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The original title: "what? Spring is coming, and my sleep quality is getting worse with the seasons? "

(photo Source: pexels) Writing | A Xian

Revision | Ziv

When it comes to "spring is coming", the first reaction of many people may be that the long and cold winter is finally over, the days are long and the nights are short, the weather becomes warmer and the mountain flowers are in full bloom, making it suitable for outing.

However, a change you haven't noticed also happens quietly with the change of season-sleep begins to decrease.

Who touched my sleep? | gifer seasonal changes affect countless creatures on earth, ranging from deciduous trees to falling leaves in autumn and growing new leaves in spring; to bears, squirrels, turtles and other animals hibernating in winter and waking up in spring. Humans also have seasonal sleep, with significant changes in sleep duration and structure throughout the year, with more sleep in cold winters than in summer, a new study has found.

Through polysomnography (Polysomnography), which includes more than 10 physiological signals such as brainwave, electrocardiogram, electromyography, eye movement, chest and abdominal breathing, nasal and oral ventilation, postural movement and blood oxygen saturation, scientists divide human sleep into two distinct stages, rapid eye movement sleep (REM) and non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM).

The scientists invited 292 volunteers to spend three nights in the laboratory environment at different times of the year (December 22, the shortest day of light in the northern hemisphere and June 21, the longest day of light in the northern hemisphere). To closely monitor their sleep.

The data show that subjects tend to sleep longer in winter, their total sleep time is 60 minutes longer than in summer, and the time to enter REM sleep in autumn is about 25 minutes shorter than that in spring. REM sleep in winter is 30 minutes longer on average than in spring. During the autumn months, slow-wave sleep (the third small stage of non-REM sleep, during which we dream and consolidate our memories) experiences a rapid and sudden decline.

Previous studies have found that checking your cell phone before going to bed or prolonged exposure to artificial light can inhibit melatonin production. But the study's findings make people realize that our sleep changes seasonally, even if we are exposed to artificial light.

Sleepy in spring, tired in autumn, napping in summer, sleepless in winter and March. All have scientific reasons. Gifer, should we consider changing our sleep habits throughout the year according to the seasons? The researchers believe that most people maintain similar sleep patterns throughout the year: go to bed at around 11:00 in the evening and then wake up around 7 a.m. to go to work / school. Therefore, going to bed earlier in winter can solve the problem of "increased sleep demand".

Compared with the seasons that shorten your sleep time, you will be even more surprised and unbelievable if you learn that the sleep patterns of the ancients are very different from those of modern times.

In 2004, in his book At Day's Close: Night in Times Past, Virginia Tech historian Roger Roger Ekirch revealed the ancient sleep habit of polyphasic sleep (Polyphasic sleep), which divides a single sleep into multiple sleep cycles.

Like many Romans, the ancient Roman historian Titus Livius was a practitioner of polyphasic sleep, which he mentioned in his masterpiece the History of Rome. | wiki A long time ago, the overnight sleep cycle went like this: between 20:00 and 23:00, most people would fall asleep on mattresses filled with straw or rags; a few hours later, people would wake up from the first stage of sleep, and then stay awake between 23:00 and 02:00 to do some things, such as eating, taking care of children, and so on.

According to Eckey's research, polyphasic sleep is so common that evidence of the habit has been found even in Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Australia, South America and the Middle East. And he believes that this sleep habit has been passed down for thousands of years. In fact, it is also easy to understand that at a time when resources are scarce, people basically have no other activities except daytime work and daily activities, especially at sunset, people have nothing to do.

Some people say that newborn babies' sleep habits are fully in line with the polyphasic sleep cycle. | pixnio humans are not the only animals with polyphasic sleep habits. Many species in nature rest in two or more different periods of time, which helps them stay awake at the most beneficial times of the day, such as ring-tailed lemurs, whose sleep patterns are very similar to those of pre-industrial humans.

At the same time, Eckch explains why most people have given up polyphasic sleep since the early 19th century: like other shifts in our behavior (such as a shift to clocks), the answer is that artificial lighting is becoming more and more common and driven by the industrial revolution. The former makes our night a legal time, and the colorful nightlife makes it a waste of time to spend hours in bed. The latter, for people who no longer go to bed at 21:00, must get up and go to work at the same time the next morning.

If you suddenly wake up in the middle of the night, don't be too nervous. Think of your pre-industrial ancestors. It's just part of the body's physiology for thousands of years.

Reference:

[1] https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2023.1105233

[2] Roger Ekirch, A. (2013). At Day's Close: A History of Nighttime. United Kingdom: Orion.

[3] https://www.iaasm.org/documents/Abstracts_Madrid.pdf

This article is from the official Wechat account: bring Science Home (ID:steamforkids), author: everything.

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