What time should you get up in the morning: chronotypes and REM sleep techniques

The physiology of sleep is the same for everyone, but some people easily wake up early in the morning, while for others, early awakening becomes real torture. To create all the conditions for healthy sleep, it is important to understand what time you need to get up in the morning and why it is so difficult to train yourself to wake up at the “right” time.

There are generally accepted norms that say that you need to wake up between 6 and 8 am. But larks and owls will not agree with this. Each chronotype has its own limits on the optimal time to wake up. They are determined by the biological clock, which depends on many factors: lifestyle, genetics and type of employment.

What time should you wake up?

There is a widespread belief that the best time to get up in the morning is summer dawn, 5-6 am. Also, many will agree that you need to wake up only when the body wants it. An even better option would be an individual schedule taking into account sleep phases, chronotype, health status and lifestyle. Rest is needed to restore the body's strength; accordingly, this physiological need loses its significance if a person forces himself to wake up at a certain time.

Advice
You can use a useful sleep calculator; it calculates the correct time to wake up, taking into account the stages of sleep, duration and time of falling asleep. But the “smart” device does not take into account the genetic need for sleep, which affects the result.

For some people, 4 hours is enough to get enough sleep and feel good, while others need more than 10 hours. This also depends on age: newborns need at least 12 hours a day for normal development, children and adolescents sleep less, the body is full of strength and recovers quickly. In an adult, the sleep schedule is maximally adjusted, and about 8 hours are required; in older people, rest is reduced to 5-6 hours.

To choose the optimal time to wake up, you need to calculate the duration of each sleep phase. The time gained will correspond to healthy sleep, and this will be enough to feel good in the morning. Now all that remains is to train your body to fall asleep at a certain time in order to wake up at the desired morning hours.

TOP 10 signs of lack of sleep

Lack of sleep cannot be romanticized. If at 18 you can afford to chat all night long with your gentleman, coquettishly clutching the telephone receiver with your shoulder, then at 30 your disdain for the regime will be obvious. More precisely, on the face. Lack of sleep can affect many of the body's functions and its ability to heal itself.

You become aggressive and irritable, nervous and worried about trifles.
You constantly feel sluggish; neither coffee nor a cool shower helps you cheer up.
You make stupid mistakes at work and lose productivity.

From time to time you “fall out of reality”, look at one point and cannot remember what you did 10 minutes ago.
You can't focus on simple things.
You constantly want to eat something very fatty and high in calories, for example, a burger with potatoes.
Your skin is dry and gray, the foundation sinks into the pores and emphasizes the creases.
You have huge bruises under your eyes. A sad Little Raccoon looks at you from the mirror.

How much sleep do you need to get enough sleep?

Your mind is confused, you forget about agreements and what time an important meeting is scheduled for.
You often catch colds, lack of sleep reduces the resistance of the immune system.

In 2022, the Journal of Experimental Psychology published the results of a study on the effect of sleep on the ability to concentrate. It turned out that lack of sleep has more serious consequences than a short-term decrease in attention - short-term memory is impaired.

The quality of your sleep is, first of all, a reflection of your mental state. Chronic stress, depression, and anxiety increase the risk of insomnia. And lack of sleep negatively affects the entire body. To get out of the vicious circle, you need to find out what prevents you from sleeping normally.

Determination of chronotype

There are three human chronotypes: larks, owls and pigeons. This is determined by the nature of daily activity. Chronotype explains the alternation of activity at night and during the day.

Based on your chronotype, it is easy to determine what time you need to get up and when to go to bed correctly.

Larks. They wake up easily in the morning, increased physical and mental activity is observed in the first half of the day with a characteristic decline in the afternoon. They go to bed very early, which surprises owls.
Owls. They wake up late on their own, after 10 am. Activity occurs in the evening and at night. They go to bed late, when larks have already gone through several stages of slow-wave sleep.
Pigeons. This is an intermediate type, the "pigeon man" may periodically exhibit characteristics of an owl and a lark.

