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Then calculate your wake up time, counting back + 1 extra hour.
10pm to 7am would be fine, for example.
Try to avoid using an alarm clock to wake up.
During a weekend or when you have time available, stay up for between 24-48 hours, till you are really tired and it's amost around your target bedtime (perhaps the following night if required, but don't go over the 48 hours).
- approx 2 to 3 hours before bed, stop eating anything
- approx 1 to 2 hours before bed, stop drinking
- 1 to 3 hours before bed, avoid using high brain activities (turn off cellphone, social media, computers, checking emails, etc) and switch over to low brain activities (reading or watching tv, etc).
Feel free to play a movie to zone out to, if that movie isn't too much for the brain to process. Some movies can even help you doze and feel sleepy / relaxed.
Right on your set bedtime. You should been ready, already brushed teeth, etc... and in bed.
Lie down and stretch your entire body out all the way down to the toes. Then tense and tighten your muscles up on the face, relax them, on the shoulders, then relax them, down the arms/hands, relax, down the legs and relax. Work from the head all the way down the body tensing up and slowly relaxing.
This trick is known by some military pilots and will even get them to sleep sitting upright in the plane within 2 minutes.
I never actually knew it, but just learnt similar myself as a kid growing up and was able to get to sleep within 2-5 minutes easily.
The next tip is to keep that pattern of a bedtime and wake up time repeating at least 5 out of the 7 day week. The body clock will adjust and loves the pattern to follow, so it knows when to release chemicals of the sleeping and waking up process at the right times. Things like alarm clocks or just having random sleeping times will confuse and slow that process down, or break it before it's finished the cycle.
This is easily fixed though. All you need to do is get yourself tired, but not too tired, so you can fall asleep few hours earlier. Here's some tips
1. Most important, DO NOT STARE AT SCREENS 2 HOURS BEFORE GOING TO SLEEP. It takes approximately 2 hours for the stimulated feeling go away. If you try to go to sleep earlier than that after watching bright screen you will just keep rolling on the bed.
2. You need to force yourself up so, you stay up for at least 12 hours before going to sleep. I suggest putting phone to alarm mode at the right time, and put it far enough away, so you need to get up and close the alarm. Otherwise you might just reflex close it and not even remember doing it.
3. Dont take naps. You can close your eyes for 15 min but do it in position that prevents you from sleeping. On a chair is good idea.
4. If you struggle to stay awayke, try strong cup of green tea. You can still drink coffee or whatever, but tea boosts you more. Coffee makes you tired after the effect wears off and it wears off in few hours. Green tea releases caffeine slower, you get even boost 6 hours, and very gentle withdrawal.
I would agree somewhat, but it's still a good rule of thumb (based from what I can see upon my own personal experience).
I have a smart watch which records sleeping (both light and deep). A solid 4 hours in deep each night (plus 2-4 hours light) and the sleep quality is always up around 95% or greater.
Broken sleep and messed up sleeping patterns, the sleep quality will drop and you will need more hours to make up for it.
As a teen, you are always on social networks, brain is active due to chatting and socializing. A tad of stress about exams perhaps.
As an adult, it's more about work stress. Stimulants might be still kicking in (4 hours later), such as caffeine (coffee) or nicotine (if you are a smoker), etc.
8 hours does seem to be the magic number. The results speak for themselves: Memory gets improved, health conditions decrease, hunger levels are better managed, and immune system goes up.
If less than 6 hours per sleep, it tends to 'catch up', and by the 5th night, if it hasn't fully catched up, runs into sleep deprived. The poor sleep habits increase the body's energy needs. Then when you are sleep-deprived, your brain will release chemicals to signal hunger. This can lead to eating more, exercising less, and gaining weight.
However, too much sleep can also make you lazy, but it's pretty much impossible to reach unless you just don't get yourself up. When you wake up, just get up if it's a good time or you can't sleep anymore. At 7am, I will just get up on the dot, then go do something and the body adjusts, releasing chemicals to be fully refreshed and ready at that point of time (no alarm clock required).
This is just a recommended hours of sleep per night:
Infants: 16-18 hours
Preschoolers: 11-12 hours
Elementary: at least 10 hours
Teens: 9-10 hours
Adults (including seniors): 7-8 hours
Min: 6 hours, avoid lower if on a daily basis, with no catch up
I would personally still recommend it as a base. It covers over 25 years worth of research, from 16 separate studies, with more than 1.3 million individuals (which also included more than 100,000 deaths), found back in 2010 and followed up in 2013.
As for the myth factor: Genetics, age, medical conditions, environmental, and behavioral factors determine how much sleep you need. Some people will require more than eight hours and some less. Deep sleeping and quality is the most important factor. Most adults will be in a set pattern by then, get up, go to work, perhaps exercise, then watch some tv, and bed for the night. Where as a teen might be up with friend gaming at random hours, etc. It takes longer for the brain to settle down if it's not following a pattern and get that solid 'quality' sleep.
When your a teen, going through puberty, your body is releasing more chemicals for growth and development. These could be 'cut short' by early wake up calls, either an alarm clock or your parents dragging you out of bed. You don't actually want that, as the body hasn't released the 'wake up' chemicals fully yet, so you feel dozy during the day... end up sleeping in class, then wired awake the following night socializing online. The cycle continues, needing more 'catch up' each time. You start crashing out for 10 hours+. It's much better to just wake up when the body is ready to wake. So that 'myth' as such isn't really just for a teen to follow, but rather also the parent to respect, that they need to sleep and wake up on their own accord.