Owls and larks, who is right?
Victoria: During an interview, one psychologist said words that interested me: “If you go to bed before ten o’clock, then you go to bed with the angels, and after that, whatever happens.” I understand this is a metaphor, but does the time you go to bed affect the quality of your sleep?
Vladimir: Only your habits influence. If you are used to sleeping during the day and working at night, continue to do so. Because your biological clock is already set. For example, all doctors are larks, and actors are night owls. This does not mean that they are like this by their natural chronotype, but life simply forced them. And if they are already used to it, then they should sleep like that and changing the usual rhythm is not recommended.
In principle, it doesn’t matter when you go to bed - at twelve or ten, as long as you have normal sleep. If you moved to a different time zone, then after some adjustment the cycle will be the same again. It is important to change it as little as possible.
Victoria: So it’s still a myth that you need to go to bed strictly before 23.00?
Vladimir: Whatever sleep time is convenient for you, stick to that.
About lucid dreams
Victoria: I watched your interview about lucid dreams and still want to ask this question. Lucid dreaming is a very fashionable topic right now. And I would like to know what you think about this, as a physiologist?
Vladimir: The fact is that lucid dreams are a very interesting phenomenon for physiology. It has been known for a long time; the first reports of this phenomenon appeared in the 19th century. In the second half of the 20th century, the American psychologist Stephen LeBerge put this theory on a scientific basis, he figured out how quickly people could be taught this.
And only recently have they begun to scientifically study this phenomenon. Scientists began to recruit subjects who practice lucid dreaming and record physiological parameters, i.e., what happens to them. And the conclusions drawn are as follows: a lucid dream is a state of altered consciousness, different from normal REM sleep. That is, a person who practices this deprives himself of normal REM sleep. All the doctors, neurologists and psychiatrists to whom I contacted about this unanimously stated that this practice is fraught with unpredictable consequences, it is a kind of drug addiction without a drug, it is dangerous for mental health.
Now my colleague Vladimir Borisovich Dorokhov first approved the topic of lucid dreams in his Institute. He gathered the necessary group of subjects and I hope that they will receive objective data about this amazing phenomenon, which they can share with us all.
In principle, controlled dreams are a very interesting phenomenon. In America, it is used to suppress nightmares among war veterans associated with memories of the military operations that the United States constantly wages far from its shores. They are taught special techniques, and when they begin to have nightmares about the war they experienced, they use these techniques and suppress the dream. This is really effective, the veteran feels better after this, but the use of this technique for voluntary control of dreams in ordinary healthy people can have the opposite effect.
Victoria: Sleep training used to be fashionable. One day I came across this article. All subjects were taught, for example, mathematics in their sleep 15 years ago. After 15 years, none of them were alive. I would like to know what you think about this? It is possible that this article was just a fantasy or a coincidence. But I wonder what sleep learning is based on? Can this really happen?
Vladimir: Learning in a dream is impossible, this is nonsense. When I was a young scientist, a young man who trained as a psychiatrist worked in our laboratory. He did a dissertation, it is in scientific libraries, on the topic of hypnopaedia. At that time it was a fashionable trend. He conducted rigorous experiments and showed that, for example, learning foreign words is possible in a state of relaxed wakefulness before sleep occurs. As soon as sleep sets in, the flow of auditory information is immediately blocked and the sleeper no longer perceives anything. A state of relaxed wakefulness before sleep is very effective for rote learning. But the problem is that it is difficult to maintain for a long time. A normal person either finally wakes up or falls asleep.
Therefore, memorization during this period is quite effective, but for this you need to specially study, use special techniques with feedback means so that you can maintain this state in yourself for a more or less long time. And then you can learn something by heart, since nothing distracts you.
Victoria: I would like to ask a little about children. I recently heard that in order for children to sleep well, they can be given warm milk at night, and for some reason with soda. What do you think of it?
Vladimir: Regarding warm milk, this is indeed true. I read an article about British research. The fact is that they have a tradition of drinking warm milk with corn flakes at night (night time beverage). English scientists tested the influence of this drink. Indeed, it turned out that this drink has a beneficial effect on sleep. A person drinks milk with cereal, his intestinal motility is weakened and he sleeps really well. And it’s really useful, I recommend it to everyone who complains about poor sleep.
I suggest taking warm milk with a spoon of honey, there are also various herbal infusions, for example, lemon balm. Our pharmacies have a lot of herbal infusions, both ours and imported. Many of them have a good effect on sleep and are completely harmless. You can try, because almost all existing sleeping pills, as any doctor will tell you, are very dangerous. They cause more harm than bad sleep.
My colleague, a somnologist, said at one scientific conference: “the task of a somnologist is to keep the patient from using sleeping pills until the last minute.” Now a new generation of drugs is appearing, new developments of sleeping pills, which may not be so harmful, but for now it is better to abstain.
Is it possible to save on sleep?
Victoria: I know the theory that sleep can be reduced. For example, you sleep 10 minutes a day, then stay awake for 2 hours, then sleep again for 10 minutes, etc. How do you feel about this theory?
Vladimir: This is completely wrong. Sleep is a very complex cyclical process. There are cycles, phases and stages within it. It is strictly organized. The destruction of the structure of sleep leads to the fact that those processes that should occur in it do not occur. Therefore, with fragmented, inadequate sleep, a person does not get enough sleep.
I'll just give you an example. The REM phase of sleep, when we dream and are accompanied by muscle relaxation, usually cannot occur if we are sitting. For example, on an airplane, a person on a long flight sleeps in seemingly comfortable reclining seats, but upon arrival does not feel rested. Due to the fact that you cannot lie down, the cyclicity of sleep, the strict alternation of its phases and stages, is disrupted. The same is true for bus travel. And on the train you can sleep well and feel rested in the morning. These processes cannot be interrupted, they cannot be crushed. Moreover, a person has such a complex sleep structure that the first half of the night is not similar to the second.
It is important that the whole night passes completely. In the first cycles of sleep, we are dominated by deep slow sleep, this is apparently the most vital state, without which the brain dies, and in the second half of the night the REM phase of sleep predominates, that is, sleep with dreams, it is also necessary for life. Therefore, all parts of sleep are needed, all its stages, phases and cycles, and there is no escape from this.
On the other hand, it is known that during the day, even short periods of light sleep (so-called episodes of microsleep) can significantly relieve mental and emotional stress. This is a proven fact, although its physiological basis is still not clear. In New York, for example, there are special relaxation rooms for clerks, which they can go to after lunch to have a little pokemon. And these 10-15 minutes have such a beneficial effect on many that they feel rested and can work intensively for several more hours.
However, a night's sleep should still be complete.
