Rule Basics

Sleep eight hours a night, each night. That means eight hours of sleep, not eight hours of bed time and 4 hours of sleep. It also doesn't mean four hours in the afternoon and 4 hours at night. It means eight hours of sleep in one block. It is fine to get up and go to the bathroom or take some medicine etc, as long as you fall back asleep and get the total of eight hours. Some people will have a little bit faster sleep cycles than others and be able to do this in 7 to 7 1/2 hours but most people will be closer to eight. If you want to know how many hours it will take you simply don't set the alarm clock and see how many hours it is after you go to sleep before you spontaneously wake up feeling fully rested. If you get up at 4 hours or 6 hours you have only done 2 or 3 cycles of sleeping and you need 4 so go back and sleep another 4 or 2 more hours.

Going to bed at the same time and getting up at the same time will capitalize on your brain's recognition of its own 24 hour clock (called the suprachiasmatic nucleus) and will help you fall asleep and get up easier. Every time you finish a sleep cycle (about every 2 hours) you will almost be awake. At that time if anything is disturbing you, it is possible to wake up. This could include a full bladder, pain, noise, feeling too hot or too cold, etc. If you wake up before eight hours see if you can identify what was the cause of the awakening. Some things like a full bladder may be unavoidable, but others such as light or temperature may be things you can fix. If you are getting up with pain it is a problem as it will take 30 to 90 minutes for most pain medicines to start to work so you can have a significant disturbance in your sleep time. To fix this try taking longer acting pain medication before going to bed.

Since the major percentage of REM sleep occurs after you have gone through at least 3 cycles, when you get less than 8 hours of sleep, your nocturnal production of leptin drops dramatically. In fact studies have shown that if you sleep 4 hours instead of 8, your leptin levels drop 40%. The result is the next day you will be hungrier and your metabolic rate will be slower. If you have sleep apnea, be sure it is being treated. Untreated or under treated sleep apnea will prevent you from getting enough REM sleep and thus lower your leptin levels as well. A good sign your getting REM sleep is waking up with memory of long or detailed dreams.