

REM sleep is the fifth stage. The person is in complete immobility due to a sharp decrease in muscle tone. At this stage, it is difficult to wake the sleeper. Under closed eyelids, the eyeballs make movements (BGD), which indicate that a person is dreaming. If you wake up during this period, then the person will tell you about his vivid dream. In this stage of sleep, all information is processed, its exchange between the subconscious and consciousness.

What keeps us from sleeping?

What makes us fall asleep at night and wake up in the morning? That is, we fall asleep in the dark and wake up in the light.

Human sleep is determined by the hormone melatonin. This is the hormone that regulates the mode of our sleep and rest. The production of this hormone has a certain rhythm. In order for a person to fall asleep, high levels of melatonin are required. In order to wake up, it is necessary to lower the level of this hormone.

It turns out that the production of this hormone is affected by the illumination of the retina. It is very important to understand that the alternation of day and night is necessary for healthy sleep.

It is important not only that a person sleeps in the dark at night, but it is also important that during the day he be in daylight. Short-term exposure to the sun or just in daylight significantly improves brain activity. Therefore, when working indoors, it is necessary to go outside for 10-15 minutes every 2-3 hours.

By the way, melatonin is a precursor of another hormone - serotonin, the hormone of happiness, pleasure. When serotonin is present in sufficient quantities in the blood, the human body experiences a feeling of comfort, happiness, and joy. If there is some kind of imbalance in all these systems, then it can be difficult to return to the reverse human rhythm.

How to increase the level of serotonin, melatonin and tryptophan? These hormones are found in some foods. They are found in figs, cherries, nuts, almonds, cottage cheese, oatmeal.

Causes of poor sleep:

• stress, depression, fear of the dark;
• overexcitement from the news or from drinking a lot of strong coffee or tea;
• a hearty meal before going to bed;
• sedentary lifestyle;
• change of time zones;
• external stimuli (light, noise, snoring, etc.)
• lack of vitamins, especially group B, causes that it prevents you from falling asleep;
• exacerbation of the disease (cough with a cold, choking with bronchial asthma, joint pain with arthritis, etc.);
• side effects of certain drugs;
• violation of sleep rules (uncomfortable bed or pillow, hot or cold, etc.);
• physical activity or intense intellectual activities before bedtime; unhealthy lifestyle, including drinking.

How much sleep do you need?

According to neuroscientists, for good health and performance, a person should sleep an average of 8 hours. None of the scientists said that 5 hours of sleep would be enough.

The circadian cycle is a cycle of chemical, physical, mental processes that occur in the human body during the day. In other words, it is a change of sleep and wakefulness.

Teenagers need more sleep. The circadian cycle in adolescents is so shifted that their bodies require them to go to bed later and wake up later. Therefore, you should not scold your teenage children that they stay up late, and in the morning they sleep almost for lunch. Their circadian cycle is to blame.

Adequate time for sleep helps to increase the cognitive functions of the body. People who sleep correctly and enough have well-developed thinking, understanding, calculation, learning, speech, the ability to reason, and to navigate well in space.

Useful daytime sleep. An after-dinner attack of fatigue is a normal state for our body. If it is possible to relax during the day, then daytime sleep should not exceed 20-30 minutes, a maximum of 1 hour. If you sleep during the day more than this time, then it is difficult to get out of such a dream vigorous. Yes, and at night you will sleep worse later.

What will help for healthy sleep - 10 useful tips

Almost all people sometimes suffer from a sleep disorder - insomnia. This is usually annoying. Insomnia occurs in men and women of all ages. If a person does not sleep normally for 1, 2, 3 days or even more, this can lead to serious health problems.

After one sleepless night, a person becomes irritable, gets tired pretty quickly. 2 sleepless nights - it becomes difficult for you to concentrate and do simple work. 3 or more days without sleep - obsessions and visual hallucinations appear.

How can you fight insomnia? First of all, eliminate the causes that cause you sleep disturbance. You may need to seek help from a psychologist or psychiatrist. Or follow these tips.

1. Drink a glass of warm milk at night, you can add a spoonful of honey to it. Milk contains a special substance - an alpha amino acid - tryptophan. It has a calming effect. The warmer the milk, the stronger the effect.
2. Perhaps during the day you did not go out into the sunlight. Sunlight directly affects the process of sleep. Remember how in the sun, for example, on the beach, you tend to sleep.
3. Move the alarm clock and all kinds of gadgets (phone, tablet) away from the bed. Excessive illumination of gadgets - blue light, this is bad for health and immunity.
4. If you lie and cannot fall asleep for more than 20 minutes, then there is no point in lying further. Do the following. Get out of bed, do something relaxing: read a book, listen to soothing music.
5. Set a clear wake up time, even on weekends. Many of us want to have a good sleep in our free time. This can lead to a disruption in the circadian rhythm, and in the future to bad restless sleep.
6. Take a hot shower or bath before going to bed. This promotes relaxation.
7. Try not to lie down or sit on your bed during the day. If you don't use your bed for more than just sleeping, then you're programming your bed to be a dining or work table and a place to play.
8. Sleep no more than 1 hour during the day. Daytime sleep for more than half an hour has a beneficial effect on nighttime sleep. If you sleep during the day for 3-4 hours, then you will not see a normal night's sleep.
9. The temperature in the room where you sleep is below 15º or above 25º making sleep restless and unbearable. If at home this temperature is constant, then you are threatened with insomnia. Therefore, normalize the temperature in the room.
10. If you lie down and can't sleep, do relaxation exercises. Start mentally relaxing the muscles in your body, starting at the top of your head and ending with your toes. Concentrate on your breathing. Soon you will fall into a trance and physiological sleep.

Doctors usually prescribe sedatives for sleep disorders, but some of these drugs are prescribed only by prescription, their use requires strict adherence to dosages. You can also use folk remedies: tinctures of hawthorn, motherwort, valerian tablets, infusion of lemon balm, pillows with hop cones. Of course, one of these means must be used. If you can't sleep, listen to this magical music and be healthy!

Lack of time - this situation is faced by many people. Most people try to increase the active phase of life by shortening the night's sleep. The idea is simple and seems easy to do - with the help of stimulants (tea, coffee, and so on), you can force yourself to wake up earlier and go to bed later, but later neuroses, chronic fatigue, stress, and so on come.

This option of increasing your own working time is acceptable only for a few days (emergency work) and only for young and healthy people. Everyone else can save on sleep only by increasing its efficiency, that is, making it so that they sleep less, but it is better to rest at the same time.

It's not how much you sleep that matters, but how you do it.

The sleep process is cyclical. Each cycle consists of a phase of non-REM and REM sleep, with a total duration of one and a half hours. At the end of each cycle, there is a period of increased activity of the body.

Waking up at this moment makes it easier to enter the state of wakefulness, as it is accompanied by increased physical tone and a feeling of sleep sufficiency. Thus, it follows from the above the first rule of healthy sleep: the duration of sleep should fit into one and a half hour intervals (1.5 - 3.0 - 4.5 - 6.0 - 7.5 - 9.0 hours and so on).

The most favorable time for going to bed is between 18 and 22 hours. If this time is not used, a period of activity begins and it is much more difficult for a person to fall asleep. Most psychiatrists point to the timely going to bed at the same time (a conditioned reflex is developed). In addition, appropriate hygienic conditions must be created for a good sleep: clean air in the bedroom, a minimum of noise, a flat and fairly hard surface of the bed, and so on. This is the second rule of healthy sleep.

If a person does not strain the skeletal muscles during the day, it will be difficult for him to fall asleep in the evening. Conversely, an active lifestyle promotes rapid natural relaxation and sound, healthy sleep. This is the third rule of healthy sleep. It has been noticed that people of mental labor complain about insomnia much more often than others, with such work the muscles do not get tired, no matter how much you rack your brains over solving any logical problems, and it is known that the muscular apparatus is one of the most important links in the chain of those processes that affect falling asleep . It is also known that good sleep is facilitated by a decrease in body temperature. Physical exercise 4-6 hours before bedtime will warm up our body, and by the time we go to bed, our body temperature will just drop.

As for waking up, it is best to do it between 5 and 6 o'clock in the morning.

4 main rules for healthy sleep

1. The duration of sleep should fit into one and a half hour intervals.

2. For healthy sleep, it is most useful to go to bed and wake up at the same time.

3. During the day, the body must receive appropriate physical activity.

4. In the sleeping room, appropriate hygienic sleeping conditions must be observed.

In view of the fact that sleep contributes to the "compaction" of the field form, the restoration of body tissue structures, it can and should be used for healing purposes. Many studies confirm that with regular lack of sleep, a person develops: fatigue, nervousness, dizziness, lack of appetite. If the problem of normal, healthy sleep is not solved, then more serious chronic problems with internal organs arise.

It was also noticed that if a person switches to a normal sleep pattern, many problems go away by themselves.

Hygiene of good sleep from modern scientists, 15 rules

1. Go to bed on an empty stomach. Eat dinner 3 hours before bed. A full stomach interferes with breathing, the activity of the cardiovascular system and, accordingly, proper rest. This recommendation applies to both children and adults. Especially harmful for good sleep are dishes seasoned with spicy spices - pepper, garlic, and so on.

