Science Museum丨How many alarm clocks are best for waking up?

The holidays are over and summer is quietly approaching.

It’s the season when “difficulty getting up” occurs frequently~

Set N alarms before going to bed every night to give yourself "motivation"

But the next morning, I turned them off one by one.

Sleep a little longer, sleep a little longer~

I overslept accidentally.

Why can’t I wake up with so many alarm clocks?

Just because you set too many alarms!

Chronic fatigue

According to a study by Harvard Medical School, if you set multiple alarms and wake up repeatedly before going back to sleep, you may suffer from chronic fatigue. This is because when you are repeatedly woken up by an alarm, you secrete a compound called adenosine. The increase in adenosine content makes you feel more sleepy and more likely to fall into a vicious cycle of "sleep-wake-up," making it more difficult for you to wake up fully.

Moreover, after the alarm rings, the human body will begin to secrete adrenaline and cortisol, interrupting the sleep cycle and waking up the body. Once you fall asleep again, it will affect the hormone secretion process. If you are repeatedly woken up by multiple alarms, your biological clock will fall into chaos. Not only will you fail to wake up your body quickly, but it will also take longer to wake up.

To deal with this dilemma, the best way is to just set an alarm!

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According to your own time plan, just set the most suitable alarm clock. After the alarm clock rings, wait for 1 minute to allow the human body and cerebral cortex to gradually wake up, open the curtains or turn on the lights. Appropriate external stimulation is more conducive to awakening the body. Don't procrastinate and refuse to take a nap, so that our body can maintain healthy and good habits!

Maybe someone says they are up, but they are still groggy, their clothes are on wrong sides, and they washed their face with toothpaste. Do they need to sleep a little longer?

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Sleep inertia should be blamed

This state is actually normal and is not an excuse for being lazy. This temporary groggy and half-awake state after waking up from sleep is called sleep inertia. Because different parts of the brain wake up at different speeds, the prefrontal cortex responsible for cognition, decision-making, and emotional control takes a long time to activate, which is why this temporary cognitive difficulty occurs. Its severity is mainly affected by the following aspects:

Sleep time

If you get enough sleep, sleep inertia after waking up will generally be short-lived. However, if you are sleep deprived for a long time, sleep inertia will be more likely to occur after waking up, and it will last longer. For example, if you stay up late for a long time, sleep inertia will come to you in the morning even if you don't want to. The only way to effectively relieve it is to put down your phone and get enough sleep.

Sleep Depth

When people sleep normally, they will experience the falling asleep period, light sleep period, deep sleep period and deep sleep period in sequence, and then cycle in sequence. Generally, they will experience 4-5 sleep cycles every night. Among them, deep sleep and deep sleep are collectively referred to as the deep sleep stage. During this stage, the level of melatonin (melatonin makes people feel sleepy and drowsy) secreted by the human body is very high. If you wake up at this time, you will have severe sleep inertia. If you wake up in the light sleep stage, the sleep inertia will be lighter.

Circadian Rhythm

Research shows that sleep inertia after being woken up at night is more serious than being awakened after daytime sleep.

How to maintain good sleep quality

To overcome the above two problems, the most important thing is to maintain good sleep quality. A survey of 2,002 young people aged 18-35 showed that in the eyes of the interviewed young people, work and study pressure and being addicted to playing electronic products before going to bed are important factors leading to poor sleep quality among young people.

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In addition, psychological factors caused by emotions such as tension, anxiety, and depression, disease factors such as endocrine disorders, environmental factors such as lighting and noise, and improper diet will all affect sleep quality to a certain extent.

In daily life, we can improve our sleep quality by increasing exercise, eating a healthy diet, calibrating our sleep clock, etc. If the problem is serious, we can contact a doctor in time to get professional help.

How many alarms do you guys set? What time do you go to bed at night? What time do you get up in the morning?

Creative team: China Science and Technology Museum New Media Team

Review expert: Yin Tielun, deputy chief physician of the Department of Neurology, Airport Branch, Peking University Third Hospital