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8 hours of sleep a night are too many
If you always feel tired, have difficulty in waking up in the morning, and your brain starts to work only after two cups of coffee, maybe you sleep too little or… too much. A recent Finnish study belies the myth of sleeping 8 hours per night and provides new data. The study, conducted on
If you always feel tired, have difficulty in waking up in the morning, and your brain starts to work only after two cups of coffee, maybe you sleep too little or… too much. A recent Finnish study belies the myth of sleeping 8 hours per night and provides new data.
The study, conducted on 1885 men and 1875 women and published on the scientific magazine Sleep in September, assessed the right amount of sleeping hours of both sexes: 7.6 hours for women (i.e. 7 hours and 36 minutes) and 7.8 for men (i.e. 7 hours and 48 minutes).
The punishment for those who are not strict to the rules: early morning sleepiness and, in some cases, absence from work. Research revealed that people who sleep badly are absent from work about 8 days more than those who sleep the right amount of hours.
All participants were asked to specify their age, health problems, the amount of sleeping hours, the quality of sleep, the disorders they have (before sleeping, during the night and during the day) and the number of sickness absences.
The study showed that by sleeping the right amount of hours, the number of hours of sickness absence dropped by 28 percent; women are more likely than men to have difficulty falling asleep (especially when the seasons change) and men wake up too early and tend to solve their problems with pills.
What can you do to sleep better? You should take only few precautions to sleep better and feel less tired. Here are a few tips:
- Go to sleep and wake up every day at the same time;
- Reduce cigarette and alcohol consumption;
- Avoid intake of coffee, tea or other drinks containing caffeine or theine 6 hours before going to sleep;
- Do not eat too much before going to sleep, nor too little: you can risk to have a sleepless night caused by stomach cramps;
- Do physical activity during the day (if you do it in the evening you will be more awake than relaxed);
- Remove computers and electronic devices from your bedroom.
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