Bust These Sleep Myths

National Center on Sleep Disorders Research

Posted: April 1, 2008

It’s time to put these myths to bed!

Myth #1: Sleep is a time when your body and brain shut down for rest and relaxation.
Although it is a time when your body rests and restores its energy levels, sleep is an active state that affects both your physical and mental wellbeing. Adequate restful sleep, like diet and exercise, is critical to good health. Insufficient restful sleep can result in mental and physical health problems and possibly premature death.


Myth #2: Opening the car window or turning the radio up will keep the drowsy driver awake.
Opening the car window or turning the radio up may arouse a drowsy driver briefly, but this won't keep that person alert behind the wheel. Even mild drowsiness is enough to reduce concentration and reaction time. The sleep-deprived driver may nod off for a couple of seconds at a time without even knowing it — enough time to kill himself or someone else.


Myth #3: The primary cause of insomnia is worry.
Insomnia has many different causes, including physical and mental conditions and stress. Insomnia is the perception that you don't get enough sleep because you either can't fall asleep, stay asleep or get back to sleep once you've awakened during the night. It affects people of all ages, usually for just an occasional night or two, but sometimes for weeks, months or even years. Because insomnia can become a chronic problem, it is important to get it diagnosed and treated if it persists for more than a month.


Myth #4: The body has a natural ability to adjust to different sleep schedules such as working different shifts or traveling through multiple time zones quickly.
The human body's biological clock programs each person to feel sleepy during the nighttime hours and to be active during the daylight hours. So people who work the night shift and try to sleep during the day are constantly fighting their biological clocks. This puts them at risk of error and accident at work and of disturbed sleep. The same is true for people who travel through multiple time zones quickly; they get jet lag because they cannot maintain a regular sleep-wake schedule. Sleeping during the day in a dark, quiet bedroom and getting exposure to sufficient bright light at the right time can help improve daytime alertness.


Myth #5: People need less sleep as they grow older.
As we get older, we don't need less sleep, but we often get less sleep. That's because our ability to sleep for long periods of time and to get into the deep restful stages of sleep decreases with age. Older people have more fragile sleep and are more easily disturbed by light, noise and pain. They also may have medical conditions that contribute to sleep problems. Going to bed at the same time every night and getting up at the same time every morning, getting exposure to natural outdoor light during the day and sleeping in a cool, dark, quiet place at night may help.


Myth #6: More people doze off at the wheel of a car in the evening than in the early morning or mid-afternoon.
Our bodies are programmed by our biological clock to experience two natural periods of sleepiness during the 24-hour day, regardless of the amount of sleep we've had in the previous 24 hours. The primary period is between about midnight and 7:00 a.m. A second period of less intense sleepiness is in the mid-afternoon, between about 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. This means that we are more at risk of falling asleep at the wheel at these times than in the evening, especially if we haven't been getting enough sleep.


Source: National Center on Sleep Disorders Research

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