4 tips from a chronobiologist to sleep better

Benedict Movio, a chronobiologist and lecturer at the University of Caen, offers some tips to improve the quality of our nights.

1/ Know your needs

Determine whether you are a light or heavy sleeper, note your sleep schedule, and aim to wake up feeling rested. Remember that your typical wake-up time, during the weekdays and weekends, will determine your bedtime. not the opposite.

2/ Listen to your feelings

Go to bed at the first signs of sleep, such as yawning or heavy eyelids. But be careful to make sure you have about 16 to 17 hours of wakefulness after waking up and do not nap after 3 p.m.

3/ Allocate a room for sleeping

Reserve your bedroom exclusively for rest, and make it quiet, cool and dark to promote sleep. Your bedroom, and even your bed, shouldn't be equal to your desk.

4/ Prepare your sleep

Avoid heavy meals before bed, limit screens and stimulating activities before bed and practice relaxation rituals (stress generates cortisol, which inhibits sleep).

“By following these simple but effective tips, you can significantly improve your sleep quality and promote more restful nights.” Benoit finishes bad.

As recently revealed by the INSV/Fondation Vinci Autoroutes survey conducted by OpinionWay, the French sleep 6 hours 42 hours during the week on average (compared to 6 hours 57 hours in 2019), and 7 hours 25 minutes during the weekend or holidays (compared to 8 hours and 14 hours in 2019).

So the nights from Sunday to Thursday are very short for many of us. “As a general rule, you should sleep about 7 or 8 hours a night, but it really depends on each person's needs. Some people do very well with only 5 hours of sleep while others need 10 hours, although these cases extremes are rare”, Explains sleep psychotherapist Caroline Gotot.

“Memory and learning, metabolism, immunity… Even if many hypotheses still need to be confirmed, and others will undoubtedly be formulated, it is well established that sleep is essential for many biological functions.” Also refers to Inserm.