19.02.2021 Sabrina Ludwig 6698

What does healthy sleep look like?

What helps us to sleep restfully again? Sleep trackers? Regular sleeping times? Or the good old nap? In this interview, health expert Sarah Morzinek explains what makes for restful sleep and introduces a simple breathing exercise to help us calm down.

How do I recognize what kind of sleeper I am?

Sarah Morzinek : You should be clear about this: How many hours of sleep do I need? There are people who go to bed very late and get up early and still feel rested. The opposite of this is the late riser principle: even if they go to bed at 10 p.m., they find it difficult to get up at 6 a.m. the next morning. They don't feel rested even though they have slept for eight hours.

Why do I still feel exhausted after eight hours of sleep?

This may be because your biorhythm does not correspond to your sleeping time. If you generally only become active during the day and are simply not a morning person, then even eight hours of sleep won't do you any good if you have to get up at 6 am. The biorhythm is determined by the genetic code, which we cannot change.
Of course, it is also possible that your sleep was not restful because you were not in deep sleep.

Why am I missing this deep sleep phase?

Both physical stress and emotional stress, i.e. issues that stir us up emotionally, can haunt us while we sleep. Or you have a lot on your plate at the moment and have to deal with many issues at the same time. With regard to corona, there are also changed conditions that you didn't have to deal with before: working from home permanently, closed childcare centers, homeschooling.  

But physical overload or underload can also disturb our sleep. For example, you may currently have someone in the family that you need to care for. Or you may be doing too much office work sitting in front of a computer screen and lack the physical balance.

What would be the first step towards getting back to sleep?

So first of all you should really look: Am I a lark or an owl? So do I get out of bed well in the morning or not? And then you should see whether you can adapt your working hours to your need for sleep. Employers who want to make the best possible use of their employees should therefore offer flexitime.  

And then you should look at how much sleep you really need. You can't simply avoid it. You should therefore plan your day accordingly. You should also consider how high your stress level is and how long you may have been under stress. A chronic stress level significantly disturbs your sleep.

How important are regular sleeping times?

Whether you are a short sleeper or a long sleeper, everyone needs regular sleep times that signal to the body: Okay, at these times I should be active and at these times I have my rest time. Regular means that I always go to bed and get up at the same time - plus or minus 30 minutes. A smartwatch or sleep tracker can be helpful to see how well this works.

Can a nap help me if I haven't slept well?

Simply taking a nap every now and then is a big mistake if you have difficulty sleeping. Either you always take a nap or you never do. Because if I start routinely taking an afternoon nap and then interrupt it again, the body has trained itself to use a strategy that it can't get rid of so quickly.

Is the popular power napping also unfavorable?

No, power napping is really just about going into a light sleep phase for 15 minutes and winding down a little. You give your body and mind a short break. But you are still responsive: If I were to pat you on the back while you're doing it, you'd wake up.

When do we reach the deep sleep phase?

A sleep cycle usually lasts 90 minutes. At the end, we reach the deep sleep phase. We then wake up briefly or enter a light sleep phase. Here we can wake up quickly, for example to traffic noises.

How many deep sleep phases should you ideally have in one night?

That depends a bit on what kind of sleeper you are. Short sleepers only sleep an average of four hours, while long sleepers need up to 14 hours of sleep. Our need for sleep is very individual. A short sleeper logically has fewer deep sleep phases. Nevertheless, they do not feel less rested the next day.

Everyone is talking about sleep trackers and sleep apps. What can you expect from them?

Sleep trackers can provide us with certain guidelines, for example on sleep time and sleep phases. For example, do I always go to bed at the same time? How many hours do I spend in bed? When do I get up? How many deep sleep phases do I have? These questions influence the quality of our sleep. Of course, a sleep tracker or a sleep app will not help us to get out of sleep disorders. But it can help us to improve the quality of our sleep.

Don't such devices have high error rates?

The big problem is that they might think you're only sleeping when you're lying down. For example, if you have very low blood pressure anyway, the sleep tracker may not recognize whether you are inactive or active at all because your medical guidelines may not correspond to the norm.

Is the information from the sleep tracker useless for me in this case?

In any case, you can see on the device how many deep sleep phases you have had. Deep sleep is the most important phase for us because we recover completely and our brain no longer performs any major cognitive tasks. It is only in deep sleep that we no longer process the content of the day. However, if we do not enter the deep sleep phase, we do not have a high recovery effect. This makes us feel exhausted in the morning.

Is there a specific tip on how I can calm down during a restless night?

Try the 4-6-8 breathing exercise. Breathe in for four seconds, then hold your breath for six seconds. Then breathe out for eight seconds. The exercise is very simple and effective!

We are no longer used to breathing slowly. The breathing exercise stimulates our parasympathetic nervous system, the very area of the nervous system that helps us to relax and fall asleep.

Sarah Morzinek has a practice for coaching & psychological counseling and has several years of experience as a lecturer in university teaching with a focus on BGM.