We often hear that “we need to sleep eight hours a night” to recover well and stay healthy. However, this approach fails to take into account something fundamental: the quality of sleep and the time we spend in each of its phases.
It is possible to sleep for eight hours and still not have optimal recovery. Just as it is possible to sleep for less and still achieve sufficient amounts of deep and REM sleep to get a truly restful night’s sleep.
Deep sleep and REM sleep
Sleep consists of two key phases for our health and well-being, in which we must spend at least 1.5 hours to ensure that body and mind regenerate optimally, maximizing our daily performance and protecting our long-term health.
Deep sleep: This is where physical restoration, tissue repair, immune system consolidation, and growth hormone release occur. If this phase is insufficient, your energy will be low, you will not get efficient muscle recovery even after sleeping for many hours, and you will be more prone to getting sick.
REM sleep: It is essential for memory, creativity, and emotional processing. Without enough REM sleep, it is common to experience concentration problems, irritability, proneness to depression, anxiety, and difficulty learning or remembering things.
How to get more deep sleep?
Go to sleep earlier: The first few hours of sleep, especially between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. (this varies slightly depending on each person's chronotype), are associated with a greater predominance of deep sleep.
Going to sleep earlier can be particularly helpful for those looking to optimize physical recovery, as the body maximizes this phase during the early hours of the night.
How to get more REM sleep?
Sleep later: The hours before waking up are usually dominated by REM sleep, the phase in which memories are consolidated, emotions are processed, and creativity is fostered.
This means that those who go to bed later or extend their sleeping hours into the morning may experience more REM sleep, which benefits cognitive performance.
How to know exactly how much time we spend in each phase
In the modern era, devices like the Oura Ring allow us to monitor our sleep accurately and in detail, giving us insight into the quality of our sleep and the proportion of time we spend in different stages of sleep.
This way, you can make informed decisions and lifestyle changes to optimize your health, productivity, and athletic or fitness performance.
What to do if you don't have a monitoring device?
While you can rely on these types of devices, they are not essential for getting a good night's sleep. To promote deep sleep, simply go to bed earlier. To maximize REM sleep, extend your wake-up time slightly.
To optimize both phases, maintain a dark, cool, and quiet environment, avoid stimulants such as caffeine, alcohol, and heavy meals at least 3-4 hours before bedtime, limit exposure to blue light at least one hour before, and establish a relaxing routine such as a warm bath or meditation before bed.
With the right adjustments to your lifestyle, it is possible to optimize sleep even with 5-6 hours per night. The key is to prioritize its quality, adapting your daily routine and habits to achieve at least 1.5 hours in each of these two phases, ensuring a complete and truly restful rest.