TOO LITTLE REM SLEEP FULL

Although some experts admonish that lounging in bed on the weekend leaves us too wired to sleep by Sunday night, most busy moms I know instantly collapse into oblivion at bedtime. Sleeping late is another time-honored way to catch up.

TOO LITTLE REM SLEEP FULL

Why this works: 'Although sleep deprivation is cumulative,' she explains, 'you don't compensate for it in real time but rather by getting more of essential deep, non-REM as well as REM sleep.' This means a full night of intense 'recovery' sleep can help you knock off a good chunk of your sleep debt. Sewitch, Ph.D., director of the Sleep-Wake Disorders Center at Hampstead Hospital in New Hampshire. 'You'll get an energy boost, yet still have most evenings available,' says Deborah E. One way to make up for lost sleep is to pick one night a week to turn in early instead of shaving time off every night. That's the time that keeps me human, and I refuse to snooze it away.įortunately, say experts, there are ways to feel rested without kissing all your evenings good-bye. That's when I play piano, polish nails, or sit down with an Anne Rice novel. That's when I catch up on my husband's life and fill him in on mine. That's when I pay bills and mop floors, set up play dates and work on PTA projects. and midnight, when the kids are at long last asleep and I can get something done. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to playĪlthough I'm tired of feeling tired, I refuse to follow that oft-heard advice, 'Just go to bed earlier.' Sorry, I cannot sacrifice a minute of that precious stretch between 9 p.m. 'In terms of sleep loss, the typical person pulls the equivalent of one all-nighter every week,' says James Maas, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Cornell University, who leads a nationwide seminar called 'Asleep in the Fast Lane.' But most people today get fewer than seven. Although some (rare) lucky souls feel fully rested after five hours' sleep - and others may require 10 - the average adult is genetically programmed to need eight hours of sleep a night. So it's no surprise that the National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research reports we're sleeping 20 percent less than our great-grandparents did. And we've got a society in which the ability to survive on minimal sleep is a badge of dynamism, while lying down brands us as lazy. We've got children who wake us in the wee hours. We've got midnight chores, courtesy of grocery stores that never close and husbands who leave 78 percent of the housecleaning to us. We've got round-the-clock workdays - compliments of the personal computer, cellular phone and fax.

Like almost every other working mother I know, I exist in a state of chronic sleep deprivation.

Too little rem sleep