6:41 am: this is the average length of a night's sleep for a French adult. Not enough, warns the National Sleep Foundation. The American Sleep Institute recommends 7 to 8 hour nights for all adults between the ages of 18 and 65. For adolescents, the recommendations are a little higher: between 8 and 10 hours per night, without exceeding the extremes of 6 and 11 hours of sleep.
A quarter of French people suffer from sleep disorders
Easier said than done. According to the National Sleep Institute, a quarter of French people suffer from sleep disorders, including insomnia and night awakenings. To avoid them, Doctor Jimmy Mohamed shares some advice at the microphone of Europe 1. Practicing physical activity during the day improves the quality of sleep. And indulging in moderate intensity exercise in the evening, shortly before bedtime, does not affect sleep. Small tip: take a bath 90 minutes before bedtime to fall asleep faster.
Respect a regular wake-up and bedtime
It is also advisable to respect a regular time of getting up and sleeping, even on weekends. A sleepy week does not compensate for the lack of sleep accumulated during the week. On the contrary, it can disturb our biological clock.
>> Watch Matthieu Belliard's morning show in replay and in podcast here
Avoiding blue light from screens helps to avoid a shift in the biological clock, with harmful effects on our sleep, metabolism and cellular health. Blue light causes anomalies in the levels of several proteins, including melanopsin which suppresses, under the effect of light, melatonin, responsible for regulating our sleep.
Beware of the exciting
Also watch out for the exciting: a double espresso three hours before sleep shifts our biological clock by 40 minutes. Finally, the impact of a good installation should not be overlooked. A clinical study has thus shown an improvement in the quality of sleep when switching from an old to new bedding.