2023-07-26 19:53:48
New research indicates that people require more sleep during the winter months. “When we know that we need to sleep more in winter, it doesn’t make sense to keep the summer hours,” he said. Dieter Kunkz to the BBC, one of the study’s lead authors and director of the sleep and chronomedicine clinic at the St Hedwing Hospital in Berlin, Germany. “Our study shows that even when we live in an urban environment, with only artificial lights, lHumans experience seasonal sleep.”he added.
Previous studies found that exposure to artificial light before bed can suppress melatonin secretiona hormone produced by the pineal gland that regulates our circadian clock, the natural sleep-wake cycle that repeats itself every 24 hours and makes us feel drowsy.
The investigation used detailed records of 188 patients who lived in urban environments and suffered from disturbances in their sleep patterns. That analysis found that even when exposed mostly to artificial lights, participants experienced seasonal variations in REM sleep, which is directly related to the circadian rhythm. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is the most active stage of sleep and lasted 30 minutes longer in the winter than in the summer.
REM sleep is regulated by the circadian clock, “So the fact that it runs parallel to seasonality makes sense,” Kunkz explained. But the German team was surprised to find that there were also seasonal changes in slow-wave sleep (SWS), also called deep sleep. “We found specific changes in REM sleep and deep sleep, the two main phases of sleep, throughout the year. This was completely new,” said the Berlin researcher.
“Slow wave sleep” occurs during the final phase of sleep no rapid eye movements. This is the time when the body repairs and regenerates tissue, builds muscle, and strengthens the immune system, and is important for long-term memory consolidation and information processing.
“The seasonality of deep sleep was something we didn’t expect, because deep sleep is not driven by the circadian time system; it’s a homeostatic process. This means the longer you’re awake, the more deep sleep you’ll need to regain your energy,” Kunz said.
The scientist says more research is needed to understand why we need less deep sleep in summer than in winter. “We still don’t know what it means from a functionality standpoint.” The study was done with patients suffering from sleep disorders like insomnia.
Neil Stanleya sleep expert at Sleep Station, a provider of online cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, said: “Slow wave sleep is estimated to It is the most important phase of sleep because it is linked to memory, learning and the optimization of the immune system.. If you went a whole night without sleep, the next night you would make up all the deep sleep you lost, and only half of what you lost from REM sleep.”
But a good night’s sleep also depends on the temperature. Our body requires a skin temperature between 31° and 35° Celsius, something that can be easily controlled with heating in the modern world. In the summer, when high temperatures are more common, this can be more difficult to manipulate, especially during heat waves.
In this regard, according to the researchers, most people maintain a similar sleep pattern throughout the year, stating that they “go to bed around 10:30-11 pm and then get up around 7:00 am to go to work,” said the researcher. On the other hand, lack of sleep is associated with an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, obesity and depression, according to researchers. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to a recent Norwegian study, patients who visited their doctor and reported sleeping less than six hours a night had a higher risk of infection than those who slept seven or eight hours. “One possible explanation for these findings is that having an infection may cause sleep problems or drowsiness, or that both sleep and infection risk are linked to an underlying disease,” says the study’s lead author, Ingeborg Forthunresearcher of the University of Bergen, in Norway.
“Considering that infections are more common in winter, it may be important to get more sleep to avoid infections,” says Forthun, adding: “Also, getting a little extra sleep can help you feel more awake when your alarm goes off on a cold winter morning. ”.
Source BBC
Image gallery
#body #sleep #winter