For the next 3 weeks, Dr. Jade Wu will help you meet snooze challenges with evidence-based research, a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment.
Former Savvy Psychologist host Dr. Jade Wu is bringing us a special mini-series based on her new book, Hello Sleep: the Science and Art of Overcoming Insomnia Without Medications. In part one, we're starting with the top 4 myths we hear about sleep.
Pre-order your copy of Hello Sleep today:
Amazon | Bookshop.org | Audible
A transcript is available at Simplecast.
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Welcome back to Savvy Psychologist. I’m your guest host, Dr. Jade Wu…and for long-time listeners, I’m also a blast from the past as a former host of the show, here to give you a miniseries on my favorite topic–sleep–and to tell you about my new book, Hello Sleep: the Science and Art of Overcoming Insomnia Without Medications. For the next 3 weeks, I’ll help you meet snooze challenges with evidence-based research, a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment. Today, we start with the 4 biggest myths we hear about sleep.
This is what William Shakespeare said about sleep: “Innocent sleep. Sleep that soothes away all our worries… [and] heals hurt minds. Sleep, the main course in life's feast, and the most nourishing.”
A lot has changed about our lifestyles since Shakespeare’s day, but what he said about sleep is more true than ever. Now we know that sleep doesn’t just feel good—it’s also crucial for every aspect of our health. It cleans our brains, heals our injuries, fortifies our immunity, regulates our emotions, cements our memories, soothes our pain… there’s nothing in our bodies and brains that doesn’t depend on good sleep. That’s why when you haven’t slept well, you’re cranky and dragging and constantly misplacing your keys.
That’s also why people are paying more attention to sleep. There are technological advances in sleep gadgets every year. Jennifer Aniston and other celebrities are speaking out about their struggles with sleep problems. TikTok videos of sleep hacks are going viral. In 2020, the sleep aid industry was worth $81 billion… and that’s projected to reach $113 billion by 2025.
Part of the problem might be that we are bombarded with headlines and social media about sleep hacks and sleep tips, and it’s hard to sort out what is true and what is not. Does Melatonin work? Just how much deep sleep should I be getting? Is it bad that I always wake up at 2:00 AM?
Today, to set the record straight, we’re going to pick apart 4 of the biggest myths about sleep so you can stop wondering and get back to snoozing.
From the moment a baby is born, everybody around them prays for the day it sleeps through the night. And in adulthood, that’s what we expect of ourselves, too. So many of my patients are upset that they wake up at night… some of them even stop drinking fluids after dinner so they don’t have to pee overnight, hoping this will mean they finally get the unbroken sleep they dream of.
But guess how many times a healthy adult sleeper wakes up during a typical night. Not once… not twice… but about ten to sixteen times!
That’s right, it’s totally normal to wake up around a dozen times, though most of those we don’t remember because they’re so brief. But not-so-brief awakenings can be normal, too. In fact, in pre-industrial Europe, people used to get up for an hour or two in the middle of the night to do chores, sing songs, and even visit neighbors, before going back to a “second sleep.”
Waking up at night only becomes a problem in two situations. First, if a sleep disorder or other medical condition wakes you up much more often than usual, your sleep quality will be negatively affected. For example, if someone has severe sleep apnea, their brain could be waking them up to breathe every two minutes (or even more frequently) throughout the whole night. Second, if someone wakes up a normal number of times, but starts to think of waking up as a problem, their worry might start to keep them awake for longer and longer, which causes even more frustration, which leads to more time awake at night… and ultimately this vicious cycle turns into chronic insomnia.
The best way to tell if you need to worry about your night wakings is by how well you feel during the day. If you function well, feel awake and alert most of the time, and can fall asleep well most of the time… you’re probably okay. Listen to your body, though, if it tells you that you’re not getting enough quality sleep—you’re nodding off when you shouldn’t be, you’re irritable or foggy, you’re dragging your feet all day… then it's worth revisiting your sleep habits or checking with a healthcare professional.
If you have an Apple Watch or Fitbit or other wearable that tracks sleep, take a look at how much deep sleep you got last night. How do you feel about this number? A lot of people who come to sleep doctors for advice are worried that it’s too low. They ask me, “Shouldn’t I be getting way more deep sleep? Like, as close to 100% as possible?”
That would be like saying that your diet should consist of 100% protein. Not necessary, and not healthy! In fact, only about 15%-20% of your night should be deep sleep. About half the night should be light sleep, and a quarter should be REM. There should be a few percentage points of being awake, too.
