Get 7-8 hours of sleep, but still tired? Quality may be better than quantity
Sleep quality may be more important that quantity, explains clinical psychologist Michelle Baker.
Sleep / Pexels: Andrea Piacquadio 3771069
702 and CapeTalk's Africa Melane speaks to Michelle Baker, a clinical psychologist.
Listen below:
If you're waking up tired instead of alert and refreshed, despite getting seven to eight hours of rest, poor quality of sleep might be the reason.
Baker says seven or eight hours of sleep doesn’t automatically equal being well-rested.
Consistently getting quality sleep can be more impactful than the amount of sleep, says Baker.
"The simplicity of it is to give yourself the opportunity and time to sleep... people are so time urgent that sleep becomes something that has to be done; it's not a priority."
- Michelle Baker, clinical psychologist
Baker explains that sleep happens in 90-minute cycles.
If you don't complete the cycles of sleep consistently, because your sleep might be broken, especially if you wake up often during the night, it might break these cycles which affects how tired you feel the next day.
"Sleep fragmentations is often a problem with quality sleep because there's too many awakenings where they aren't getting enough sleep in one cycle - because those stages and cycles are important. It's important to complete the cycles so there's a progression from light sleep through slow-wave sleep to rapid eye movement sleep which then restores the brain and physicality..."
- Michelle Baker, clinical psychologist
Power napping might be changing sleep loads and can affect the impact of your sleep. "It's not ideal to sleep in patches," says Baker.
"To actually get your sleep in one scheduled block is biologically much more beneficial for the body."
- Michelle Baker, clinical psychologist
Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the conversation.