3 sleep facts you may not have known

Sleep is crucial for our overall health, helping to support brain function, emotional regulation, a healthy immune system and more. Here are three tips to help you get the most from your sleep.

1. Don’t rely on “catch-up” sleep: When you fall short of the amount of sleep your body needs, you accrue sleep debt. And tacking on several hours one night or over a weekend will not make up for it. Sleeping in may make you feel better temporarily, but altering your sleep and wake times significantly can lead to increased fatigue, Kimberly Fenn, a professor of cognition and cognitive neuroscience at Michigan State University, told The Washington Post. Instead, keep a consistent sleep schedule and, if you’ve lost some sleep, try waking up an hour or so later in the morning or take a 20-minute power nap in the afternoon.
2. Find your sleep “sweet spot”: New research suggests that people who hit a sleep “sweet spot” between 6.4 and 7.8 hours of sleep each night experience better brain, heart and immune system function. The Optimist reporter Maggie Penman spoke with Mark Lachs, co-chief of the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, who said both too little sleep and too much sleep can be bad for your health. “It is a Goldilocks kind of phenomenon,” he said.
3. Talk to your doctor about sleep supplements: If you’re having trouble sleeping, consider talking to your doctor about supplements. Studies suggest that melatonin and magnesium may help you sleep. I recently spoke with sleep experts who said melatonin may be helpful for people who are jet-lagged or have a natural tendency to stay up too late or wake up too early. Magnesium has less research behind it. But because it helps maintain nerve and muscle function, it may help with muscle relaxation, supporting sleep.

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