Who understands sleep problems best? Of course, the astronauts. In this article we will explain how to solve the problem of lack of sleep and return healthy sleep .

On duty, they have to. After all, most of the time they are cut off from the outside world, and, therefore, from the usual external signals, which usually remind us of what time it is now.

The astronauts working in orbit watch sunrises and sunsets more than once a day, as a result of which their circadian rhythms get off.
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When you are in a tin box floating through the cold darkness of space, you have a lousy sleep, and it can have very sad consequences.

Roughly speaking, due to lack of sleep, you will not even notice that, for example, you do not photograph the Earth, but the walls of the ship. Yes, sleep deprivation is a real problem.

Excerpt from “Bold beginnings: Polar and space research. Life of scientists in isolation ” :

... Cosmonaut Valentin Lebedev reported in his diary that he often made mistakes on the day after he went to bed late; once he took fifty photographs of the earth through a closed window, before realizing his mistake.

NASA set about serious research.

3 great ideas

NASA representatives quickly realized a few things:

1) You are a slave to external signals

Without sunlight, darkness and other situational signals, you can lose the ability to regulate sleep time.

Excerpt from “Bold beginnings: Polar and space research. Life of scientists in isolation ”:

Environmental signals, for example, sunlight and its absence at night, as a rule, are some reference points; having lost them, people gradually begin to go to bed later and more and more awake every night.

2) Your body will not sustain activity 24 hours a day.

In the end, your sleep and wake cycle can be completely out of control. If you do not pay attention to the changes, your circadian rhythm will begin to be 25.4 hours per day.

Excerpt from “Bold beginnings: Polar and space research. Life of scientists in isolation ”:

If an individual is in isolation from any time points, the cycle of sleep and wakefulness and the rhythms of body temperature are shifted every day to later hours. You go to bed all later, the circadian activity of the body is disturbed. There is an autonomous daily rhythm. So the cycle of sleep and wakefulness of an individual can shift about 10 hours a week in the absence of social reference points of time and environmental factors ... In extreme cases, the cycle will continue.

3) You do not really appreciate the quality of sleep

If you think that sleep in the light does not affect you, you are mistaken . It is likely that you will not even notice a decrease in activity the next day.

Excerpt from “Bold beginnings: Polar and space research. Life of scientists in isolation ”:

... Many people mistakenly believe that all people adapt to their usual sounds, and they are not affected by noise during sleep. In fact, most people's sleep is disturbed by the most familiar sounds. Some do not even wake up and are not aware of what is happening while the quality of their sleep decreases.

This information is more valuable than you think. Why?

We are all astronauts now

As John Durant points out in his fascinating new book , The Paleolithic Age: Ancient Knowledge of Health , thanks to modern technology, comparing ordinary people with astronauts is now appropriate.

Excerpt from the Paleolithic Age: Ancient Knowledge of Health:

Today we are completely dependent on the artificial signals of modern life. Now by the word "light" we do not mean the sun, but artificial lighting, the light from the screens of televisions and computer monitors. The temperature no longer depends on the cooling cycle at night and warming during the day. It is maintained by a thermostat. As for communication, we live in “isolation”, we minimize contact with real people, but at any time of the day or night we can chat online, watch TV, listen to the radio. Now that there is complete confusion with our circadian rhythms, we are trying to regain control with the help of stimulants (caffeine, nicotine) and depressants (alcohol, sleeping pills). Is it any wonder that a third of Americans are chronically sleepy?

Probably, you think that all this does not concern you or, at least, does not affect you too much.

You're wrong. Recall point 3.

Studies in which ordinary people participated, showed the same results. After 2 weeks of a 6-hour sleep, you can be compared with a person in a state of intoxication:

... At the end of the second week, the subjects were relaxed just like those who in another Dinges study had been deprived of sleep for 24 hours in a row. Their condition could be compared with the state of intoxication.

But what did chronically sleepy people say about their state of health? "I do not notice anything unusual."

Even after 14 days of research, they claimed that drowsiness had no effect on them. In fact, their activity has declined. In other words, people who do not get enough sleep do not realize how much healthy sleep they need. We are not as invulnerable as we think.

So if your activity has decreased due to sleep problems, you can not guess about it. However, this problem exists.

So what kind of answers does NASA offer us?

What to do?

In the past, I studied the results of sleep research and documented my experiments. Now add what we know about astronauts.

Considering that the Skylab rocket engine or the sounds of the expanding and contracting hull of your ship probably won't wake you up, I reduced the recommendations to four points:

• Make a schedule for yourself, even on weekends. Remember the problem of autonomous diurnal rhythm. If you do not follow the regime, the sleep phase will begin to lag.
• An hour before bed, relax. Yes, you have a lot of work. But your time is no more valuable than that of an astronaut. So take the time to relax.
• Let the contrast between day and night become clearer. It's great if sunlight penetrates the room in the morning. Dim the lights at night. Turn off electrical appliances before bedtime. You can also use various applications for convenience, for example f.lux .
• Let your bedroom be dark, cool and quiet. Even if you think that “the light doesn’t bother you” or “the noise is not so strong”, all this can lead to a decrease in the quality of sleep.

Durant offers one more good advice that I follow: don't set the alarm for the morning; set it up at night as a reminder that it is time to go to bed.

Excerpt from the Paleolithic Age: Ancient Knowledge of Health:

It is useful to set the alarm not to wake up, but to go to sleep. Start the alarm so that it will work an hour before bedtime. When it rings, complete any work on the computer, turn off the TV, turn off the unwanted light and start preparing for a new day.

This method will not allow you to deceive yourself and will give you the opportunity to wake up naturally. (Even if "naturally" occurs on the surface of the moon.)

PS We recommend another article on the topic - Zen Early Awakenings: 10 ways to consolidate the morning ritual.

Translated by Vyacheslav Davidenko, founder of MBA Consult