2. Do not drink drinks containing caffeine - tea, coffee, chocolate, cocoa - a few hours before bedtime. Products containing caffeine can produce a temporary stimulating effect on a person, but at the same time blood pressure necessarily rises, the heart rhythm is disturbed, the person becomes more nervous and irritable. After the use of products containing caffeine, the quality of sleep worsens, more frequent nighttime awakenings are observed, sleep becomes more superficial and less beneficial for the body.

3. The bed should not be too soft - then the muscles do not relax, but not too hard - then there is a strong pressure on the skeleton and muscles. Don't put a pillow under your shoulders, don't let your head hang off the pillow. Do not put your hands under your head - this impairs blood circulation in them. These are important rules for good sleep hygiene.

4. For faster falling asleep and good sleep efficiency, you need to feel the relaxation of the muscles. A relaxed muscle is characterized by the following properties: warm, filled with blood, heavy. In this matter, autogenic training helps a lot, the basic techniques of which can be mastered by every person.

5. Be sure to ventilate the room in which you sleep - a long nap in a stuffy room is less beneficial than a short nap in a room with fresh air. On this point, sleep hygiene coincides with the rules for sports activities.

6. If possible, avoid working late, this habit worsens the night's sleep and, accordingly, the quality of life the next day. If you worked late in the evening today and managed to do something, then this does not mean that you have increased your productivity, because tomorrow you will be lethargic and will not be able to perform your duties effectively. Scientists have long proven that night work and brainstorming do not increase labor efficiency, but rather greatly reduce it.

7. For a good night's sleep, it is necessary that the light be turned off in the bedroom, do not try to accustom yourself to sleep with lighting - this will only make sleep more superficial, such a dream will not allow the body to rest.

8. For a good sleep, you also need to learn how to wake up. Waking up in the morning, do not jump out of bed, but slowly get up after sipping - all this should be done with pleasure and without haste.

9. A very important rule of sleep hygiene is the condition of the bed. Sleeping on a soft bed will not give you a good rest, and sleeping on a very hard bed can lead to pain in the spine in the morning. The mattress should not be too soft so that the back does not bend under its own weight, but also not too hard so that the spine can maintain natural curves. Sleeping on such a mattress will be a joy for both adults and children. Some consider hair mattresses or those made from seagrass to be optimal, but latex mattresses, covered with wool or horsehair, are suitable for everyone without exception.

10. Pillow for a healthy sleep should be small and firm enough. Sleeping on large down pillows will not allow the body and mind to rest, as cerebral circulation is disturbed.

11. Reading before bed will help most people fall asleep more soundly and quickly. Keep only in this case the only rule - read the calm classics, and not modern fantasy and novels about ghouls.

12. During sleep, the body should be in a horizontal position. You should not sleep on your left side - this worsens the work of the heart, and the left lung functions worse. The body suffers from oxygen starvation. The optimal situation is to sleep on your back and on your right side. It is strictly forbidden to sleep on your stomach. It is very difficult to breathe and supply the body with oxygen.

13. A wise aphorism is known: "A calm conscience is the best sleeping pill." About 1 hour before bedtime, analyze the entire past day and draw conclusions about where you did the right thing and where you didn’t, you need to finish such an analysis about 1-1.5 hours before bedtime. Treat past experience as learning material. Also, to relax the nervous system, you can develop a personal ritual of preparing for sleep. The ritual can consist of a variety of actions (light exercise, reading a book, music, some kind of hobby, and so on), their main task is to distract a person from work worries, thereby preparing for sleep.

14. Immediately before falling asleep, it is necessary to bring the psyche into a passive state, for which it is necessary to look (with closed eyes) towards the legs.

15. Do not try to force yourself to sleep, if you can’t fall asleep, but you need to sleep, then do quiet household chores, listen to music, read a book. If your body really needs sleep, then you will definitely fall asleep only after a while.

How to worsen your own sleep - 12 habits that you need to urgently get rid of

In this section, we will give bad advice that should be avoided by anyone who decides to improve their own sleep.

1. Before going to bed, remember all the grievances and troubles that happened to you during the day - you got nasty in public transport, your boss looked askance, there is a crisis in the country, the dollar exchange rate fluctuates, and so on.

2. Imagine your main human enemy before going to bed and quarrel with him one more time.

3. Tell yourself that you are not doing well on the sexual front. For many men and women, insomnia is often associated with dissatisfaction with intimate life.

4. Become a workaholic. Stay up late at the office, take unfinished work home, before going to bed scroll through tomorrow's work day.

5. Poorly washed off cosmetics in the evening can cause insomnia in women.

6. In the evening, eat a lot of spicy, meat dishes.

7. Drink a cup of aromatic coffee or tea at night - enjoy for 5 minutes, and then stay awake for half the night.

8. Trying to relieve daytime stress with the help of alcohol, a person himself runs away from healthy sleep.

9. Watch a horror movie or crime news program at night.

10. Listen to active dance music before going to bed.

11. To fall asleep faster, hide with your head under the covers - this causes oxygen starvation and impairs the functioning of all internal organs and systems.

12. Active wellness procedures (hardening, fitness) are also undesirable before bedtime.

How to start improving sleep quality

1. To identify and eliminate the causes that prevent the body from resting at night, for this you need to carefully study the 12 points above, which characterize the main ways of worsening your own sleep. Often, after such a manipulation with a lifestyle, sufficient positive results are already visible. If these results are not enough, then you need to move on to the next paragraph.

2. Start gradually, point by point, to implement the recommendations set out in the paragraph "Good sleep hygiene from modern scientists, 15 rules." The sequence of applying the recommendations should be individual, someone needs to start from point number 2, and for someone salvation is point number 7.

It will not be possible to feel the beneficial effect of "correct sleep" immediately, it takes 3-4 weeks to rebuild the body, let the body adapt to the good, and then you will reap the benefits of change.

Additional articles with useful information

Human sleep - what an ordinary person needs to know

For most people, sleep is a vital necessity that few people pay attention to. This can be done, but only at a young age, when the body works stably. Over time, problems accumulate and good sleep can help the body fight them, while bad sleep will only make it worse.

Features of sleep in children

The best way to achieve understanding between adults and children is to take into account the peculiarities of the psychology and physiology of the child. It is necessary to pay attention to many nuances, one of them, which many people ignore, is children's sleep.

Karpova Valeria

This work includes theoretical and research parts. All studies were carried out on students of the gymnasium together with psychologists. The work contains specific tips and recommendations for improving the quality of sleep.

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INTRODUCTION

Annotation.

Despite many years of research and the efforts of thousands of scientists to unravel the mysteries of sleep, sleep is still a phenomenon so mysterious that directly opposite, mutually exclusive conclusions are sometimes made about it. It is still not fully understood why a person has dreams, what processes occur during sleep, why is it so necessary for the body?

Relevance.

Often we wake up in the morning in a broken, sometimes inoperable state and feel tired all day long. This kind of chronic lack of sleep negatively affects our performance and health. And I wonder how to correctly calculate your daily routine in order to get enough sleep, feel vigorous and healthy, and maintain your performance at a high level? We decided to study the sleep and wakefulness schedules of students in grades 9-11 to study the mechanisms of the effect of sleep on the performance and health of students.

Target.

• Find out why sleep is essential for human health;
• To reveal on what sleep factors the state of a person after waking up depends, what should be the duration and quality of sleep for the normal functioning of the body.
• To study the effect of sleep duration on the performance and health of students in grades 9-11.

The object and the property being studied.

Family members: their sleep and physiological state.

Pupils of grades 9-11: their performance and health.

Tasks.

• Study theoretical material on the topic;
• Conduct surveys and research;
• Process the results;
• Draw conclusions, make recommendations;
• Display conclusions in the form of graphs, tables and diagrams;

Hypotheses.

• Lack of sleep negatively affects both the physical and mental state of the student.
• It is necessary to live in accordance with biological rhythms.

THEORETICAL PART. THE NATURE OF SLEEP.

Sleep is a periodic physiological state of the human body and higher animals, outwardly characterized by significant immobility from stimuli of the outside world. According to modern scientific data, sleep is a diffuse inhibition of the cerebral cortex, which occurs as the nerve cells spend their bioenergetic potential during the period of wakefulness and reduce their excitability. The spread of inhibition to the deeper parts of the brain - the midbrain, subcortical formations - causes a deepening of sleep. At the same time, in a state of inhibition, partially functional rest, nerve cells not only fully restore their bioenergetic level, but also exchange information necessary for the upcoming activity. By the time of awakening, if the sleep was full enough, they are again ready for active work.

Sleep is a vital need of the body, no less important than food. Physiologists have experimentally proven that, for example, a dog can live without food for about a month. If you deprive her of sleep, she dies in 10-12 days. A person who finds himself in exceptional conditions can starve for about two months, and without sleep he will not live more than two weeks.

