Never go back to sleep after waking up
While some people fall asleep the moment their head hits the pillow, others begin thinking about what happened during the day and the problems they'll face the next day, and can only fall asleep with difficulty after hours of distress. The length of time it takes to fall asleep and the level of distress during this time are among the most important factors affecting quality sleep.
A second factor that allows us to wake up feeling rested is the number of times we wake up at night. Research has shown that those who experience short or long periods of wakefulness throughout the night are forced to settle for "fragmented" sleep with disrupted continuity. In such cases, sleep is never satisfying.
QUALITY SLEEP REJUVENATES
Many studies conducted within the scope of healthy living and anti-aging have shown that regular, quality sleep is extremely important. As I mentioned earlier, melatonin and somatotropin, the growth hormone, are secreted most during sleep. It's not for nothing that these two hormones are called youth hormones. However, what matters is ensuring that these elixir-of-youth hormones are secreted through sleep, rather than taken externally in tablet form.
THE ELDERLY ARE MISTAKEN THIS TIME!
We often hear that elderly people generally complain of insomnia and of waking up in the early hours of the morning. Contrary to popular belief, the amount of sleep needed does not decrease with age. According to scientific data, the sleep duration of the elderly is not very different from that of adulthood. What shortens is only the length of time they sleep at once. As we frequently observe, the elderly sleep intermittently throughout the day, or doze off. In truth, they compensate for their shortened sleep duration with short daytime naps.
THERE'S ALSO AN EXPLANATION FOR THE DROWSINESS THAT SETS IN AFTER MEALS…
Along with food, a large amount of foreign protein, fungi and microbes enter the stomach and intestines. In such an environment, it's beneficial to take a short afternoon nap in order to protect our defense system. However, it must be remembered that cell renewal and hormonal reactions occur only at night. In other words, an afternoon nap is not beauty sleep—it's an act of defense! True beauty sleep is the sleep we get at night. Because the melatonin hormone secreted by our brain is produced after dark and in an environment where our eyes receive no light. This hormone initiates the skin's renewal process.
NEVER GO BACK TO SLEEP AFTER WAKING UP!
For sleep to be healthy and restful, one must always get up early in the morning. Research has shown that going back to sleep after waking up in the morning undoes all the repair work done throughout the night.
As I mentioned earlier, our biggest mistake is being awake when the sleep wave comes and sleeping when the wakefulness wave comes. Because no matter what we do, the brain only functions according to the wave it was programmed for by the autonomic nervous system. A body that receives the first rays of the sun stops secreting the hormone melatonin, and this hormone determines our biological clock. And our biological clock has its own rules.
The desire to go back to sleep after waking up in the morning is nothing more than habit. A person who overcomes this habit will observe great vigor in themselves within 10 days at most. What's more, anyone can easily experience this. All you need to do is go to sleep at 11:00 PM and wake up at 5:30 AM, resisting the urge to go back to sleep. Because of your habits, you may feel tired for at most a few hours, but later in the day you'll feel quite energetic and strong. The opposite is also true. If you go to sleep at 11:00 PM and stay in bed until 10:00 AM despite every urge to wake up, this time you'll feel slightly groggy and dazed until evening. It becomes harder to focus, your physical strength decreases, and you may even get a headache by evening. It has been definitively established through scientific research that waking up late causes damage to both our mind and body.
In fact, we've all witnessed the vitality and liveliness of early-rising animals like birds. They wake up before the sun even rises and begin to chirp. They're living through the time period when they're biologically most alive. You can observe this in domestic cats too—they wake up very early and start meowing. Just like animals, humans too are programmed to wake up early. Anyone who has raised children knows this very well…
You can find more information on this and similar topics in my book "Uykunun Sihirli Gücü" (The Magical Power of Sleep).