Pproblems falling asleep, waking up at night, restless sleep… Disorders related to sleep quality are on the rise and, if chronic, tend to significantly affect the quality of life of many people.
The latest research, including a study conducted by Samsung aimed at analyzing 716 million nights of sleep worldwide, underline how complicated it is for many to have good sleep hygiene and obtain satisfactory quality.
On a global level, in fact, the average sleep duration decreased from 7 hours and 3 minutes to 6 hours and 59 minutes, falling below the minimum threshold of 7 hours recommended by the National Sleep Foundation, while the waking time during sleep it increased by 1.3 minutes per night. This led to a decrease in the efficiency of the sleep and, although everyone is affected, women and older generations suffer the sharpest decline. This is a global trend, in which Italy takes the podium among the European countries with the shortest sleep duration.
Is our night’s rest of quality?
More and more people are prioritizing sleep as fundamental aspect for health. The growing interest in sleep is evident from recent trends observed with the Samsung Health app. In the last two years it has been registered a 182% increase in the number of users who actively tracked their sleep at least once a week for a year. Yet, despite this, the question remains: is our night’s rest of quality? The data speaks clearly and the answer is that the quality of rest is decreasing. The world is facing a real sleep problem.
Those who have sweet dreams in Europe are the inhabitants of the Netherlands, followed by France and the United Kingdom. Italy, in the company of Spain and Poland, is positioned at the bottom of the ranking. Statistics also tell us that, in general, sleep deprivation is highest among 20-year-olds, almost double that of 70-year-olds and on our continent we lack 46 minutes of night’s rest.
Count penguins, not sheep
In an effort to gain deeper insight into the prevailing sleep patterns globally, Samsung decided to analyze and classify the various types of people in a symbolic way with the ‘sleeping animals’. Each of these represents a different rest pattern, with unique characteristics related to duration, continuity and time awake, all factors that influence the quality of sleep.
It is interesting to note that most individuals around the world has become more identified with the sleeping styles of ‘nervous penguins’, which comprise a third of the participants. They they maintain healthy circadian rhythms, but often experience disruptions during sleepcontributing to decreasing its efficiency.
In contrast to the rest of the world, Argentina, Spain and Turkey are mostly ‘sensitive hedgehogs’, which means they can be more active at night while sleeping more during daylight hours, like in a normal one siesta.
Older users reported higher percentages (nearly 40%) of ‘cautious deer’, that is, people with one shorter sleep duration and higher wake times. A percentage almost 10 times higher than that of twenty-year-olds. The latter, in addition to having a greater representation of ‘sensitive curls’, also saw a greater number of ‘sun-averse moles’ compared to older age groups.
Sleep and longevity: what is the relationship?
A recent study on sleep and longevity conducted by Harvard Medical School and published in the magazine Sleep found that Sleep regularity, i.e. going to bed and waking up at consistent times with few interruptions mid-sleep, matters more than duration. Sleeping six hours every night on a consistent schedule has been associated with a lower risk of early death compared to sleeping eight hours with very irregular habits.
This study adds to the growing understanding of the links between sleep and longevity. Research in recent years has shown not only how important sleep is for health and lifespan, but also that Sleep duration isn’t the only thing that matters.
Sleep quality: how to improve it
Except for the few cases of pathological sleep deficiency where medical intervention is necessary, it is possible to improve the quality of sleep through good practices, changing some habits and taking help from technology (see gallery above).
Neither The sleep manual (Edizioni Lswr) three authors among the leading sleep experts in Italy – Antonio Grasso, Francesca Milano and Giulia Milioli – offer a complete program of a few weeks that aims to break our bad habits to create new ones. Furthermore, they reveal many secrets for optimal sleepstarting for example from pre-sleep activities and how to set up and prepare bedroom.
Among what is suggested to do and not to do before bed some tips include the need to learn to detach from thoughts of things that happened during the day or about what was planned for the following day.
A hot bath with essential oils – the lavender one is ideal – it can instead better prepare our body for rest. Furthermore, this will ensure that when entering the fresh sheets the body temperature quickly drops due to thermal shock and falling asleep is therefore facilitated.
Also listen to relaxing music helps calm our mind and prepare it for good sleep: from a study on 651 subjects, 32% listen to classical music to be able to rest better, 11% rock music and 7% pop and acoustic.
Bedroom: how it should be to make us sleep better
It is also fundamental the place intended for rest. In the bedroom stop TV, smartphone and PC because they don’t help detach the mind. The room where you sleep must not contain useless things that can activate the mind, e.g the walls should be light and neutral colors, that can remember nature.
The dress code? Better to wear something without buttons or too tight elastic, avoid zips and choose natural fabrics that don’t make you sweat, but don’t make you feel cold either, because both things could cause it micro-awakenings and affect sleep continuity.
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