More recently, sleep was thought of as a simple rest of the brain after a daytime period of hard work, inhibition of its activity. But the situation changed radically when in 1953 the first results of research by two scientists from the University of Chicago, E. Azerinsky and N. Kleitman, were published. Conducting continuous observations of a person during his sleep, including electroencephalography, recording the movement of the eyeballs, the state of muscle tone, etc., they found that two phases of sleep alternate during the night, which they designated as slow and fast sleep.

PHYSIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF SLEEP

Sleep is extremely important for our body. During it, many vital processes take place. Consider the main functions of sleep.

Sleep plays an important role in metabolic processes. During non-REM sleep, growth hormone is released. During REM sleep, the plasticity of neurons is restored and they are enriched with oxygen, the biosynthesis of proteins and RNA of neurons.

Antibodies that fight infection are produced during sleep in large quantities. When we rest, the body can focus on repair processes, which is why the best prescription during illness is to get enough sleep.

Sleep contributes to the processing and storage of information. Sleep (especially slow sleep) facilitates the consolidation of the studied material, REM sleep implements subconscious models of expected events. The latter circumstance can serve as one of the reasons for the deja vu phenomenon.

Sleep helps replenish our energy levels, thus increasing and maintaining overall levels of alertness and alertness. Getting enough sleep has also been linked to a reduced risk of chronic diseases, including heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

At night, a person's hair and nails grow.

It is also important that during sleep, a hormone such as melatonin is produced in the body. Melatonin is synthesized from serotonin in the pineal gland. The secretion of melatonin is subject to the daily rhythm. The synthesis and secretion of melatonin depend on illumination - an excess of light inhibits its formation, and a decrease in illumination increases the synthesis and secretion of the hormone. In humans, 70% of the daily production of melatonin occurs at night.

Melatonin is able to quickly restore vitality. Promotes rejuvenation, protects cells from carcinogens, radiation, herbicides and pesticides, helps fight tumors, slows down the aging process, strengthens the immune system, helps to cope with stress, increases the ability to experience joy, pleasure, reduces the amount of cholesterol in the blood, lowers blood pressure, helps cope with cardiac arrhythmia, reduces the risk of osteoporosis.

The later a person goes to bed, the less melatonin is produced. Accordingly, he does not receive what should have been replenished and formed in his body during sleep. This inevitably leads to a weakening of the body, a decrease in efficiency, and a deterioration in well-being.

Sleep (whether we like it or not) is a vital necessity. It has a magical property to prolong life, increase efficiency, treat diseases. Saving time through sleep will never pay off.

Lack of sleep

Nowadays, many people suffer from lack of sleep. Either they don't get enough sleep, or the quality of sleep isn't good enough to feel fresh and well-rested when they wake up. Some other reasons also play a role. Consider what lack of sleep can lead to and how it can affect our body.

Sleep deprivation threatens first with emotional disorders: irritability, apathy, rapid transitions from euphoria to depression and back, and then visual and auditory disorders (hallucinations!), Pain in the legs and arms, increased sensitivity to pain. It can be difficult for a person who has been without sleep for a very long time to choose the right word in a conversation, to complete a sentence when answering a question. He forgets recent events.

"Insomnia" mental activity is disturbed, they cannot concentrate on the simplest things (for example, they cannot arrange letters in alphabetical order). Plus, hallucinations begin, visual ability drops sharply. There may be a feeling of a tight bandage on the head. By the fourth day of severe lack of sleep, hallucinatory paranoia, even schizophrenia, a terribly hypertrophied perception of reality, and a sharp deterioration in motor ability are added.

Previous studies have focused on the effects of brief sleep deprivation. Now, doctors are studying the effects of regular sleep deprivation. They found that a week-long lack of sleep for 3-4 hours a night negatively affects even young and healthy people: their body digests and absorbs carbohydrates worse and tolerates stress conditions worse. They develop hormonal abnormalities, and the immune system is weakened.

Lack of sleep, among other things, leads to a violation of blood sugar control and a decrease in the level of leptin, a hormone that suppresses appetite. That is why those who work at night are very often reinforced, without any obvious need, and with as many high-calorie foods as possible. These changes can contribute to weight gain and increase the risk of developing diabetes.

Moreover, insufficient sleep facilitates the development of the inflammatory process in the body in various organs and tissues. This is explained by the fact that at night, during sleep, corticosteroid hormones are produced in the human adrenal glands, which have an anti-inflammatory effect. Their maximum concentration occurs in the morning and the first half of the day. If morning never comes on the biological clock of the body, it means that the production of hormones is modified under new conditions, remaining equally low.

Systematic lack of sleep causes changes in metabolism and endocrine function, similar to the effect of aging. Sleep deprivation drastically impairs the ability to absorb glucose, causing blood levels to rise, causing the body to produce more insulin, which can lead to increased insulin resistance, a typical symptom of type 2 diabetes. Excess insulin also promotes fat storage, increasing the risk of obesity and hypertension.

With constant lack of sleep in the afternoon and evening, the level of the stress hormone cortisol in the blood rises, which is also typical of human aging and is associated with an increase in insulin resistance and memory impairment.

Scientists argue that constantly sleep-deprived people do not “catch up” on lost hours of sleep by sleeping on weekends. Saving time for sleep, you can’t do more: a sleepy person does everything more slowly.

Sleep deprivation can occur for several reasons:

1. Insufficient sleep duration.

1. Insufficient quality of sleep.
2. Mismatch of body biorhythms with natural rhythms.

Let's take a closer look at these reasons.

SLEEP DURATION

The duration of sleep is individual for each organism: someone needs 5 hours of sleep, and some do not feel cheerful even after 9 hours of sleep. However, studies have been repeatedly conducted to identify the average optimal sleep duration for the average person.

From 1988 to 1999, with government support, Japanese researchers monitored the lives of 110,000 people in 45 regions of the country for this purpose. It took more than ten years to analyze the results and develop a methodology designed to isolate only the effect of sleep on life expectancy without taking into account other factors such as stress, illness, etc.

Japanese researchers claim to have recorded the lowest mortality rate in the group, daily giving sleep 6.5 - 7.5 hours. For those who slept less than 4.5 hours a day, life on average was reduced by about 1.6 times. Researchers say that it is even more harmful to sleep too long. In the group who spent more than 9.5 hours of sleep a day, mortality was 1.7 - 1.9 times higher than in those who slept the coveted seven hours.

Studies have also been conducted on the need for daytime sleep. It turns out that in order to improve your memory, you can not use various medications intended for this, it is enough just to sleep well during the day. The benefits of daytime sleep have been talked about for a very long time, but usually daytime sleep has always been recommended only for children, and this is not entirely correct. An adult who allocates about an hour and a half for daytime sleep brings great benefits to himself. The fact that sleeping during the day is good for memory has been proven by scientists from Israel. An experiment was conducted in which the participants were divided into two groups. These people were given the task to study certain information over a certain period of time. One group of subjects slept during the day, while the other was awake during the day. It turned out that those people who slept during the day remembered the necessary information much better.

History knows some cases of abnormal sleep duration. For information, see Appendix No. 1.

SLEEP QUALITY

Of course, not only the amount of sleep, but also its quality affects the sleepiness and well-being of a person. Sometimes you can oversleep for a long time, but still wake up in a broken and sleepy state.

The quality of sleep depends primarily on the atmosphere in the room. You need to follow some rules of sleep hygiene to improve its quality.

• First of all, the room should be quiet. It is necessary to get rid of extraneous sounds, if possible, turn off music, radio, TV, etc.
• The room should be neither cold nor hot. It is recommended to ventilate the room before going to bed. Fresh cool air promotes fast falling asleep.
• It is desirable that bright light does not penetrate the room. The atmosphere of absolute darkness favorably affects sleep. Therefore, people suffering from insomnia are advised to sleep on dark bedding.
• The bed is important: it should be comfortable, spacious, not too soft and not too hard. The blanket should not be too warm.
• Clothing is desirable loose, so that it "breathes" and does not constrain the body.

For quality sleep, the state of the body before going to bed is also important.

• On a full stomach, for example, it can be difficult to fall asleep, and during sleep, food is poorly digested, which can cause discomfort and unwanted reactions in the body. It is also not recommended to take alcoholic beverages and foods containing caffeine before bedtime.
• If you go to bed after a long work at the computer, as well as after watching an action-packed movie or reading an exciting book, then sleep is unlikely to contribute to a good rest. Firstly, the body is in an active overexcited state, in which it is difficult to fall asleep, and secondly, there is a lot of redundant information in the mind, which can negatively affect the content of dreams and the depth of sleep in general. Also, after working on the computer, it is not recommended to immediately go to bed, as the eyes will close in an overstrained state and will not be able to recover overnight. It is advisable to wait about half an hour, when the tension is removed from the eyes, and only then fall asleep.
• Before going to bed, a short walk is also recommended, relaxing the body and preparing it for sleep.
• It is not recommended to do physical exercises before going to bed (at least 2-3 hours in advance), because. it also leads to a "shake" of the body, which can prevent him from falling asleep.

Following these simple rules will ensure you a healthy and full sleep.

BIORHYTHMS AND SLEEP AND WAKE MODE

One of the reasons for lack of sleep is the mismatch of the body's biorhythms with natural rhythms. In this section, we will take a closer look at how our body is rhythmically connected with nature and what biorhythms need to be matched and why.

