Have you ever experienced a bank overdraft?
When the situation arises, your favorite banker has several options depending on the amount, frequency, and duration of the overdraft. Small or significant, short or long... the issue can become critical for you but also for the bank, which will not hesitate to call you and charge you overdraft fees. And what about your sleep debt, yours but also that of the majority of the current population? Do you know if you are already overdrafted? For how long and how often is this debt? What to do if you are concerned or to avoid becoming so? We will address all these points to help you restore the balance of your sleep capital through a series of articles that will describe the profile of families contributing to the increase of our collective debt. To find out if you are part of it, I invite you to discover them.
Summary :
- Sleep debt: what are we talking about?
- Am I already in debt?
- If yes, which family of debtors do I belong to?
Sleep debt: what are we talking about?
Look at this graph. It is telling. In 1965, we slept 1h30 more per night and a century earlier, 2h more on average. Since 1995, our sleep time has decreased by 1h15 per night and continues to decline in developed countries. Another 36 minutes lost in France from 2009 to 2017, a phenomenon also observed on weekends.
Some effects to know :
The phenomenon of sleep debt affects all segments of the population and its effects on health have been proven. When the debt is chronic, it is not your banker who calls you but your body signaling it because it can no longer restore the natural balance it seeks. We threaten the sustainable balance of our good health and start the day feeling tired upon waking. This is explained notably by the abnormal presence of a substance in our brain, adenosine.
Throughout the day, while we are awake, the concentration of this substance increases and it plays an essential role in the moment of our falling asleep because when its level is very high, it becomes sleep-inducing. This is the moment when the ON switch of sleep activates. We fall into the arms of Morpheus without control.
Throughout the night, the level of adenosine concentration in our brain decreases, allowing us to reset the counters to zero upon waking and feel rested. When the night is short, we start the day with a still high concentration of this substance, which makes us feel tired upon waking. Continuing to accumulate throughout the day, we add to the remaining fatigue from the previous day the fatigue of the current day.
This is why many people find coffee an effective way to fight fatigue. Indeed, caffeine neutralizes adenosine receptors.
Statistics from 2017 published by INSV mention that 31% of French people declared sleeping 2 to 6 hours per night. [1] But do they all belong to this surprising group called "short sleepers" who, by sleeping 4 to 6 hours per night, feel in great shape without having debt?
Little chance in truth because less than 5% of the population would be genetically equipped to sleep only 5 to 6 hours and remain healthy! Some scientists even say less than 1% of the population is concerned. Biological clock genes, including the ADRB1 gene, would be responsible for this ability. [2]
For other sleepers, the average duration of a night's sleep should be around 8h to achieve the same level of fitness. For information, a debt is considered severe when it reaches 1h30 daily and the weekend is not enough to compensate for it.
Am I already in debt?
To identify your ideal sleep time, it’s simple: after 10 days of vacation, when you can sleep freely, calculate how long you sleep per night.
Observe this duration over several nights, average it over 5 nights, and compare it with the average duration of a typical weeknight during the rest of the year.
What is the difference? If it is more than 45 minutes daily, you are unknowingly digging your debt and it is very likely that even by sleeping more on weekends, you will not be able to fully compensate it.
Do your calculation: if your debt is one hour per day, you start your weekend with 5 hours to recover. Will you manage to fill it?
Nothing is less certain, especially since the weekend is often an occasion for late outings, sometimes with drinks, which not only delay sleep but also impair its quality.
If yes, which family of debtors do I belong to?
I suggest you discover this through a game of 7 families:
In the Family "Screen Addicts", there are:
- Gamers: You cannot help but play online after dinner. You even sometimes have dinner in front of your computer while playing. On the menu: poker, video games, etc.
- Series lovers: For you, it’s at least 3 episodes or even 4 in a row.
- TV viewers: You remain faithful to television and watch a show every evening after dinner, starting between 9:00 and 9:15 p.m. Program ends at 11 p.m. at the earliest.
In the Family of supers, ultras, "too much" modes, there are:
- Super-actives who no longer take time to sleep. For you, sleeping is wasted time and besides, you do not feel the need to sleep more than 6 hours.
- Miracle Morning followers. You have adopted the strategy of an early wake-up to take time to exercise, meditate, or read as many media advise.
- Students "in competition mode". You start working at 9 a.m. and stop at 11 p.m. with small breaks for meals. Your day is timed, even on weekends and during holidays. You keep up the pace.
- Young ultra-careerist professionals. You have entered working life after good studies and are 100% dedicated to your job. Your hours are more than flexible but always in the same direction: home around 10 p.m., dinner around 11 p.m., back to the office by 9 a.m. at the latest. You often work weekends even if you go out and go to bed late.
- Young SUPERMUMS or SUPERDADS, especially in single-parent families. Employed and fully engaged on all fronts, you lead "Family Life and Career" like a battle.
In the Family of heavy sleepers with "night owl" chronotype:
You do not fall asleep before midnight or even later. You have also noticed that your natural wake-up time is rather around nine, ten o’clock or even later.
In the Family of night or shift workers:
You are exposed to irregular or night work rhythms and several times a week, you work at night or part of the night.
In the Family of insomniacs, there are:
- Sleep onset resistants: It takes you more than 30 minutes to fall asleep each night. This is often the case for teenagers, physically or mentally overstimulated people, worriers.
- Middle-of-the-night awakeners: You regularly notice that you wake up between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. and find it difficult to fall back asleep. This phenomenon is often due to a reaction to the day’s stress or old traumas.
- Early awakeners: Regularly, you wake up one to two hours before your alarm and cannot fall back asleep (Overstimulation, Burn-out?).
- Morning exhausted: Your night is interrupted quite long several times and you wonder how you will get through the coming day. Worse, you also wonder if you will sleep the next night.
- Women in perimenopause and menopause phase: Sleep and you have become complicated. At least 3 times a week, your night is difficult. During your night, your awake time represents at least 25% of your time spent in bed. The situation has lasted for several months.
In the Family of late sleepers of June:
From late May to mid-July each year, the desire to stay awake later sets in and you sleep less.
In the Family "fasting followers":
Occasionally, for variable durations, you fast. You have noticed that you sleep less then, which encourages you to maintain this restricted sleep time outside fasting periods.
Now that you have an idea of your weekly debt if it exists, of your debtor profile, you will be able to bring your sleep account back to balance and we will help you! By clicking on your family, you will learn about our recommendations and practices that can make it possible! Your turn to play!
Sources :
[1] INVS/MGEN 2009 Public Health Barometer 2017 Other sources (source: Stephen Perrig, neurologist and head of the Sleep Clinic in Geneva) INPES, National Institute for Prevention and Health Education & the European Sleep Center source: Dr Michel Tiberge, head of the sleep unit at CHU Toulouse source: INSV, National Institute of Sleep and Vigilance) source 2017: Public Health Barometer) [2] Nature Communications volume 10, Article number: 343 (2019) Genome-wide association analyses of chronotype in 697,828 individuals provides insights into circadian rhythms Samuel E. Jones, Jacqueline M. Lane, Michael N. Weedon
