Have you ever been overdrawn?
When the situation arises, your preferred banker has several options that will depend on the amount, frequency, and duration of the overdraft. Small or large, short or long... the subject can become critical for you but also for the bank, which will not hesitate to call you and make you pay additional 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 overdrawn? For how long and how often is this debt? What should you do if you are affected 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 the families who contribute to the increase in our collective debt. To find out if you are one of them, I invite you to discover them.
Summary :
- Sleep Debt: What Are We Talking About?
- Am I already in debt?
- If so, which debtor family do I belong to?
Sleep Debt: What Are We Talking About?
Look at this graph. It speaks volumes. In 1965, we slept 1.5 hours more per night, and a century earlier, we slept 2 hours more on average. Since 1995, our sleep time has decreased by 1 hour 15 minutes per night, and it continues to decline in developed countries. Another 36 minutes were lost in France between 2009 and 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 that signals it because it can no longer find the natural balance it seeks. We threaten the sustainable balance of our good health and we start the day feeling tired as soon as we wake up. It is explained in particular 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 would play a key role in the moment we fall asleep because, when its level is very high, it becomes hypnogenic. This is the moment when the sleep ON switch is activated. We fall uncontrollably into the arms of Morpheus.
Throughout the night, the level of adenosine concentration in our brain will decrease, allowing us to have reset the counters to zero and feel rested when we wake up. When the night is short, we start the day with a still high concentration of this substance, which makes us feel tired as soon as we wake up. Continuing to accumulate throughout the day, we add to what remains of the previous day's fatigue, that of the current day.
This is why many people find coffee an effective way to combat fatigue . This is because caffeine neutralizes adenosine receptors .
The 2017 statistics published by the INSV mention that 31% of French people reported sleeping 2 to 6 hours per night. [1] But are they all part of this surprising group called " short sleepers " who, by sleeping 4 to 6 hours per night, feel in great shape without having a 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 that less than 1% of the population would be affected. Genes of the biological clock, including the ADRB1 gene, would be at the origin of this capacity. [2]
For other sleepers, the average night's sleep should be around 8 hours to achieve the same fitness results. For your information, a sleep deficit is considered severe when it reaches 1.5 hours per day 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 much time you sleep per night.
Observe this duration over several nights, take an average over 5 nights and compare it with the average duration of a typical weekday night during the rest of the year.
What's the difference? If it's more than 45 minutes a day, you're unknowingly adding to your debt, and it's likely that even sleeping more on weekends won't fully offset it.
Do the math: if your debt is one hour a day, you start your weekend with five hours to recover. Will you be able to make up for it?
Nothing could be less certain, especially since the weekend is often the occasion for late outings, sometimes drunk, which not only delay sleep, but also affect its quality.
If so, which debtor family do I belong to?
I suggest you discover this through a game of 7 families:
In the “Screen Addicts” Family, there are:
- Gamers : You can't help but play online after dinner. You even eat dinner in front of your computer while playing. On the menu: poker, video games, etc.
- Series fans : For you, it's at least 3 episodes or even 4 in a row.
- Viewers : You stick to the television and watch a program every evening after dinner, which starts between 9 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. The program ends at 11 p.m. at the earliest.
In the Family of supers, ultras, “too much” fashions, there are:
- The super-active who no longer take the time to sleep. For you, sleeping is wasted time, and besides, you don't feel the need to sleep more than 6 hours.
- Miracle Morning Followers . You've adopted the strategy of waking up early to make time for exercise, meditation, or reading, as so many media outlets recommend.
- Students in "competition mode." You start work at 9 a.m. and finish at 11 p.m., with short breaks for meals. Your day is timed, even on weekends and during vacations. You keep up the pace.
- Young, ultra-career-oriented professionals . You entered the workforce after a good education 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 at the office no later than 9 a.m. You often work weekends, even if you go out and go to bed late.
- Young SUPERMUMS or SUPERDADS, especially in single-parent families. Working and fully committed on all fronts, you lead "Family Life and Career" like a battle.
In the “night owl” chronotype heavy sleeper family:
You don't fall asleep until midnight or later. You've also noticed that your natural wake-up time is around 9:00, 10:00, or later.
In the Family of night or shift workers:
You are exposed to irregular or night work patterns and several times a week you work at night or part of the night.
In the Insomniac Family, there are:
- Sleep-resistants : It takes more than 30 minutes for you to fall asleep each night. This is often the case for teenagers, those who are physically or mentally overstimulated, and those who are anxious.
- Midnight Awakeners : You regularly find yourself waking up between 2:00 and 4:00 a.m. and having difficulty falling back to sleep. This phenomenon is often due to a reaction to the stress of the day or to past traumas.
- Early wakers : You regularly wake up one to two hours before your alarm clock and cannot get back to sleep (overstimulation, burnout?).
- Morning exhaustion : Your night is interrupted for a long time several times, and you wonder how you'll get through the day ahead. Worse, you also wonder if you'll sleep the next night.
- Women in perimenopause and menopause : Sleep and you have become complicated. At least three times a week, you have trouble sleeping. Over the course of your night, your waking time represents at least 25% of your time spent in bed. This situation has been going on for several months.
In the June Late Sleeper Family:
From late May to mid-July each year, the urge to stay up later sets in and you sleep less.
In the “fasting” Family:
Occasionally, for varying lengths of time, you fast. You have noticed that you sleep less, which encourages you to maintain this limited sleep time outside of fasting times.
Now that you have an idea of your weekly debt, if any, and your debt profile, you can balance your sleep account, and we're going to help you! By clicking on your family, you'll learn about our recommendations and the practices that can help you do this! It's your turn!
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 Education for Health & the European Sleep Center source: Dr. Michel Tiberge, head of the sleep unit at Toulouse University Hospital 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
