Sleep may be something we do everyday to be able to function properly in our day to day life, but there’s still so much to learn about getting a good night’s rest. From staying away from caffeine and alcohol to staying away from your phones, it feels like there’s a whole ritual we should be following to make sure we sleep properly.
READ: 6 Simple Tips to Improve Your Sleep Quality
Nighttime routines aside, we’ve all been told that we should get at 7-9 hours of sleep a night. But sometimes, even if you sleep for 7-9 hours, you still feel groggy and tired after waking up. What’s the problem then?
This is where your sleep cycles should be taken into account.
When we sleep, our brain moves through different sleep cycles. Sleep cycles vary from person to person, but each cycle lasts about 90 minutes on average. As we move from one cycle to another, we go from light sleep to deep sleep to light sleep again.
And if you wake up at the end of a cycle, you’ll end up feeling more refreshed and ready to start the day. Why? Because the end of a cycle is close to your waking state.
So, if you want to feel refreshed when you wake up, try to wake up at the end of each cycle. Count from the time you need to go to bed or the time you need to wake up to make sure you have your cycles accounted for.
There’s even a calculator to help you find out the time you should wake up or go to bed with the 90-minute sleep rule in mind. You can check out Nectar’s sleep calculator here.
Get your good night’s sleep now!
READ: Graph Shows Which Countries Are Getting the Most Sleep, Hint: It’s Not Us
Article photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels
