If you’re someone who didn’t sleep very well last night for some reason, you might be feeling a bit jaded as you read this. This is understandable. You may be thinking that simply getting the so-called ‘eight hours’ of sleep for the next few nights can restore balance.

This is true up to a point. You’ll learn more about why I say ‘up to a point’ in a moment.

However, it can also be someone who made you get your eight hours last night, and the night before, and the night before, but for some reason you feel like you’re not working on all cylinders. This is also understandable, and you are about to find out why.

Not all sleep is the same

We can think that all sleep is the same. But is not. The quality of our sleep varies from one part of the night to another. Our bodies have a natural rhythm, and that rhythm is thousands of years old. it’s called a circadian rhythm.

It is the rhythm of nature, and one by which animals instinctively live. As human beings, we are essentially animals and are designed to live according to this natural rhythmic cycle.

That cycle can be seen in the passing of the day and the passing of the seasons. We have the dawn of the day (Spring) where we wake up. We then move on to the main part of our day (summer) when we are most adapted to work. This is followed by relaxing towards the end of the day (autumn) and finally sleeping at night (winter).

Therefore, we are naturally designed to wake up when the sun rises and sleep when the sun goes down. When we adjust our lifestyle to accommodate this natural rhythm, we have a better quality of sleep.

Our natural sleep cycles

Similar to this natural rhythmic cycle, our sleep pattern also has a natural cycle. When we sleep we oscillate between deep regenerative sleep (where the body repairs itself) to the slightly lighter REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep state in which we dream.

These sleep cycles last about 90 minutes each. So if he discovers that he’s getting eight hours of sleep and still feels tired when he wakes up, he’s probably setting his alarm clock to wake him up in the middle of a sleep cycle instead of at the end.

For example, if you went to bed at 11 pm and woke up at 8 am, you would have slept nine hours and gone through six complete sleep cycles. These would be:

Cycle 1. 23:00-00:30

Round 2. 12:30 to 2:00

Round 3. 2:00 a.m.-3:30 a.m.

Round 4. 3.30am-5.00am

Round 5. 5:00 a.m. to 6:30 a.m.

Round 6. 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.

After sleeping from 11:00 pm to 8:00 am, you will probably feel quite refreshed when you wake up.

However, if you set your alarm to wake you up at 7 am, you will have slept for eight hours, but you will have woken up during a 90-minute sleep cycle (between 6:30 and 8:00). Therefore, you may not feel as rested upon waking as if you had gotten up at 8:00 a.m.

Repair and rejuvenation

In addition to these shorter 90-minute cycles, according to our circadian rhythm, the body regenerates and rejuvenates most significantly between 10 pm and 2 am

So you might go to bed at, say, 1 a.m. and sleep until 9 a.m. to get your eight hours, but you’re missing out on three vital hours of body repair each night. And if you work shift patterns, especially the night shift, you may be throwing your circadian rhythm off entirely, denying yourself the opportunity to properly repair your body during sleep.

Top 3 sleeping tips

So, to give yourself a better chance of improving your performance, productivity, and outcomes later in life, consider the following three tips:

1. Adapt your lifestyle to your natural circadian rhythm and go to bed at 10:00 p.m.

2. Make sure you get eight or more hours of sleep a night

3. Try not to wake up with an alarm clock. If necessary, set it to wake up at the end of a 90-minute sleep cycle instead of in the middle.