Nightly rest

The dream of a good night’s sleep

Without enough sleep, no leadership in everyday life

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/MARIDAV)

Getting a good night's sleep is important for our well-being, health and performance. But restful sleep doesn't have to remain a dream. Read here about the different sleep phases and cycles and what you can do to get a good night's sleep.

It is not uncommon for our sleep to be too short or poor. Our sleep often falls victim to our "pressure to succeed" - in line with the motto: "I can sleep when I'm dead." Yet it is not lost time - it is a necessity. If you can't sleep well at night, you still feel the consequences the next day. At night, our brain processes what we have experienced during the day. New memories are formed during deep sleep and existing ones are consolidated.

No performance without a good night's sleep: Sufficient, high-quality sleep is an important basis for our physical and mental health and provides the foundation for a successful day. A good night's sleep is essential for us to run smoothly - it ensures a good mood and an intact immune system. It is therefore important that we sleep long enough and well enough. The amount of sleep we need varies from person to person. But it also depends on the phase of life we are currently in.

According to sleep researcher Thomas Wehr, the body releases growth hormones during sleep, but if these vital processes are disrupted by a lack of sleep, the entire organism collapses. This became clear in an experiment: rats that were prevented from sleeping by biologists died. "Healthy sleep is a luxury good that everyone can afford", psychotherapist Doris Zöser explains which aspects you should consider so that you can organize your sleep well.

How sleep works physiologically
Our biorhythm controls the time of day and night. Like a clock, we have times that are set for wakefulness and performance and others for tiredness and rest. If you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, it could be that you have not found your optimal sleep rhythm. Everything is controlled by the eye receptors: when light enters our body through the eyes in the morning, it stimulates the receptors on the retina of our eyes.

The nerve cells transmit the impulses to our brain and signal the pineal gland to stop producing and releasing the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin. Cortisol is released to get us going and tense our muscles. As a result, the concentration of adenosine, which builds up sleep pressure, increases. This is distributed throughout the day, increases and is ideally at its highest in the evening before going to bed.

Sleep phases and sleep cycles
It is important to know that we go through several sleep phases at night and that a sleep cycle lasts around 90 minutes. A sleep cycle is divided into three different sleep phases: light sleep, REM sleep (rapid eye movement) and the deep sleep phase, which is longest at the beginning of the night's rest and becomes shorter and shorter towards the end. During light sleep, the heart rate drops, breathing becomes calmer and the muscles begin to relax. Our emotions are processed during the REM phase. We dream and process issues that are on our minds.

Nächtliche Erholung

Tipps für erholsameren Schlaf

• Dunkler, ruhiger & gemütlicher Schlafplatz
• Licht abends dimmen
• Aufstehzeiten definieren
• Ganze Schlafzyklen einhalten
• Gedanken steuern und gegebenenfalls eine To-do-Liste schreiben
• Einschlafroutinen etablieren
• Auf üppiges und fettiges Essen verzichten

The most important phase is deep sleep, which is responsible for regeneration and the immune system. Comparable to brushing your teeth for the brain: scientists at Bar-Ilan University in Israel found that deep sleep helps the body to repair damaged DNA. So if you get less than 1.5 hours of deep sleep, you deprive your brain of the time it needs to repair its genetic material.

Keep to your sleep and wake-up times
It is important to always keep to complete sleep cycles and always get up at the same time. For example: you want to sleep through 6 sleep cycles and get up at 6 am. You therefore go to bed at 8.30 p.m. so that, if we add 30 minutes to your sleep time, you will be asleep by 9 p.m. If it gets later in the evening, it's not a tragedy if you stick to the whole sleep cycle and the time you get up remains the same. This would mean that you go to bed at 10 pm, only have 5 sleep cycles, but get up again at 6 am.

The right sleep routine

• Ventilate and darken: A cool, dark and cozy bedroom can help us fall asleep faster. The body temperature drops and the body is prepared for sleep.
• Make sure to dim the lights and reduce screen time.
• Avoid heavy meals and alcohol in the evening.
• The same routines before going to bed help the body to rest more quickly - whether it's a full bath, a walk or a good book is entirely up to you.
• To-do lists can help you prepare for the next day and stop your mind racing. In general, the thoughts we end the day with have a massive impact on the quality of our sleep. Make it a routine to think about three nice things you experienced during the day.

By the way: waking up at night is completely normal! And up to 20 times. Waking up is probably evolutionary: It was the only way our ancestors could be sure that their surroundings were still safe and warm. If you still have the feeling that you have slept through the night, it is because you can no longer remember waking up.