This way, you get a balanced sleep diet, with each stage of sleep doing what it’s best at—deep sleep does the janitorial work of cleaning your brain and releasing growth hormones, light sleep helps to rest your body and solidify what you learned during the day, and REM sleep regulates your emotions and memories. All of these stages are important, so “deep” doesn’t necessarily mean “better.” And the best news is that you don’t have to manage the portion sizes for each stage of sleep! Your brain will automatically adjust how much you get of each depending on your needs of this moment in your life.
Melatonin’s popularity has been exploding. In the past twenty years, its consumption rate has more than quadrupled in the United States, so that even before the Covid-19 pandemic, over 2% of the population self-medicated with it. That may not sound like a lot, but consider that it represents millions of people taking a medication that is not FDA-regulated for sleep problems that it’s not meant to treat.
Here’s the 101 on melatonin: when it’s naturally produced in your body, it’s a hormone that helps your brain and body to operate on schedule. When you have a nice, robust 24-hour circadian rhythm (aka body clock), your brain releases melatonin in the evenings to prepare all systems for sleep in the coming hours; in the wee morning hours, the melatonin in your system gradually decreases, signaling to the body that it will soon be time to wake up again.
When melatonin comes in pill form, it’s meant to treat circadian rhythm problems—such as delayed sleep phase disorder or jetlag—by helping to shift the timing and amount of melatonin in your system. What it doesn’t do is knock you out or cure insomnia. In some cases, like in children with autism, there is evidence that melatonin can be used to reduce sleep problems, but it’s not an insomnia panacea for the general population.
You might be thinking: okay, maybe there’s not enough evidence to show that melatonin helps to improve my sleep, but what’s the harm in trying, just in case it works? It’s over-the-counter, so it’s just like a vitamin gummy, right?
Think again! If you live in the United States, where melatonin is over-the-counter (as in, not FDA-regulated), you might not be taking what you think. A bombshell 2017 study sampled 31 different brands of melatonin from drugstore shelves, and found that the dosage of the pills varied wildly, sometimes almost 5 times what was advertised on the label. Not only that—sometimes the melatonin pills also contained serotonin, a controlled substance that can impact your neurochemistry.
Besides, since melatonin is a time-keeping hormone, taking it at the wrong time might backfire and shift your circadian rhythms in the wrong direction. So, even though you don’t need a doctor’s prescription to take melatonin, you should talk to a healthcare provider specializing in sleep before taking it.
Martha Stewart claims to sleep less than four hours per night. Elon Musk supposedly gets no more than six hours. Thomas Edison is reported to have shunned sleep as a vestige of our “cave days,” needing only 3-4 hours himself.
Is it possible that these people, and other successful people who brag about being superhuman, really do sleep so little? Sure. Is it likely? That’s where I’m skeptical. There are people who are genetically hardwired to need much less sleep than the average person, but these are very rare cases. Most adults do need around 7-8 hours of sleep per night, and often more. Younger people in their teens and twenties, especially, usually need closer to 8 or 9 hours.
Sometimes, I meet busy people who say they’ve learned to function just fine with sleeping just 4 or 5 hours. But they might not be realizing how much their lack of sleep is impacting them. One fascinating study from Sweden found that after one night of sleep deprivation, young women performed worse on a memory and attention task. This was not surprising—many other studies have found similar patterns. What was interesting was that these participants didn’t think they were performing poorly. They were specifically asked how confident they were about their answers to the test questions, and the results showed that they were overconfident, not realizing that lack of sleep had set them back.
Another study asked young adults how much sleep they think they need, then sleep-deprived them for one night. The next day, the researchers tested the participants’ reaction speed. They found that people who were generally more resilient performed well, but among the other participants, it was those who claimed to not need much sleep that suffered the worst performance deficit. So the next time someone tells you they only need four hours of sleep to function well, take it with a big grain of salt!
Ultimately, what busting these myths tells us is that sleep is important but also flexible. We should treat our sleep with respect and care, just as we would treat a friend… and we should not expect sleep to be “perfect,” because it’s unfair and unnecessary. Listen to your body for cues that your sleep needs TLC, because your relationship with sleep is lifelong, and taking good care of it is a sure way to better health and happiness.
Thanks for listening to The Savvy Psychologist. I'm Dr. Jade Wu, and you can find my new book, Hello Sleep: the Science and Art of Overcoming Insomnia Without Medications, on Bookshop.org, Amazon, or on the shelves at your local bookstore starting tomorrow, February 7! And don’t forget to tune in for more sleep advice over the next two weeks—we’ll be talking about quieting your racing mind and sleep hygiene myths.