Stop Listening to Sleep Experts

It's important that we get a good night's sleep. Our decision-making skills are harmed by not getting enough of it.

Sleep has recently become another aspect of our lives that makes us worry more. We want the best night's sleep. Sleep anxiety is a condition in which people worry about not falling asleep or staying awake. According to a study in Nature & Science of Sleep, this type of anxiety is caused by a cycle of increased stress, which leads to poorer sleep.

The constant bombardment of advice from the media and sleep experts about what constitutes good sleep causes much of that anxiety.

Much of the advice is wrong. The myth that there is only one way to get good sleep has been perpetuated due to misinterpretation of scientific findings, poor methodologies, and the need for a good story to sell to the public.

It is recommended that we avoid light from screens before sleep. Individuals were exposed to four hours of use on its bright light setting before they went to bed on five nights in a row. It took two minutes a day for sleep to start. The biological impact was meaningless even though the results were significant.

The optimal amount of sleep is between 7 and 8 hours. A recent study said that seven hours was ideal for people in their 40s and 50s. It was found that getting too much or too little sleep was bad for your health. This study fails to take into account the health status of participants, ignoring the fact that poor health is likely the cause of too much or too little sleep.

Rather than being one-size-fits-all, healthy sleep patterns are based on our individual needs. A group of adolescents between the ages of 14 and 15 were studied by my group at Oxford University. The average level of insomnia in that group was in the normal range, and we gave participants cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia to help them sleep. On average, the intervention had no effect. The data showed that 20% of the group had insomnia and that CBTi improved their sleep. Had we only analyzed the average data, that insight would have been lost.

The popular belief is that there is only one way to sleep. We will learn how to make our sleep better for us. This new approach to sleep will be pioneered by the younger generations. According to a recent study by a senior economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the younger generation is getting more sleep than the older one. As we age, how long we sleep, our preferred sleep times, and how many times we wake during the night can be different. We will start embracing the sleep that works for each of us.