Sleep: The underestimated superpower for body and mind

We treat sleep like lost time. It is the most important repair and clean-up service that your body knows.

What really happens at night

During deep sleep, your brain flushes out waste products, consolidates memories and sorts out what you have learned from the day. Too little of it and your thinking slows down measurably. Sleep is not a break from life, but the phase in which many things that began during the day are processed.

A night of five hours of sleep has the same effect on reaction time as drinking too much alcohol at the wheel.

Understanding the phases

Sleep occurs in cycles of around 90 minutes, each with light sleep, deep sleep and dream sleep (REM). Deep sleep renews the body, REM sleep renews memory and emotions. If you are woken up in the middle of a deep sleep, you feel like you have been exhausted - but if you wake up at the end of a cycle, you have a fresh start.

The four levers for better sleep

1. Fixed times: Always go to bed and get up at the same time - even on weekends.
2. Control light: Get daylight in the morning, dim the screens in the evening.
3. Cool and dark: 18 Degrees and absolute darkness are ideal.
4. Caffeine stop: The last cup of coffee in the early afternoon at the latest.

The underestimated disruptive factor: light

Your body controls sleep via the hormone melatonin, which is released in the dark. Bright, bluish screen light in the evening signals “bright day” to the brain and slows down exactly this hormone. Even an hour of dim light before bed can make all the difference.

The myth of catching up

Many people believe they can sleep little during the week and "catch up" on the weekend. But that's not how the body works. Although a long Saturday alleviates the worst of tiredness, the damage caused by chronic lack of sleep - on concentration, metabolism and mood - cannot simply be compensated for in one go. Sleep is not an account that you can pay into as you wish.

In addition, if you sleep for hours longer on the weekend, you shift your inner rhythm. The result is the infamous Monday morning when you feel like you're jetlagged. It's better to have a fairly consistent rhythm over all seven days - with a maximum deviation of one hour on the weekend.

The underestimated benefit

Better sleep improves your mood, concentration, immune system and even your weight. Those who chronically don't sleep enough eat more, learn worse and get sick more often. It's the cheapest performance upgrade available - and it's free. Before you buy your next supplement, fix your sleep first. No optimization of your diet and no training plan will have their full effect if the foundation is missing. Sleep is not the area that you should skimp on in order to get more done - it is the foundation that makes everything else possible.