The human body is inextricably linked with nature. All processes in it obey strictly defined rhythms, called biorhythms, which are consistent with solar, space activity, light, temperature conditions and some other environmental factors.

It is known that human body temperature directly depends on the time of day: it is maximum at 16-18 hours and minimum at 2-4 hours. With an increase in temperature in the body, catabolic processes are activated, the mixing of the cytoplasm in the cell becomes more pronounced, and the activity of enzymes is more active. At this time of day, energy is released from the body and external or internal work is performed. With a decrease in temperature, physical activity also decreases: protoplasm thickens in the cells, as a result of which they pass into an inactive state. Now they are implementing a program of restoration, energy accumulation. Therefore, you should try to distribute your time in such a way that during a decrease in temperature the body rests, and during an increase it does work.

Why do we consider temperature fluctuations during the day? Because it greatly affects the duration of human sleep. If the subject's bedtime coincides with the minimum temperature, sleep does not last long - up to 8 hours. On the contrary, if a person goes to bed with a high temperature, the duration of sleep can reach 14 hours. People with a normal 24-hour wake-up-night cycle usually fall asleep when their body temperature begins to drop and wake up when it rises. Undoubtedly, the circadian rhythm of body temperature affects the duration of sleep, but most people do not feel this effect, as they live according to a rigid daily routine.

Thus, the main driver and synchronizer of the body's biorhythms is the change of day and night.

How is the connection between the activity of the organism and the light regime carried out? The mechanism of such regulation is as follows. Light through the retina irritates the nerve endings, excites the median structures of the brain (hypothalamus), then acts on the pineal gland - the pituitary gland, which, in turn, sends a signal of readiness to the adrenal cortex, pancreas, thyroid and gonads. Hormones enter the blood - adrenaline, norepinephrine, thyroxine, testosterone. They appropriately irritate the nerve endings embedded in the vessels, muscles, cells. From here, the system of neurohormonal mechanisms receives feedback signals about the state and work of various organs. As a result, the cells and tissues of the whole organism are covered by the circadian rhythm, and the body itself acts as a single complex formation regulated by the central nervous system.

As we can see, the reactions and processes occurring in our body strictly depend on natural biorhythms. But how does the state of our body change depending on the time of day?

According to G.P. Malakhov, the day is divided into 6 periods of 4 hours, each of which has its own characteristics.

1). 6-10 am. In life, this period is reflected in peace and heaviness. If you wake up during this period, the feeling of heaviness and inertia will remain for the whole day. This is the best time to eat your first meal.

2). The period from 10 am to 2 pm is characterized as the most energetic. During this period, the processes of digestion are activated. This period is most favorable for taking large amounts of food and processing it.

3). In the period from 14 to 18 hours, the highest performance, motor activity is manifested. This is the most favorable time for physical activity, sports, which will also contribute to the final phases of digestion and body cleansing.

4). In the period from 18 to 22 hours after the previous turbulent period, deceleration occurs. The body naturally enters a phase of recovery and accumulation. The end of this period is most favorable for going to bed.

5) From 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., an energy period begins with a minus sign. Thought processes contribute to the emergence of the finest intuitive guesses and insights. The body is recovering. Also during this period, non-sleepers may wake up appetite. Therefore, without need, it is better not to wait for this period, but to go to bed on time.

6). The period from 2 to 6 o'clock for a waking person is the most difficult time, exhausting the body. If you get up at the end of this period, then lightness and freshness will remain in the body for the whole day.

From here - for the correct inclusion in the daily rhythm, get up between 5 and 6 o'clock in the morning. Popular wisdom correctly says: “... the most valuable is sleep until midnight. Two hours of good sleep before twelve is worth more than four hours of sleep after.”

So, we figured out at what time of the day it is most useful to go to bed and wake up, but it is not clear yet what time is best to work. We will consider this issue in the next section.

PERFORMANCE VARIATION DURING THE DAY

Scientists have found that the maximum efficiency is observed from 10 to 12 hours, then its level drops slightly and from 16 to 18 hours again slightly increases. At the same time, the maximum of individual functional indicators is noted both in the morning and in the evening. So, in the morning, muscle strength is less than in the evening, from 16 to 19 hours, many athletes have better results in long jumps, shot put, and 100 meters.

However, it has been noted that such changes in working capacity are typical only for a part of people. About 30-35% have maximum performance only in the evening hours, 15% in the morning, and 45-50% have the same level of performance throughout the working day. These groups of people are conditionally called "owls", "larks" and "doves".

Scientists have been dividing people into types according to their working capacity since the time of Aristotle and Theophrastus. In their book “The Rhythms of Life”, V.A. Doskin and N.A. Lavrentyeva give a classification developed by the German scientist Lampert. In one group, Lampert united people with a slow and weak reaction, calm and reasonable, partly inert, who are in no hurry to draw conclusions and try to substantiate them well. Among them are many pedants and taxonomists. They are prone to logic, mathematics, generalizations. These are people of duty. They prefer to work in the evenings; during illness, their temperature rises gradually, they recover slowly. These were Caesar, Charles XII, Quantum, Schopenhauer, Balzac, Mozart, Mendeleev.

The second group included people who strongly and quickly react to certain influences. They are enthusiasts, creators of new ideas. In science, they open up new paths, leaving the development of details to the first group. Their temperature jumps and falls, dictating drastic changes in their general condition. They like to work in the morning, get tired quickly, but also quickly recuperate. Such people are prone to Graves' disease, rheumatism, gout, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and are usually very sensitive to changes in the weather.

Leo Tolstoy devoted his morning hours to work. Napoleon was always on his feet at sunrise.

However, not always the lifestyle of "owls" and "larks" can be called healthy. "Owls" lead an unnatural way of life, which destroys the consistency of the rhythm of cells with illumination during the day. Solar energy through an increase in body temperature, the formation of vitamins (for example, vitamin "D" is formed when the body is illuminated), ionization of body fluids and other factors enhances biochemical reactions, which leads to an increase in body activity. In the dark, this natural recharge is absent, besides, at night the body cools down, and most enzymes are optimally active at a temperature of 37-38 ° C. A decrease in body temperature significantly reduces their activity, vessels spasm. Only these two factors worsen the digestion of food taken at night or at night, as well as the removal from the body of the metabolic product. As a result of such a vicious lifestyle, a strong slagging of the body occurs. In addition, a person must expend his own additional efforts to “push through” the unnatural rhythm of wakefulness. This wears out the body prematurely to a large extent.

"Owls" use the night hours for this or that creative work, because. Indeed, at 24 - 1 o'clock in the morning one of the peaks of our performance falls. But it is an unnatural activity, and in the following days, such people have a sharp decrease in working capacity. Such disturbances in the natural rhythm of sleep lead to coronary heart disease, hypertension, chronic fatigue, etc. People who live contrary to the natural biorhythm accelerate the aging process.

Being a lark isn't always helpful either. In addition to being more susceptible to certain types of diseases, as well as stress and anxiety, they also wear out their body prematurely. Getting up very early to go to work or do exercises, a person does not benefit his health. On the contrary, it rather increases the risk of heart and vascular diseases.

Therefore, the “dove” mode is most favorable for the body. Thus, it lives in accordance with the light regime, gives a full rest to its organs. It is easier for him to establish a daily routine, to adapt to the regime of workload.

But it is best to listen to your body and feel which mode is closest to it. Each person has their own schedule for changing performance, which is not difficult to determine. Perhaps we force ourselves to live in an unnatural mode, to work during the hours of decline in working capacity and rest when it is at its maximum level. If you set your biological clock in the right way, comply with a strictly established regime and live in harmony with your own organisms, then it will serve us for many years, retaining its capacity and health.

Thus, we see that sleep is essential for the normal functioning and health of the body. In addition, it is necessary that sleep is long, of high quality and consistent with natural biorhythms. Lack of sleep can lead to undesirable consequences, cause serious disorders in the body and provoke serious illnesses. Therefore, in order to maintain health and well-being for many years, you need to get enough sleep.

PRACTICAL PART

The practical part of my research consisted of several stages.

• Measurement of body temperature;
• Questioning;

We used these methods in order, firstly, to confirm the theoretical data obtained and test them in practice, and secondly, to reveal our own statistics on the effect of sleep on the performance and health of students, graphs of student performance fluctuations during the day, etc. .P.

Let us describe the results of these studies.

DEPENDENCE OF HUMAN BIORHYTHMS

FROM NATURAL RHYTHMS

In the theoretical part, the problem of the connection between human biorhythms and the rhythms of the change of day and night has already been covered. We decided to practically confirm these data.

It is known that one of the main regulators of going to sleep is body temperature. Experimentally, we have already proved that when the body temperature drops, we tend to sleep, and when it rises, the body is especially active. Therefore, we decided to investigate how the temperature of the human body changes during the day, whether its fluctuations are subject to any specific rhythms.

We measured the body temperature of 8 people during the day and recorded the results. The conditions were approximately the same, the body was at rest (that is, there was no strong physical exertion, exposure to frost, etc.). As a result, an average graph of body temperature fluctuations depending on the time of day was constructed. (Appendix No. 2).

Analyzing this graph, we can say the following: the rhythm of fluctuations in human body temperature depends on the time of day. The temperature is maximum at 16-18 hours, a slightly smaller peak occurs at 10-12 hours. And at 2-4 hours, the body temperature drops rapidly, regardless of whether a person is sleeping or awake. In the rest of the hours, it almost evenly increases or decreases.

Thus, we see that the temperature of our body is closely related to the change of day and night. Nature has laid down that we sleep at night and work during the day. If you live in discordance with these rhythms, then sleep disturbances may appear: for example, if you go to bed when the temperature is maximum, you can sleep for 14 hours and still not get enough sleep. We have also confirmed this statement in practice.

As a result, we conclude that it is necessary to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day, because. our biorhythms are tuned to this mode.

In conclusion about biorhythms, I want to add that the recommendations I found about the best time to wake up between 5 and 6 in the morning are very useful. I tried to switch to the regimen proposed by G.P. Malakhov (that is, go to bed at 21-22 o'clock, and get up at 5-6 o'clock, see the theoretical part). And I was really convinced of the rationality of this schedule, because. now I really feel that I get enough sleep, I wake up cheerful and in a good mood. Unfortunately, not everyone has the opportunity to live according to such a regime because of the strict daily routine, and for others it will not work at all. However, this experience of mine played a very important role for me personally.

This concludes my research on how to sleep properly in order to always get enough sleep and feel good. Now I would like to turn to the problem of lack of sleep in our gymnasium.

QUESTIONNAIRE AND TESTING

Due to the fact that the problem of disturbed sleep and wakefulness, lack of sleep, inconsistency with biorhythms is especially common among students, we decided to investigate how much time do students in grades 9-11 of our gymnasium devote to sleep? Do they sleep? What type of activity do they belong to ("owls", "doves" or "larks"), do they suffer from sleep disturbances, do they observe sleep hygiene, do they dream? In parallel, we decided to link these factors with the performance of students, their diet, sports activities, way of spending free time and health status.

The students were offered a questionnaire (see Appendix No. 3). During the analysis of the questionnaire, we obtained the following results.

Section 1. Sleep. In our school, almost 80% of students do not get enough sleep, moreover, a quarter of them have chronic sleep deprivation. The duration of sleep of students with an increase in class and loads decreases. The number of students who sleep less than 7 hours is increasing, and the number of those who sleep more than 7 hours is decreasing. So, on average, 10th graders sleep better than 11th graders, but worse than 9th graders. (See Appendix No. 4).

The number of hours a student needs to sleep is the same regardless of age. It ranges from 6 to 10 hours, but most of it is 7-8 hours. However, the difference between the time the student takes to sleep and the time he needs to sleep increases.

By the 11th grade, the percentage of those who want to sleep in class increases. Only ninth graders can say that they don't want to sleep in class because they get enough sleep. There are also those who answer that they want to sleep because the lesson is boring.

Pupils go to bed late, mainly for 2 reasons: either they do their homework and study, or they relax - read books, watch TV, sit at the computer. The number of those who go to bed late for these reasons is correlated as 1:1.

By the 11th grade, the number of students who skip school or other classes increases dramatically because they need to sleep off. While in the ninth grade such units. This suggests that the guys have severe disturbances in the schedule of sleep and wakefulness. Therefore, during the holidays, they often sleep more than 12 hours a day to make up for lost hours of sleep.

But in 11th grade there are no problems with insomnia: almost everyone falls asleep immediately, because they go to bed only when they have done all their business (and there are a lot of them in 11th grade) or when they bring themselves to exhaustion. And only those who go to bed according to the schedule or just when they want, sometimes cannot fall asleep for more than 15 minutes. But in the 9th grade, many students cannot fall asleep for more than 15 minutes, and sometimes even half an hour. They explain this by their psychological state: unrest, stress, overexcitation, overexertion. Among the reasons, there are also options “no fatigue”, “inconvenience (bed, temperature in the room, sounds, light)”, and “drank coffee”.

Many students noted that in their lives there were cases of sleepwalking and talking in a dream, but they are irregular or left far in the past.

About a third of students, regardless of age, noted that they sleep restlessly at night and sometimes wake up, despite the fact that they observe sleep hygiene. Almost everyone sleeps in loose clothing, in a dark, airy room on a comfortable bed with clean linens.

There is a clear relationship between the quality of sleep and bad habits. Those who drink alcohol at night or smoke often wake up at night and none of them get enough sleep.

Some students use energy drinks such as cola, coffee, citramone, adrenaline. They noted that cola and ground coffee are especially invigorating. There is not a single student in the school who has ever taken sleeping pills.

The level of lack of sleep among students is different: some feel only slight fatigue during the day, others are overcome by drowsiness at inopportune hours, and some note that they suffer greatly from lack of sleep, they always try to seize a minute to take a nap, and fall asleep even when it is impossible, for example , on lessons. In this case, lack of sleep is acute and has a very negative effect on the state of the body. However, there are not very many such students (13 people, 9 of whom are in grade 11). 70% of students noted that when they start reading, after a while their lines begin to float and they fall asleep. And almost all students agree that interesting work can suppress the desire to sleep.

Thus, we can conclude that lack of sleep is a rather urgent problem in our gymnasium. Because of this, students want to sleep in class, and some feel very bad. Sleep deprivation is also associated with reduced performance and reduced sleep quality. However, many try to practice good sleep hygiene and conform to a consistent sleep-wake schedule.

Section 2. "Owls" and "larks".In this section, we tried to find out which type of activity the student belongs to. It turned out that there are very few pronounced types, and in many cases there is a discrepancy between what type is laid down in the body by nature, and what type one has to correspond to during life.

Most students note that they use the alarm clock regularly, wake up reluctantly and not immediately, feel overwhelmed for half an hour, and often for several hours. A lot of people tend to go to bed late and wake up late, thereby gravitating towards "owls". However, other explanations can be found for this: many students are disorganized, put everything off until later, and are often late. This forces them to exercise until late at night and automatically switch to night owl mode, even if they are early risers by nature.

We calculated how many people correspond to which rhythm. For clarity, diagrams were compiled (See Appendix No. 5). As it turned out, the vast majority of students are “pigeons”. There is a clear increase in the number of "owls" by the 11th grade, most likely, this depends on the fact that high school students are switching to a nocturnal lifestyle due to increased workload. Also, by the 11th grade, the number of larks increases: as they note, in the evening they already have so little strength to do anything that they leave important work for the morning.

As a conclusion to this section, we can say that the ability to organize your working day has a strong effect on sleep and wakefulness. Those students who knock down their biorhythms feel bad; their performance decreases.

Section 3. Performance.This section explored the impact of sleep deprivation on student performance and assessed their overall performance.

It is quite clearly noticeable that performance decreases due to lack of sleep, however, in different people in different ways. Some will simply lose their mood and lose interest in work, and some will not be able to do anything at all.

Those who belong to the "lark" or "owl" type of activity note that their performance depends more on what time of day it is. And the "pigeons" claim that their performance depends on how long and how long they slept.

The performance of students is different: some can work under any conditions, completely ignoring external stimuli, while others need an atmosphere of absolute silence for fruitful work. However, it has been observed that most students still tend to be distracted. They can be distracted by light, music, conversations, extraneous noises, a feeling of satiety, and especially people, their own thoughts and hunger. Despite this, the vast majority of students, while doing their homework, watch TV, listen to music, talk on the phone, sit at the computer and eat at the same time. It is not surprising that they do little during the day and the main work remains at night.

Those units that do their homework in absolute silence, oddly enough, have increased academic performance and get enough sleep. This way of organizing your working day is worthy of praise.

Some students note that they prefer to sleep during the day and in the evening, as there is a lot of turmoil at home, distractions that make it impossible to concentrate. But at night, when everyone is sleeping and nothing interferes, they can fully work. However, as we have already found out, staying awake at night is not good for the body. Indeed, in addition to the fact that these students sleep 7 hours during the day, they still very much want to sleep in the morning, which is physiologically quite understandable and natural. Such students are strongly advised not to break the natural schedule and switch back to daytime wakefulness and nighttime sleep, and during the day try to create around themselves the atmosphere that is necessary for fruitful work. Let for this it will be necessary to give up excessive pastime at the computer and TV or communication with others, but the work will be fruitful, and the body will not suffer due to interruptions in biorhythms and lack of sleep.

As a conclusion to this section, we note that students need to be less distracted and take a more serious approach to doing this or that work. For fruitful activity, it is necessary to organize an appropriate calm environment around yourself during the day, and at night to rest from daytime activities. This is the most beneficial mode of functioning for the body, which should not be neglected.

Section 4. Motor activity.One of the factors that affects both fatigue and sleep quality of students is motor activity. After analyzing how much time students devote to sports activities, we made a diagram. (See Appendix No. 6). Oddly enough, in the 9th grade, students go in for sports less than in the 11th grade. And in the 10th grade, the percentage of those involved in sports is quite high. Moreover, at a younger age, boys are more involved in sports, and at an older age, girls. However, in all parallels, about 30% of students do not go in for sports at all, or only come to a physical education lesson once a week. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that 9th and 11th grades are graduation, employment and workload are quite high, so students do not have enough time for sports. However, by the 11th grade, people understand how sports are important for health. Therefore, among the eleventh-graders, the percentage of those who do exercises in the morning is much higher, which at first glance may seem strange. Everyone who regularly goes in for sports notes that sports make their body more resilient and gives it strength and vigor.

