For more than 60 years, the sandman has been sending children and adults into the world of dreams with his magical sleeping sand. And it is not for nothing that the children's program continues to enjoy great popularity among all generations: sleep is elementary for our physical and mental health. As important as it is, it is also prone to disruption.
A major disruptive factor, for example, is the upcoming time change. On October 30, 2022, clocks will go back one hour from 3 a.m. From a purely objective point of view, this means an hour more sleep. But even that can mess up your sleep rhythm and, in the worst case, cause insomnia.
Sleep scientist and psychologist Theresa Schnorbach from "Emma – The Sleep Company" says in an interview with the star: "We all have an internal rhythm. And the time change always has an impact on our inner clock." Chronic lack of sleep can therefore cause long-term damage to our health and mental health.
"Sleep is fundamental to our health and our performance," says the expert. Too little sleep has a negative effect on our concentration, memory and impulse control. Our ability to react also decreases significantly with lack of sleep. Schnorbach draws a drastic comparison: "But we now know that tiredness can have about the same effect as drinking and driving."
If you don't sleep enough, you also tend to have emotional outbursts. According to Schnorbach, this is because our amygdala – the area in the brain that is responsible for our emotions – is much more activated when we sleep less. In turn, our prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for rational thinking, is less connected to the amygdala due to sleep deprivation. A dangerous mixture, as the psychologist explains: "That means I not only have a stronger emotional accelerator pedal, I also lack the rational brake."
And as if that weren't enough, our risk of infection also increases as our sleep frequency decreases. Because when we sleep, natural killer cells are formed and strengthened in the body. These, in turn, are responsible for recognizing and eliminating pathogens. "If I now sleep four days less, the effectiveness of these killer cells can drop drastically. Our immune system is weakened and we get sick more quickly," Schnorbach sums up.
But how much sleep do we actually need? According to the sleep scientist, there is no general answer to this. The ideal sleep duration is somewhere between seven and nine hours: "I always recommend trying this value. If you slept longer without the alarm clock ringing, you should increase the sleep duration even more; On the other hand, if you lie awake in bed and If you're not (anymore) tired, you should shorten it a bit. It's important to listen to your body."
In order to prepare our body for the time change in the best possible way and to prevent sleep disorders in everyday life, the sleep scientist gave us five tips for healthy sleep:
