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9 Really Tired Sleep Myths
From how much we need to how much we really get, misconceptions and misinformation that need to be put to rest
Sleep is among the most important pillars of good health, right up there with eating well and getting plenty of physical activity. Yet while we might know what goes into our bodies, and we surely know if we’ve exerted ourselves, we’re largely clueless about what happens when we’re sleeping and — here’s a zinger — we don’t even know how much we sleep or how good it is.
In a new study, scientists in Japan monitored brain waves of sleeping people with electroencephalography (EEG) devices, then asked them how they thought they had slept. The participants’ subjective ratings rarely matched the reality of their sleep quality — how deep it was — or how much they were awake during the night. The key findings:
“66% of individuals who perceived their sleep as poor exhibited no objective sleep problems, while 45% of those who considered their sleep sufficient were identified as potentially sleep deprived.”
Now that you know what you don’t know, let’s bust some serious sleep myths because, well, I think we can all sleep better knowing the truth.
