Know the answers to sleep health and happy life

Sleep is the underlying physiological support for a happy life. There is no "standard sleep plan" that is universally applicable. As long as it conforms to your own rhythm, is stable during the day after waking up, and does not feel persistent fatigue, it is healthy sleep. It directly determines 80% of your daily emotional stability, 60% of your cognitive efficiency, and 40% of your long-term health expectations. It is the prerequisite for all happiness.

Last month I met a girl who works in cross-border operations and came to me for consultation. She said that she followed the "self-disciplined sleep method" on the Internet and set an alarm clock for 7 o'clock every day for 8 hours. Even if she had to get up at 2 o'clock in the morning to catch up on the plan, she suffered from headaches every afternoon for half a month. Later, she even wrote the wrong quotation when communicating with customers. When she checked the psychological scale, her anxiety score soared to moderate. Later, I asked her to stop being stuck in time and keep a sleep diary for a week. I found that she has a nocturnal rhythm, and the peak of melatonin secretion is around 1 am. Later, she adjusted to going to bed at 1 am, getting up at 7:30, and lying down for 20 minutes at noon. After only two weeks, she said she was back to normal. Last week, she won the quarterly award from the department, saying that she no longer had to talk about "not sleeping well".

In fact, there have always been two mainstream voices in the academic community regarding sleep standards, and there is no absolute right or wrong. One is the "circadian rhythm synchronization theory" advocated by the Traditional Sleep Medicine Association, which believes that human sleep should match the changes in natural light. The optimal solution is to fall asleep at 10-11pm and get up at 6-7am. This is also in line with the work and rest patterns of most people who work 9 to 5, and can keep the secretion of cortisol and melatonin in a stable range, minimizing the burden on the cardiovascular and metabolic systems in the long run. The other is the "individualization of sleep type" theory that has been gradually recognized in the past 10 years. Studies have found that about 15% of the population are born with early bedtimes, 20% are born with late bedtimes, and the rest are intermediate types. If people with late bedtimes must lie down at 10 o'clock, it will cause sleep phase delay disorder. The anxiety of lying down for several hours and being unable to fall asleep is much more harmful than going to bed late itself.

The data in the "White Paper on Sleep Health of Chinese Residents" released by the Chinese Sleep Research Association in 2024 is quite interesting. More than 62% of adults sleep less than 7 hours a day, but less than 30% of them have pathological insomnia. The rest either actively stay up late to check their mobile phones and rush to work, or they have "suppressed sleep problems" by imposing sleep standards that are not suitable for them. What's more noteworthy is that the report says that people with stable sleep status have a 47% higher happiness score in life than people with sleep disorders. This gap is larger than the happiness gap caused by a 20% difference in income.

I also stepped into this trap two years ago. At that time, I read on the Internet that "successful people wake up at 5 o'clock." I forced the alarm clock to be adjusted from 7 to 5 o'clock, and set three alarm clocks to sound in turn. Later, I simply switched it back. Now I go to bed at 11:30, wake up at 6:30, and lie down on the company's folding bed for 20 minutes at noon. The proportion of deep sleep in several consecutive physical examinations is about 22%, which is a standard health level. I basically don't need to drink coffee during the day. My condition is much better than before when I forced myself to "self-discipline personality".

Many people think that they should save their sleeping time to do serious work and say, "I will sleep well when I retire." To be honest, this idea is really short-sighted. I once met a business owner who was 38 years old. He only slept 4 hours a day for three consecutive years. Last year, his physical examination revealed high blood pressure, high blood fat, and premature heartbeats. The doctor said that problems may occur at any time if he continues to endure it. Now he has handed over half of the company's business and forced himself to sleep for 7 hours a day. He said that he used to think that making enough money was happiness, but now he discovered that he is truly happy when he wakes up in the morning without feeling dizzy, his heart does not beat in panic, and he can have breakfast with his children.

Don’t regard sleep as a KPI. I have seen too many people wear smart watches and stare at the deep sleep ratio and sleep score every day. As long as the score is low, they will become anxious. They even lie down and sleep early to make up for the score, but they really suffer from insomnia. The monitoring data of smart watches are only for reference. It is normal to have trouble sleeping once or twice. If you stay up until the middle of the night because you are worried about not sleeping well, then the gain outweighs the loss.

In fact, the relationship between sleep health and a happy life, to put it bluntly, is this: Only when you sleep well can you have the energy to eat the hot pot you want, go on a date with the person you like, solve the difficult work, and catch the messy little accidents in life. You don’t have to squeeze in 8 hours, you don’t have to go to bed early and get up early. The best answer is that you feel comfortable when you wake up and can live the day in a down-to-earth manner.