2023-04-26 22:57:06
In the Mexican population, sleep habits have worsened over the last 50 years. Specifically, it has gone from a break of between 8 to 9 hours to less than 7 hours, as stated by Elisa Sacal, a doctor and sleep specialist, as well as co-founder of the Mexican Academy of Lifestyle Medicine.
These data were presented in the 2nd edition of the Festival of Ideas (FID) 2023. In this regard, he indicated that “more than a third of adults in the country do not sleep between seven and nine hours, as recommended by specialists Worldwide”. He also pointed out that the last data was measured in 2013, however, it is expected that the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly exacerbated these parameters.
Changes in sleep habits are mainly due to the effects of artificial light
These changes in sleep habits are due to different obstacles that oppose good quality sleep and one of the main ones is the effects of artificial light. Likewise, the expert stressed that “many times, lack of sleep is also caused by idiosyncrasy, since on many occasions, it is believed that rest is synonymous with laziness or unproductiveness. However, this is a misconception.”
He also commented that the creator of artificial light Thomas Alva Edison was unconsciously the forerunner of a “silent pandemic”, because high exposure to this type of luminescence affects health, in a neural and cerebral context.
The use of the smartphone should be eliminated 15 minutes before going to sleep
What should be clear is that improving sleep habits not only prevents some diseases, but also improves people’s emotional health conditions. This is not to mention that it improves metabolism and accelerates the production of cerebrospinal fluid, which allows the brain to rid itself of toxins. That is why this expert proposed some strategies to modify sleep cycles such as the following:
- Avoid eating food late at night: you should not eat at least three hours before going to sleep. This causes the body to maintain a lower temperature, the metabolism is accelerated and deep sleep is favored.
- The use of the smartphone or smart device should be eliminated at least one hour before going to bed. This is because this is the device that causes the most damage by itself.
This last tip is the hardest to follow. For this reason, in order to abandon the use of the cell phone, other tasks such as reading, taking a bath, ordering a space or meditating, among others, can be carried out.
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