Sweet Dreams –
Sleep needs routine.

During sleep the body shuts down its system. The pulse and the blood pressure fall, and breathing and brain activity are reduced. But there’s a lot of activity in other places: For example, the nerve cells interconnect and reinforce themselves, and in the brain metabolites are discharged. This means that, in our sleep, we strengthen and cleanse ourselves at the same time.

While we sleep we go through four or five sleep cycles. One cycle lasts around 90 minutes. The dream phase, light sleep and deep sleep alternate with each other. Our sleep is the deepest at the beginning of the night, the dream phase increases towards morning, when our sleep becomes shallower. The quality of our sleep is also influenced by our age. New-born babies sleep more frequently, longer and more deeply. But as we become older, our nerve cells are less capable of forming the deep waves that we need for deep sleep. Thus, sleep is often superficial in elderly people. 

We have two systems within us. When both of these systems meet, we sleep. The first one is our inner clock, and this corresponds to approximately 24 hours. This inner clock reacts to day and night, light and dark. Sleep hormones are produced in the dark. This is why we sleep better in the dark than in the light. The second system that affects our sleeping behaviour is the homeostasis, or, in other words, the sleep pressure. This means we accrue tiredness. The more tired we are, the sooner sleep is triggered. If someone has a sleep disorder, they should not practise any excessive sport, eat much or drink alcohol, hold debates, take certain medications, or be exposed to the blue light of electronic devices in the evening. Because all of these things hinder the formation of sleep hormones or prevent sleep.

Sleep needs routine. What works best is a ritual that the body recognises and then knows that now comes the “Sleep Pattern”. A room temperature of between 16 and 18°C is also a good thing. The bedroom should be dark and quiet, to enable people to relax and generate the sleep hormone. The best thing is to end the day two hours before going to bed and to relax. Don’t keep looking at the clock if you wake during the night. It’s better to get up, do something to relax you and only go back to bed when you’re feeling tired.

25% of the Swiss population suffer from sleep disorders. The most common disorders are problems falling asleep and/or sleeping through the night, and sleep-associated breathing disorders, which are so strong as to have an impact on our everyday life. Optimal sleep hygiene, relaxation exercises or a respiratory mask (if someone has sleep apnoea), for example, could help people to sleep through the night. Sometimes, however, only a minor adjustment is needed for a person to sleep better. This could be, for example, no longer smoking during the evening, or always going to bed and getting up at the same time.

The 24-hour society has definitely affected our sleep behaviour. Using our mobiles in bed, for example, can become addictive, and is a fairly new problem, which may lead to sleep disorders, because we don’t switch off. Nor do we know how the electronic rays affect the brain. The fact that they influence brain waves, however, can be seen and measured. We should therefore turn off our mobiles at night for two reasons: to sever our accessibility and to eliminate electrosmog.