How to make a person sleep more than usual?

It is well known that to fully replenish forces an adult to sleep about 8 hours a day. The same recommendation applies to teenagers, but because of the abundance of homework and activity on social networks, they often sleep only 4 hours a day. Lack of sleep can have a negative impact on their health, so scientists from the US state of California decided to figure out how to get teens to go to bed earlier and sleep longer. The developed method of extended sleep school by as much as 43 minutes. You already wondering what the scientists have used the trick?

For complete relaxation a person needs at least 8 hours of sleep

Researchers originally thought that will be engaged in the change in circadian rhythms of adolescents. This term refers to fluctuations in the activity of biological processes such as digestion, depending on the time of day. Affect the circadian rhythms of a person, you can make it faster to get tired and hence, before going to bed. At the moment, scientists know of two ways to influence circadian rhythms - a light therapy and behavioral therapy.

How to go to bed early?

Under the light therapy is the process when a person affected by brief flashes of bright light. It is believed that if in the last hours of sleep before waking up in a person's room abruptly turned on and off a bright light, his circadian rhythms begin to shift. The process of behavioral therapy is also in conversations with teenagers, where psychologists motivate them to go to bed early.

Influence the human circadian rhythms can use the bright light

To check whether it is possible with the help of these two methods to get teenagers to sleep longer, the researchers conducted an experiment. They gathered a group of 72 teenagers and set in their bedrooms bulbs, which equal time segments are flashing with bright flashes of light. The unit has issued the illumination level of 4000 lux - about the same shines afternoon sun in winter. The flash duration was 3 milliseconds - they occurred every 20 seconds in the last three hours of sleep teenagers. Outbreaks have been virtually invisible, so do not interfere with sleep.

This is interesting: Sleep helps the brain to forget unwanted memories

After four weeks, the subjects were told that they really began to feel tired a little earlier than usual. However, they still did not go to bed and would sit up late at night. In this connection, the scientists decided to add light therapy conversations in which young people explained the benefits go to bed earlier. A combination of two methods gave a very good result - the subjects began to go to bed about 50 minutes earlier than usual. On falling asleep they took about 7 minutes, so that the duration of their sleep increased by 43 minutes. By the way, while they were asleep, their brain cleansed of unnecessary memories

Sleep Health Benefits of

Scientists do not know exactly how the bright flashes of light can affect the human circadian rhythms. However, they understand about how their presence know the human brain - the light from the flares falls on the retina even though the closed eyelids. Due to lack of complete understanding of the causes of changes in circadian rhythms, scientists are advised not to try to use as long as their method.

How many hours a day do you sleep? Write your answer in the comments or in our Telegram-chat.

In general, it is important not only to human health night, but daytime sleep. Some of you may remember our article about the benefits of daytime sleep to human health. If you do not remember - always take a few minutes of your time and read the article.