Sleeping in, dangerous?

Sleeping in

Often we are looking forward to the weekend, a wonderful morning where you don't have to do anything and you can have a little sleep in. It can be really nice if you have been having to get out of bed the whole week at the same early time. In the weekend you often have more time and do not have to set the alarm, many people therefore make the connection between sleeping in and the weekend.

Less fit

You might not experience it directly, but if you start to watch it then you will start to notice. When you sleep in, you become less fit. It can be nice to stay a little bit longer in bed for once, the more so when you have all the time and have not planned anything for the rest of the day. But if you do it more often, you will notice that the days and week after, you are less fit. It all goes together with the making of melatonin. Melatonin is natural bodily substance, a chemical that is made in the brain and makes you sleepy. Every day this made anew in a certain rhythm. If you sleep in in the weekend, you are changing this rhythm. You notice therefore that in the evenings you are less likely to fall asleep straight away and in the mornings you do not wake up in a natural way. Compare it to a sort of jet lag.

Afternoon nap

It would be a better idea to take a 20 minute nap in the afternoon, than sleeping in in the morning. You can test this yourself. Did you wake up on time and you feel tired? Get out of bed and take a little nap in the afternoon. You will quickly get more energy from this. You can be fit and rested the whole day. You can easily test this to see if this is also the case for you.

Chronic sleep deprivation

Some people do not sleep that much and are okay with this, others need a lot of sleep. Teenagers for example need about 9 hours of sleep a night. Often they don't make it, because they go to bed late and have to get up early again to go to school. Because of this children can develop chronic sleep deprivation. Everyone should sleep for a sufficient amount each night, especially teenagers, so that chronic sleep deprivation can be prevented. Stress plays a big role with sleeping, with too much stress you can start to overthink things and lay awake for nights. Try to prevent stress, talk about it and do some relaxing exercises before you go to sleep.

Sleeping habits

Many people have bad sleeping habits, watch out, because it disturbs your natural rhythm. Do you recognise yourself in this? Read about bad sleeping habits and take a look what you can do about it! Having good nights' sleep is important for everyone, so tackle your bad sleeping habits!

• Snoozing is what a lot of people do, be careful, because it disturbs your rhythm. It ensures that you wake up more tired.
• If you have irregular sleeping times, then that is not good. You need a good day- and night rhythm. Your body will then tell you when you are tired and then you can go to bed. 
• Before going to bed, many people watch tv, but it stimulates your mind. It is thus not actually relaxing to watch tv before you go to bed and it can disturb your sleep. 
• Doing sports before going to bed is not a good habit. It gives you energy and you are often too excited to go to bed when you just finished your sports. Do your sports therefore at the beginning of the day or at the beginning of the evening, so that you can become calm and go to bed on time. 
• Taking your tablet or smartphone with you to bed is not considered a good habit. It creates a less calming atmosphere and it disrupts the making of melatonin (which your body makes for you to go to sleep) because of the light of the screen. This will make you go to bed later and disturb your rhythm
• Not moving enough, some people do not move enough on a day and therefore do not sleep well. Therefore make sure you keep moving the whole day, so that at the end of the day you are also physically tired and therefore sleep a little deeper. It is especially recommended to move outside of the house.
• Eating a heavy meal before you go to bed is not good. Your body is then too busy processing the meal and doesn't use the energy to sleep.
• Drinking a lot in the evening is not recommended, then you often have to get out of bed to pee. Therefore pay attention how much you drink in the evening. Make sure you do drink enough, drink more during the day and less in the evening, and we do not mean alcohol here!
• You're better off preventing stress, because stress does not make you sleep well. If there are too many worries around you, you can be occupied by them the whole night and therefore not sleep. Write your worries away, talk about it with others and try to just leave the worries when you go to bed. Notice that at this moment you can not change anything about it anyways.
• Regularity is important in life and that is also true concerning sleeping. Regular sleeping times ensure that you keep your rhythm. If you stay in bed once for an hour extra it is not so bad. But make sure you do not make the difference too big. 

Sleeping in, yes or no?

Some people love sleeping in, others only do it in the weekends. It is important that you start to look at the possibilities of sleeping in. It is the case that when you stay in bed for a little longer, you have the idea of having more energy. But your rhythm is disturbed by this and in the following week you will notice that you are less fit and have less energy. It can be that in the evenings you do not fall asleep that easily. This is because your rhythm is disturbed. Luckily you can do something about it, less sleeping in. To sometimes stay in bed for an extra hour is not so bad, but limit it and do not make it a habit. By sleeping in causes your weekend to become shorter, a pity of your free time, in which you can do a lot of fun and useful things.