Also, some students noted that they do some physical exercises (stretching, squats, push-ups, tilts) in order to cheer up. And it really helps! Therefore, it is impossible to deny the positive impact of physical activity on human performance and health.

Conclusion: sports activity is necessary for the better functioning of the body, increasing efficiency and mood.

Section 5. Nutrition.As you know, diet is also important for health. However, not every student has a clear diet (See Appendix No. 7). Among 9th grade students, 63% of students do not have a diet, they just often have a snack during the day. Among 11-graders, only 27% of them are. They eat, on average, 2-3 times a day, but densely. However, if it is easiest for 9th graders to refuse dinner, then for 11th graders - from breakfast or lunch. The fact is that in the 11th grade, students do not have time to have breakfast in the morning, and in the afternoon they do not have the opportunity to eat, because they either spend a long time at school or go to courses. Therefore, they eat most densely during dinner, which contradicts the biorhythms of the body, shifts the activity mode from daytime to evening and negatively affects the quality of sleep.

The students also confirmed the fact that if they have to work at night, they have an appetite.

Among students, 38% go to bed on a full stomach, almost immediately after having dinner. Among them there is not one who would get enough sleep or sleep peacefully. They have difficulty falling asleep and often wake up in their sleep. Many students drink liquids at night (milk, water, tea). It also negatively affects the body, because. At night, water stagnates in the vessels and salts are deposited. Not everyone feels this, but a large proportion of students also have restless sleep.

As a result, we can say that it is necessary to follow a clear diet, eat actively in the first half of the day and not really eat up in the second. The food eaten at night or the liquid drunk are only harmful to the body.

Section 6. Computer and TV.One of the factors shaping the way of life of students is the way they spend time in their free time. We decided to find out how much time a student spends on average on a computer and TV. (See Appendix No. 8). It turns out that the older the student, the more time he spends at the computer. Moreover, if the 9th grades sit behind him / during the day and in the evening, then the 11th grades are mostly at night. The goals are different: study and work, games, communication, reading books, visiting various sites. But the result is the same: lack of sleep, overwork, fatigue, poor progress.

Conclusion: the computer and TV are the most powerful distractions that negatively affect the student's body.

Section 7. Dreams.In this section, we explored what is associated with students' dreams. An amazing statistic: ninth graders dream more often than 11th graders and remember them better. The content of their dreams also differs: 9th graders have magical, fantastic, mystical dreams, with fictional places and heroes, while 11th graders dream more about real people and places, everyday scenes, and also what makes a deep impression in reality. This can be explained by the difference in sleep duration between grades 9 and 11. Taking into account the fact that only the last dream is most often remembered, grades 11 only have time to see dreams in the first half of the night - everyday ones, and grades 9 see dreams in the second half of the night - unusual and fantastic - and remember exactly them. The remaining types of dreams are distributed almost evenly among all students. These are adventures, the past, solving problems or problems, what they thought about when they went to bed, what they dream about, what they are going to do in reality, and something strange, incomprehensible, rebellious. To a lesser extent, dreams of poetry, plots of books, the future and nightmares.

Almost all students note that their dreams are colored and bring them joy. Usually, 9th graders have 1 or more dreams per night, while 11th graders only have 0-1. This, apparently, is also a consequence of insufficient sleep duration in high school students. Students see dreams with approximately the same frequency during holidays, study and illness.

Some other facts are curious: about half of the students noted that if they remember a dream when they wake up, then their condition is broken, while for the other half, dreams contributed to a cheerful state and elevated mood. Such differences in opinion can be explained by the fact that the first half wakes up at the beginning of the REM phase, and the second - at the end. That is why dreams can bring us both positive and negative emotions.

The strangest thing is that some people who have a strict sleep schedule and sleep every day for 7-8 hours, claim that they do not dream at all. And sleep at the same time! This can also be explained: apparently, they constantly wake up at the same time - in one of the first phases of slow sleep, when the dream is already forgotten. And since this schedule is constant for them, the illusion is created that they do not dream at all. However, this is not a reason to argue that a healthy body does not have dreams. It's just a coincidence!

Here we conclude that the presence and content of dreams largely depends on the duration of sleep and the phase in which the person woke up. And so dreams are always dreamed of by everyone, it’s just that it’s not always possible to remember them and accurately reproduce them in memory.

Section 8. Health. And finally, let's pay attention to the health of students. Here, the dependence is clearly visible: the less a person sleeps, the more he complains about his health. For most people, sleep deprivation causes "brain reversal", pallor, headaches, redness and burning of the eyes, forgetfulness, disappearance or appearance of appetite, inattention, discomfort in the heart, inability to think, memory impairment, skin irritation, bruising under the eyes, weakness , decreased physical tone and fatigue. To a lesser extent, the consequences of lack of sleep are a decrease or increase in pressure, tremors, ringing in the ears, overweight, fever, speech disorders, swelling of the skin, lack of sleep, a drop in temperature, an increase in blood sugar, uneven heart function, and convulsions. Lack of sleep has a particularly strong effect on the psychological state of a person. Sleep-deprived people especially complain about aggressiveness, anxiety, depression, conflict, slowness, indecision, impatience, emptiness, indifference, irritability, loss of interest in work, inhibition, depression and feelings of fear, anxiety, confusion, hopelessness, despair, awkwardness. In some cases, sleep deprivation reports visions, deja vu, isolation, bad dreams, reduced resistance to stress, and difficulty with self-control as a result of sleep deprivation. These data clearly prove the negative impact of lack of sleep on the health of students.

Thus, we see that lack of sleep has a very negative effect on the state of the body, not only physical, but also mental.

Those guys who get enough sleep rightfully consider themselves healthy people. Let's combine their common qualities and make recommendations on how to properly organize your working day.

• They have a regular sleep schedule. The duration of their sleep is 7-8 hours together in the daytime. They fall asleep easily and sleep peacefully. They practice good sleep hygiene.
• They do not smoke or drink alcoholic beverages. They belong to the "dove" type of activity.
• They work in an atmosphere of absolute silence, do their homework during the day, without being distracted by anything. They study for "4" and "5".
• They play sports regularly, some professionally.
• They have a clear diet, they eat most of the food in the morning. At night they do not eat or drink.
• They spend little time at the computer and TV. Some of them dream, but irregularly, some do not dream at all. They have virtually no health problems.

Here is the pattern of sleep and wakefulness that you need to adhere to in order to be a healthy and successful person. Recommendations to comply this model can be drawn up as a conclusion to this stage of the study.

CONCLUSIONS

As a result of numerous studies, the final conclusions were made:

• Sleep is essential for human health. For normal functioning, a person needs a long and high-quality sleep every day.
• Lack of sleep negatively affects both the physical and mental state of the body.
• The state of a person upon awakening depends on several factors of sleep:

1. From the duration of sleep;
2. From the quality of sleep
3. From how the mode of sleep and wakefulness of a person is consistent with the biorhythms of nature.

It is necessary to live in accordance with the biorhythms of nature.

• The type of activity "pigeon" is most favorable for the organism.
• Sleep hygiene is essential for good health.
• For the health of the body, not only a healthy sleep pattern is necessary, but also a diet, physical activity, etc. (see recommendations on page 20).

RESULT: hypotheses were confirmed.

LIST OF USED LITERATURE

Wayne A. M. "Pathology of the brain and the structure of nocturnal sleep", 1971.

Dilman V.M. "Large biological clock", 1981

Drozdova I.V. "Amazing Biology", 2005.

Ivanchenko V.A. "Secrets of your cheerfulness", 1988.

Kupriyanovich L.I. "Biological rhythms and sleep", 1976.

Malakhov G.P. "Biorhythmology and urinotherapy", 1994.

Rottenberg V. S. "Adaptive function of sleep, causes and manifestations of its violation", 1982.

Khomutov A.E. "Anatomy of the central nervous system", 2005.

Khomutov A.E. "Physiology of the central nervous system", 2006.

Shepherd G. "Neurobiology", 1987.

APPENDIX No. 1

Interesting cases. History knows some extraordinary cases that are still a mystery to scientists. Doctors around the world called the 77-year-old Swede Olaf Eriksson, who had not slept for more than 46 years, a medical miracle. In 1919, he suffered a severe form of influenza. It is possible that the disease gave some complications to the brain. Since then, he has not been able to sleep. When he needed some kind of surgery, the doctors could not put him to sleep even with the help of anesthesia, and the operation was performed with difficulty under local anesthesia.

A similar incident took place in London. The Englishman Sydney Edward has not closed his eyes for more than 35 years since the July night of 1941, when his fiancee was killed during an air raid. Sydney was an eyewitness to the tragedy, and the mental shock permanently deprived him of sleep. “I don't see the difference between day and night,” he said. -For me, it's just an endless chain of constantly changing hours. When the lights go out, the real torment begins for me. I am left completely alone and feel as inconsolable as a shipwreck on the high seas.