Advice
Larks tend to wake up at 5-7, owls at 10-12, pigeons at 7-9 in the morning.

conclusions

The most important factor in waking up early in the morning is having a purpose. In the narrow sense of the word, this may be the answer to the question: “Why do I wake up early in the morning?”, in the broad sense, “Why do I live in principle?”
The second important condition is the ability to correctly prioritize. Imagine: there is a glass jar on the table, with pebbles of different sizes lying nearby; The task is to put the maximum amount of the proposed material into the jar. If you put small pebbles into the jar first, you will lose; By laying the larger stones first, then the medium ones and only at the end the small ones, you will get the most effective filling. (You can experiment). The metaphor is as follows: large stones are the most important things, medium ones are the least important, and small stones are those that can be safely put off until later. If you wake up early in the morning to do not the most important things, your motivation will dry up very soon, since such an undertaking will not bear much fruit.
Through trial and error, you will have to create your own morning routine that meets your goals and corresponds to your current level of development. Having set many difficult tasks in the morning, there is a high probability of quickly “burning out”. Move slowly, without stopping.
In any endeavor, positive reinforcement is important at the first stage. You can, for example, at the end of the week reward yourself for getting up early with something pleasant (not destructive). Over time, the need for reinforcement will disappear altogether, because you will see positive changes in your life - and this is the most pleasant thing.
Go to bed early, at the same time, create the necessary conditions for quality sleep, then there will be no difficulties with waking up.

Sleep phases

The next important step in determining the best time to wake up is the phases and how they affect a person’s well-being at different times of awakening. The main division occurs into slow and fast sleep. Slow has four subphases with different durations.

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Stages of slow-wave sleep:

The first phase lasts 15 minutes and is known as napping.
The second phase lasts 25 minutes, the work of internal organs slows down.
The third and fourth phases last about 40 minutes and are the main part of healthy sleep.

In the fast phase, the body is completely relaxed, but brain activity begins. Dreams seen during this phase are well remembered. The heart rate increases and the eyeballs move actively. The fast phase takes up approximately 20% of the total rest time.

Sleep begins with the 1st phase of slow-wave sleep and reaches the 4th, which takes about 2 hours. This is a complete cycle that must be repeated at least 4 times. It follows from this that you need to get up in the morning 8 hours after entering the first phase. If a person is used to going to bed between 11-12 pm, you need to get up at 7-8 o'clock.

Relationship between well-being and the awakening phase

Waking up without an alarm clock is accompanied by vigor, the person feels completely rested. Such a dream can be considered complete. The amount of time a person sleeps, provided he feels well in the morning, is considered the individual norm. Awakening occurs in the initial slow phase, when the body is ready to be awake, but has not yet entered the fast phase. If you are forced to wake up in the slow-wave sleep phase, you will feel tired, and the body will take a long time to restore muscle activity.

Advice
Waking up during the REM stage of sleep, you may notice a headache and slight fogginess, but colorful dreams will be remembered better.

There is a theory that people who are constantly woken up by alarm clocks during the slow-wave sleep phase are prone to various neuropsychiatric disorders. Using knowledge about the duration of each phase, you can reduce the rest time and wake up at a certain moment - at the stage when the body is ready for this.

Mindset and goals

The mind is more important than the mattress. Robin Sharma

We humans love instant gratification of our desires. And so you will look for any possible excuse to sleep more. In the first few days for sure. Remember the most important thing: you will have to sacrifice a lot, especially in the first month. And you need to prepare for this. You will give up several get-togethers, face a lack of energy, and your productivity will decrease. But you need to put yourself first. And for this you need to set goals. They are important for two reasons.

Goals motivate us

Goals push us when we want to give up and hit the snooze button. The more emotion you put into a goal, the more leverage it will have. Not only for awakening, but for everything else in life.

Goals determine our actions

There are goals and there are systems. Each goal implies a set of actions that need to be performed to achieve it. For example:

Goal: lose 10 kilograms by October 1, 2017.
System: consume less than 2000 calories daily (no sweets, chips and other crap) + exercise: cardio twice a week (swimming or running), strength training twice a week and yoga for stretching.

I could describe it in more detail, but now it's your turn.

Choose your top three goals for the next year and plan how to achieve each of them.

Once you've done this, move on to defining your evening routine.

How to get enough sleep in 15 minutes

There are several ways to get enough sleep in a short time. Similar techniques have been practiced for a long time; many famous artists and writers who had to work for a long time practiced short sleep of 20 minutes several times a day or 4 hours 2-3 times a day. This helped to quickly restore strength and begin a new stage of work with “fresh” thoughts. It is difficult to judge whether this affected health, because many other factors must be taken into account.

