4 How to pay sleep debt properly & bull; hello healthy

Maybe you are one of the many people who think that when you stay up late and sleep less, you can pay off your sleep debt by sleeping more on weekends. In fact, this habit is just as bad as a lack of sleep. Then, how do you actually pay off the correct sleep debt? Check out the following explanation.

4 correct ways to pay sleep debt

Missing sleep time is actually a debt that you have to pay so that your body is always in good shape. However, make sure you are committed in this way. Here are some ways you can choose if you want to pay off your sleep debt.

1. Increase sleep time

You can increase your sleep hours by going to bed earlier or getting up later than the time you normally wake up.

You don't need to add too much sleep, for example, add 15 minutes of sleep every day to pay off this debt.

You can also avoid using alarms to wake you up so that you wake up naturally on your own without being forced.

However, make sure that the extra hours of sleep are not excessive, as this may make you experience insomnia.

Better, first calculate the hours you lost sleep, then allocate the hours of sleep lost to your sleep time in the next few days to pay off the sleep debt.

For example, if you owe 10 hours in debt, allocate one hour each night every weekday, and add one to two hours of sleep on weekends. Do this until you have paid off all your sleep debt.

You may need a different solution if your sleep debt has been building up for years. Try to do activities that are not too strenuous every day. Then go to sleep as usual at night.

However, don't use the alarm and just let your body fall asleep and wake up on time. At first, you may get 12 or more hours of sleep a night. However, over time, your sleep hours will return to normal by itself because the sleep debt has been paid off.

2. Take a nap

According to a study published in the Journal of Sleep Research, paying sleep debt can also be done by taking a short break in the afternoon or evening.

Usually, this activity is more familiarly called a nap. People generally take a short nap of 15-30 minutes during the day or evening.

However, if you want to do this, you should pay close attention to the length of time you nap.

The reason is, if you sleep too long during the day, it is likely that you will have difficulty sleeping at night. If this happens, then you are actually increasing your sleep debt.

A suitable nap time is 20 minutes, or if you want to sleep more, the longest time you can take a nap is an hour and a half, and no more.

3. Sleep on the weekends

Sleeping too long on weekends has a bad effect on your health. However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't increase your sleep hours at a timeweekend.

Make sure you don't overdo your sleep. For example, only add one to two hours per day.

The problem is, if you add more hours to sleep than mentioned above to pay off your sleep debt, you may be paying off the previously lost hours of sleep.

However, at night on weekends, you will also find it difficult to sleep because you have slept too long in the morning and during the day.

This is tantamount to the term “dig the hole in the hole that closes the hole” because in the end, you will owe another hour of sleep to make up for the sleepless nights on weekends that you lost because you had trouble sleeping.

4. Make a commitment to your sleep routine

When you find out how many hours of sleep you lose due to your daily routine, now is the time for you to reset your schedule of daily activities.

Think carefully about all the activities you do and the impact on your sleep time.

Then, make a new schedule to fix your sleep routine that has been messed up over the years. That way, you can pay off the sleep debt that has been piling up.

You may need major changes to your lifestyle or your daily schedule, but never sacrifice your sleep for other activities.

Moreover, if the activity is not very important. Because, the length of time you sleep will also have an impact on your health condition.