On the other hand, many cases of prolonged sleep are known. American Patricia Maguira, for example, slept soundly for more than 18 years. In January 1947, upon learning of the death of her fiancé, she suddenly began to yawn. Her parents advised her to go to bed. Patricia lay down and has not woken up since. An even more mysterious case occurred with the Norwegian Augusta Langard, who did not open her eyes from 1919 to 1941. During this time, her face has not changed at all. When she woke up, she began to age before our very eyes. Augusta died five years after her awakening. Nadezhda Artemovna Lebedina, a resident of Dnepropetrovsk, slept for 20 years. In 1953, she felt a slight malaise. The day before she went to visit her mother, where, as it turned out later, she had a nervous experience, and on the way she caught a cold. A week later, she suddenly fell asleep, but the dream continued on the second day, and on the third ... All attempts to bring her out of oblivion did not bring success. The patient was placed in the clinic, she had to be fed with a probe. Some improvement came after a year and a half. Four years later, her mother persuaded the doctors to discharge Nadezhda Artemovna from the clinic and took her to her village. Medical specialists regularly examined the patient. Only in 1973 did her relatives begin to notice that she was showing signs of a reaction if she was talking about her mother, who had become seriously ill by that time. She woke up in the same year on the day of her mother's funeral. The mental state of Lebedina in the future was absolutely normal. The gift of speech returned to her, she perfectly remembered everything that happened to her before the onset of lethargic sleep.

APPENDIX No. 2

APPENDIX No. 3

QUESTIONNAIRE

Before you is a questionnaire, on the results of which scientific research will be based, so please take the task seriously. You are required to answer the following questions. Some have already been answered. You just have to choose (not necessarily one option). If there is no suitable option. you can write your answer next to or at the end of the questionnaire as a note. Some other questions you will have to answer yourself. Questionnaire anonymous. You specify only gender and class. Thank you in advance!

Gender: M F class - __________

Section 1. Sleep.

1. Do you have a regular sleep schedule?

 Yes, I go to bed at ___ o'clock and get up at ______ o'clock

 No, I sleep on average hours, but at different times of the day

1. How many hours do you need to sleep? __________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

4. Do you find daytime naps acceptable?

 Yes, I sleep during the day

 Yes, but I can't sleep during the day

 I don't think it's necessary

5. You

 Get enough sleep

 Not getting enough sleep

6. Do you feel like sleeping during the lessons?

 Yes, because I don't sleep much

 Yes, because the lessons are not interesting

 No, because it's interesting

 No, because I sleep

7. If you go to bed late, then for the reason:

 I still won't sleep

 Parents go to bed late, brother, sister

 I do my homework, I do

 I read books, I watch TV, I sit at the computer

8. How often does it happen that you sleep less per day

 8 hours______________

 6 hours _______________

 4 hours________________

9. Do you skip school or other activities because you need to sleep?

 Yes, on average once a week

 Yes, on average every 3-4 weeks

 I don't skip it for this reason.

10. Do you often sleep more than 12 hours in a row?

 Happens while studying (often/rarely)

 Happens, more often during holidays (often/rarely)

 Very rare

11. If you want to sleep, you:

 Lie down immediately

 Lie down after 0.5-1 hour

 Keep doing things until you do or until you finish

yourself to the point of exhaustion

12. You go to bed

 Just when it gets late, even if you don't really feel like sleeping

 When parents force you to go to bed

 Even if I didn’t manage to do everything, health is more important

 If there's nothing I can do

 Just when I want

13. Do you fall asleep easily?

 Yes, I always fall asleep

 Sometimes I lie down for more than 15 minutes

 Sometimes I can't fall asleep for more than half an hour

 I often have insomnia

14. Do you sometimes find yourself unable to sleep? If yes, for what reason?

 Bad feeling

 Just ate

 No fatigue

 Drunk coffee

 Discomfort (bed, room temperature, light)

 Anxiety, stress, overexcitation, overexertion

1. Have you ever had Are you talking in your sleep, sleepwalking?

1. Are you sleeping well? Do you wake up at night?

____________________________________________________________________________

1. Do you follow sleep hygiene?

 I sleep in loose clothes

 I sleep in what I sleep

 I sleep in a ventilated room

 Do not ventilate

 I sleep on a comfortable bed with clean linens

 I sleep on what I’ll fall asleep: I don’t have the strength to spread out the sofa or straighten the stray sheet

 No light enters the room

 A lantern shines through the window

 I can sleep with the overhead light on

 I can fall asleep in an uncomfortable position

 I can sleep sitting or lying at my desk

18. If you smoke, how long before bedtime and how long after waking up? ______________________________________________________________

19. Do you drink alcohol at night (at least occasionally)? ______________________

20. Do you use energy drinks (coffee, cola, citramon, adrenaline)? Which ones? Do they help?_______________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

21. Do you use sleeping pills? Or do you drink warm milk at night to fall asleep? ________________________________________________________________________

22. Does it happen that you fall asleep for a long time while doing your homework, watching TV, listening to the radio?

 It happens when I am very tired: sometimes I can sleep like this all night

 It happens, but I wake up soon

 No, I'm not so tired that I fall asleep with noise or in the wrong place

23. Select statement(s):

 I am very sleep deprived and I suffer a lot from it.

 At any time of the day, if I lie down and close my eyes, I will instantly fall asleep.

 Sometimes I fall asleep even when I don’t want to or I can’t: in the classroom, for example

 I'm always trying to find a minute to take a nap

 Interesting work can suppress the desire to sleep

 I am awake all the time and only feel tired around the time I usually go to bed.

 I never force myself to do anything if I want to. sleep

 I have time to do everything that needs to be done, and therefore I sleep as much as I want / get enough sleep

 I know that not enough sleep is bad, so in any case I sleep 6-7 hours a day

 I would be much more comfortable sleeping during the day (after school) and doing my own thing all night

Section 2. "Owls" and "larks"

1. If you set your own schedule, what time would you go to bed and wake up?

I would sleep from _______ to _______

1. What time of day do you most like to sleep? ________________________

1. What time of day is your performance

 Maximum

 Minimum

27. Human irritability changes over the course of the day. When do quarrels, bouts of aggression most often happen to you, does nervousness and conflict increase? ___________________________________________________________

28. Do you prefer

 Early to bed and early to rise

 Late to bed and late to rise

29. If you have to stay up all night, you would rather

 Sleep before the night

 Sleep after the night

 Get some sleep before and after

30. Before the exam you

 Go to bed early or as usual

 Get ready until late at night

 Get ready all morning

 Get ready at night and in the morning, moreover, there is enough work effective

31. If you have unfinished work, you

 You will do until night and go to bed late

 Get up early and finish in the morning

32. If you went to bed a few hours later than usual, you:

 Wake up at your usual time and never fall asleep again

 Wake up at your usual time and then get some more sleep

 You will sleep longer than usual

33. Do you use an alarm clock?

 Yes, but sometimes I don't hear him and wake up

 Yes, I just need it

 Not necessarily: I wake up a few minutes before the call

 Before important events, I automatically wake up on time

 I always wake up without alarm clock

34. Is it easy for you to wake up in the morning?

 Easy

 Not very easy

 Very difficult

35. Do you get up immediately in the morning?

 Yes, as soon as the alarm rang

 Not quite, I get up ______ minutes after waking up

 Not right away, I like to soak up the bed and sleep for another “five minutes”

36. Do you feel sleepy and tired after waking up?

 No, I wake up refreshed and refreshed

 Yes, within half an hour

 Yes, the first few lessons

37. Do you feel tired during the day?

 Yes, but only before bed

 Yes, in the afternoon

 Yes, in the morning

 I feel all the time

 I don't feel at all

 This feeling comes up from time to time.

38. Are you able to work after 12 midnight?

 No, by this time I really want to sleep

 Yes, but only until ______ hours

 Yes, but until the morning

 It happens so often

39. Do you easily adapt to a new regimen, a change in time zone?

 I adapt right away.

 I need a day or two

 I need a week

40. You do homework

 Right after school

 Late afternoon

 At night

 Early in the morning

41. Do you prefer to do the job that appears right away or leave it “for later”?

 I do everything at once

 Leaving work for the future

42. Are you often late for something?

 No, I always arrive early (10-20 minutes in advance)

 Rarely, under unforeseen circumstances

 I always arrive on time

 Sometimes I'm late

 I'm often late and can't help myself

Section 3. Performance.

43. Does your work capacity decrease if you don't get enough sleep?

 Yawn - and stop

 I'll think slower

 My head will hurt and it will be difficult for me to work

 Your mood will drop

 I will be sluggish and slow

 I can't really do anything

 will decrease significantly

 Almost won't go down

44. Your performance depends more

 From how long and how long you slept

 From what time of day it is

45. What time of day would you choose to exercise if you could choose? _________________________________________________________________

46. ​​You

 You can work under any conditions, completely ignoring external stimuli and fully concentrating on your work

 Can fully work with noise, although from time to time you are distracted

 Being heavily distracted, which makes work less fruitful

 You can only work in absolute silence, when no one and nothing distracts

47. Doing homework, you

 Experience absolute silence

 Watch TV at the same time

 Listening to music at the same time

 Talk on the phone at the same time

 While surfing the Internet or chatting with friends

 Eat at the same time

48. You can be distracted from work

 Light

 Music

 Conversations

 People

 own thoughts

 extraneous noise

 Feeling of hunger

 Feeling full

49. Your progress (evaluation for half a year):

 Mathematics ________

 Physics _______

 Russian language ________

 English language _________

 Chemistry _________

 Biology __________

50. Are you the type of person who devotes the night to work? If yes, why do you work at night? ___________________________

________

Section 4. Motor activity

51. Do you exercise in the morning?

 No, because I don't want to

 No, because I can't

 Doing

1. Do you play sports? How regularly? ________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

1. How does sport affect your performance?

 Exhausting: I get tired and want to sleep even more

 Makes my body stronger

 Gives me strength and vigor, drives away drowsiness

54. Is it possible to say that you suffer from physical inactivity (little movement)?

 Yes, I don't play sports

 Yes, I have to sit a lot

 No, I move a lot

55. Do you ever do some kind of physical exercise to cheer up? Which? Is it effectiveThis? __________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Section 5. Nutrition.

1. Do you have a strict diet? ____________________________________________

1. What time is your last meal? _____________________________

1. In the morning

 You have a big appetite

 Do you have breakfast but not very heavy

 Have breakfast if you can

 You Can Easily Skip Breakfast

59. You find it easiest to give up

 Breakfast

 Lunch

 Dinner

60. During the day you

 Eat ______ times, but densely

 Just eat often

61. If you have to work after 12, do you eat a lot?

 I don't feel like eating at night

 I just snack a little

 My appetite awakens, I eat enough

62. Do you often go to bed on a full stomach?

 No. I eat long before I go to bed

 I can drink milk/water/tea before going to bed

 I go to bed almost immediately after dinner/second dinner with a full belly

63. How does your performance depend on food?

 Can't work when I'm hungry

 It rises if I sing a little

 She rises if I bulk up

 I can't work at all when my stomach is full.

 I'd rather work on an empty stomach

Section number 6. Computer and TV

64. How often and how much time do you spend at the computer (on average)?

____________________________________________________________________________

More often

 Daytime

 In the evening

 At night

For what purpose?

 Study / work

 Playing

 Communicating

 I climb on the Internet

 I read books

65. How much TV do you watch? What time? ______________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Section number 7. dreams

66. Do you dream?

 Yes, but I don't remember them

 Yes, but I forget them when I wake up

 Yes, I remember them well.

 More often I see than I don't see

 I don't see more than I see

 I very rarely see

 I can't see at all

67. You dream

 Future

 Everyday scenes

 Magic, mysticism, miracles

 Fictional places and characters

 Nightmares

 Adventure

 Past

 Real people and places

 Problem/Problem Solutions

 Poems

 Plots of books (read/written)

 What you think about when you go to bed

 What you dream about

 Something that makes a deep impression

 What I'm about to do

 Something strange, incomprehensible, rebellious

68. Your dreams

 Colored

 Black and white

 Bring you joy

 Create an unpleasant impression

69. How often during the night do you have dreams in the amount of:

 0 _____________

 1 _____________

 Some __________________

Mainly during

 Studies

 Vacation

 Diseases

70. If you woke up with a presentiment that you had just dreamed something, or you remember a dream, you

 Sleepy state, brokenness

 sublime mood

 Sleepy state

 This doesn't happen

Section number 8. Health

71. Do you have problems with lack of sleep? (tick or underline as appropriate)

Physiological:

 "Breaking" of brains

 Paleness

 Pain in the head

 Eyes: sore, watery, swollen, redden, see worse; fucks them, they close

 Pressure: high / low

 Trembling

 Forgetfulness

 Ringing in the ears

 Overweight

 Loss/reappearance of appetite

 Fever

 Speech disorders

 inattention

 Discomfort in the region of the heart

 Inability to think

 General painful condition of pain in the joints, spine, neck, muscles

 skin swelling

 Lack of thought process

 No dreams

 temperature drop

 bad memory

 Increase in blood sugar

 Irritations on the skin

 Heart: beats unevenly, stumbles, gives pain, beats harder than usual

 Bruises under the eyes

 Weakness

 Decreased physical tone

 convulsions

 Fatigue

Psychological:

 Aggressiveness

 Anxiety

 visions

 deja vu

 depression

 Closure

 Conflict

 slowness

 indecisiveness

 Impatience

 emptiness

 bad dreams

 Indifference

 Irritability

 Decreased resistance to stress

 Losing interest in work

 Braking

 Difficulties with self-control

 Oppression

 Feelings: fear, anxiety, confusion, hopelessness, despair, awkwardness

And: ______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

72. Do you have any disorders (respiratory, digestive, musculoskeletal, nervous, immune systems, etc.)? _______________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

73. How often in life do you have to worry, worry, be nervous, etc.?

_____________________________________________________________________________

74. Can you name yourselfa perfectly healthy person? Your comments, notes and wishes: _____________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thank you very much!

APPENDIX No. 4

APPENDIX No. 5

APPENDIX No. 6

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Helpful Hints

Studies show that regular lack of sleep slows down a person's thought process, leads to irritation, weight gain and a decrease in concentration.

And this is not the whole list of negative consequences provoked by insomnia.

3. Phone is not an alarm clock

Many of us use mobile devices as an alarm clock. The downside of this application is that with insomnia, we begin to play various games and use applications through the phone.

This cannot be allowed, since the bedroom is, first of all, a place for sleeping and relaxing, therefore it is necessary:

• remove all mobile devices from the bedroom;
• purchase a regular alarm clock, the functions of which are to wake up, and not to entertain.

4. Alarm clock and sleep

It is important not only to get an alarm clock, but also to use it correctly.

Simply put, you do not see the time - you do not concentrate your attention on how much more sleep you have left.

5. Deep breathing

It is deep breathing that signals the body that it is time for it to relax.

Inhale imagine how oxygen enters your lungs and slowly travels throughout your body, cleansing every cell of it.

On exhalation imagine that all toxins and harmful substances leave your body, as a result of which it is restored.

It is enough to focus on measured and calm breathing to feel relaxation. Such breathing exercises should be done regularly to achieve the maximum relaxing effect.

6. Exercises for muscles

For productive sleep, you need to relieve tension in the muscles, and simple exercises that can be performed while lying in bed will help with this.

So, you need to tighten the muscle (start with the toes and gradually reach the neck), count to seven, and then relax the muscles. Such unpretentious movements can be done for the entire muscle group.

For your information! Lack of sleep leads to the fact that it is the muscle mass that atrophies in a person. If you diet and sleep little, you will burn twice as much muscle and half as much fat. Therefore, good sleep is one of the main conditions if you want to lose weight.

7. Mental exercise for good sleep

At mental gymnastics will help you escape from daily worries and fall asleep.

8. Switching attention

If you have not been able to fall asleep within half an hour of being in bed, then doctors who specialize in sleep disorders recommend getting out of bed and doing some quiet, enjoyable activity.

9. Let go of unnecessary thoughts for the best sleep

It is common for each of us to think about what will happen tomorrow, in a week or in a year. But if these thoughts interfere with sleep, then they should be disposed of.

To do this, you need to write down all your ideas or worries on a piece of paper, which will help calm your worries.

10. What is good for sleep: pleasant memories

Unpleasant thoughts distract us from sleep, so it is necessary to focus our thoughts on something pleasant.

Remember your favorite vacation somewhere in the mountains or at sea. Imagine that you feel the coolness of water slowly flowing over your palm. Or maybe pleasant memories will be associated with colorful fish that you saw while scuba diving?

It is happy moments from life that will remove all negative thoughts and calm the nervous system.

11. Physical activity

Your body will not feel the need to rest if you do not give it enough exercise during the day.

If you lead a sedentary lifestyle, it will have a bad effect on the quality of sleep. Daily 30-minute exercise, which can be divided into several approaches, will help not only to make sleep deeper, but also reduce the time to fall asleep.

Important! In the evening, it is advisable to avoid intense physical exertion so as not to stimulate the body and not increase its temperature.

12. Comfortable pillow for a good sound sleep

Studies show that a medium-hard pillow is the most optimal for sleeping, as it ensures the correct position of the head and neck of a person during sleep.

In addition, it is important to correctly choose the filler for the pillow, which should be anti-allergic (especially for people prone to allergies).

13. Doctor's help

In the event that insomnia is chronic, you should consult a doctor.

Signs of chronic insomnia:

• constant sleepiness;
• problems with the process of falling asleep;
• increased fatigue;
• Loud snoring;
• regular headaches in the morning;
• weakness in the limbs;
• decrease in performance.

The doctor will help to properly organize the daily routine and prescribe drugs that help calm the nervous system.

And remember, sleep is the most important condition for the normal functioning of the human body, therefore, this physiological process must be taken seriously and responsibly.

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 completely 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.