Important!
The proposed methods can negatively affect health; it is recommended to resort to them rarely, when there is really a need.

How to get enough sleep quickly and wake up at a given time?

Rest for 15 minutes. This is the invention of Leonardo Da Vinci, who is one of those creative people who managed to get enough sleep in a short time. He rested for 15 minutes every 4 hours. The essence of this method is simple, but not everyone can master it. For many, it is difficult to force yourself to fall asleep, and this only works when you are very tired. This method is harmful to health, because the minimum time for one phase is at least 1.5 hours. The Da Vinci method completely deprives some important phases for the body, which threatens a decrease in protective forces, the appearance of chronic diseases and mental disorders.
Rest for 20 minutes. Involves falling asleep in a certain position. You need to lie on your stomach, turn your head to the left, bend one leg and press it to your stomach, put your hand straight along the body. This method is complemented by a cup of coffee immediately before bed. Caffeine kicks in after 20 minutes and acts as a natural alarm clock. Those who practice such sleep believe in its positive effect on the cardiovascular system.
Soldier's method. The alarm clock is set for 30 minutes, after waking up it is reset for another half an hour, this is repeated 4 times. People who try this method note a boost of energy within 6-7 hours.

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To wake up at the right time, it is important to organize your sleep correctly. You should rest in a ventilated room; before going to bed, it is recommended to take a warm shower and have dinner 3-4 hours before bedtime. It is important that the sun's rays do not enter the room; blinds or curtains should provide good protection from street lighting. A person will quickly fall asleep and wake up at the right time if there are no extraneous sounds and the eyes are not irritated by bright light.

Advice
When, for certain reasons, you have to rest in a lighted room, the Mschistota.ru resource recommends using a sleep mask; it will create additional conditions for quickly falling asleep and quality rest.

What helps you wake up

To wake up quickly and easily:

Place the phone with the alarm clock set at the opposite end of the room, away from the bed. As soon as you take a vertical position and take a few steps, the state of consciousness will already change - tamas will become less, and, accordingly, laziness will also decrease.
After turning off your alarm, drink a glass of water. It is better to prepare the water in the evening; it is convenient to put it in a thermos - this way it will remain warm in the morning. Water will stimulate the gastrointestinal tract and help its rapid and effective cleansing.
After visiting the toilet, take a shower, finishing with a cool/cold shower. Cold dousing will have a stimulating effect on the nervous system and will help to effectively awaken. Finally, dry your body with a terry towel.
Next, do some body exercises. In yoga, Sukshma Vyayamas and the Surya Namaskar complex are excellent for these purposes. (you can insert a link to the video of the complex). Tibetan prostrations will also serve as an excellent alternative to exercise (they will not only help strengthen the body, but will help reduce egoism). (you can insert a link to the practice)
It is better to eat when you are fully awake from sleep.

"Smart alarm clock"

There are “smart alarm clocks” that know what time you need to get up. They are able to determine the sleep phase by movements, heart rate and other indicators. "Smart alarm clock" has an error, but anyone can try it. This device is very sensitive, and its results can be affected by accidental awakening at night, extraneous sounds from the street, or a barking dog. It is possible that a smart alarm clock will not go off at the most appropriate time, but if a person sleeps peacefully and all the characteristic signs of each phase are present, the device can be a good helper.

But no smart alarm clock can calculate the best time to wake up in the morning as accurately as the human brain. The body itself will tell you what time to go to bed and when to wake up; you just need to create the conditions for healthy sleep. And with hard training and desire, any lark can turn into an owl - and vice versa.

Disadvantages of technology

At first glance, everything is calculated quite simply. But in practice, this requires:

persuade someone to agree to long-term monitoring of your sleep;
be sure that all readings are recorded accurately;
choose a time for observation when the sleeper does not know about it (otherwise it will affect the results);
know for sure that the quality of sleep during observation was not affected by the physical or mental state of the subject.

In fact, one cannot rely one hundred percent on the reliability of such results either. Fortunately, scientists are seriously concerned about this problem and have found an effective solution. This is how one of the most fashionable and useful gadgets was born - the “smart alarm clock”.