The Science Behind a Good Night’s Sleep

We all know sleep is vital, so why do many of us still find it so difficult to prioritize? CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta speaks with sleep scientist Rebecca Robbins about why we sleep in the first place and how to ensure we get a good night’s rest. And neurologist Ying-Hui Fu explores the latest research surrounding sleep, including what regulates the amount of sleep we actually need and what role genetics might play. We also meet Cliff Luther, a man who only needs about four hours of sleep a night yet wakes just as well rested as the rest of us. What’s his secret? This episode originally aired in June 2021.

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46 comments

  1. I love my dreams. I have been successful with 5-7 hrs sleep I am able to fall to deep sleep quick & lower my heart rate depends on diet & caffeine intake. I tracked on Fitbit. I am sure it will change as I approach my 60s.
    One key is taking time to meditate & learning to lower heart rate & proper food intake before bed light no sugar, no caffeine after noon. It took me at least six months to get a great nights sleep.
    This is coming From a bad insomniac in her teens. With nightmares.

  2. 1. The advice about lowering the bedroom temperature below 70F raises obvious questions about blankets… how warm should the blanket be, and which parts of the body should the blanket cover?
    2. I wake up many times each night, and my active mind is what makes it hard to fall asleep. My solution to help me fall asleep (or fall back to sleep) is to listen to fiction audiobooks or the soundtracks of tv episode reruns. It’s been very effective. The point is to listen to speech that suppresses my own thoughts, but which is not so fascinating that it will keep me awake. Staying awake to hear the entire story is not the goal. When I awaken in the middle of the night, a player app that lets me rewind by swiping backward on a progress bar makes it easy to rewind the story to a position I remember hearing, where I resume the playing to help me fall back to sleep.

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  4. Good night’s sleeps each and every night – matter of good, iron health by nature, lack of these abilities – typical for insomniacs, I.e. very sick persons by nature! Very important criteria! People are born not equal in terms of inborn health matters!

  5. I have heard on neuroscientist, Andrew Huberman’s, podcast that non sleep deep rest (NSDR) can have some beneficial effects to ameliorate schedules that make 8 hour sleep at night to be challenging. Is this, like meditation, supportive of healthy rest?

  6. for years i have turned off the heat in my bedroom and kept the window opened till i am ready for bed its especially good in the winter where the room is cold and nothing sleeps better than getting under cover (i live on the 4th floor so unless they want to climb the wall which is in plain view i am safe)

  7. We’re all different.
    I’m 70 years old and sleep on the softest bed Temperpedic makes with the electric blanket on very warm if the room is cool and a cat and a dog with me. I sleep really well and far too much. I love sleeping and lucid dreaming.
    I fill my stomach and use THC before turning off the light and turning on the white noise.
    My wife and I (40 years) sleep in separate beds as she prefers to sleep cool.

    1. So glad you lucid dream, too. I have never taken a drug to get me there but have been doing it since I was 11 years old. It’s a rare decade or so where I have a non-lucid one and those feel so odd.
      Wish there would be more research into this..

  8. Kind of funny…only a man could say that the holidays are a time for him to rest. Really doubt his wife would say that lol

  9. I currently suffer from chronic nightmares. I have them EVERY night without fail. I have developed a phobia sort of around going to bed so I guess I have insomnia

  10. I have sleep apnea and also pulmonary hypertension….and the PH, my cardiologist from Stanford told me, was caused by sleep apnea. He is one of the top specialists of lymphedema as well. He could not stress enough how vital a good nights sleep was. And he said at least 7-8 hours, preferably 8.

  11. About 30 years ago, I was reading a very old book (at least 300 years old) and I noticed something very strange in it.. they spoke of a “second sleep”.

    The night was divided into two halves. First sleep took place from eight to almost midnight. Then the family would get up and many times go over to other people’s homes, sew, play music, etc. Then around two in the morning they would go back to bed for “second sleep” till morning… (on a side note, apparently the best time to get pregnant is the beginning of second sleep .. that’s what one book said, anyway.) The time that they were awake was referred to as “the watch”.
    This sort of biphasic sleep schedule had gone back through the centuries (at least according to some other books I’ve read).. it seemed at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution is when “sleeping through the night” became popular.

    There was just no manual on sleeping for humans throughout time.. I wonder who’s getting it right or if we ever really will.

  12. Actual doctor: here are extremely compelling and well researched reasons why you need to sleep well to not die young and miserable from long term stress disorders.
    Employers: lol, lmao, wake up at 5 AM and commute two hours through heavy traffic, work 10 hours, then commute two hours back or get fired loser.

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