Sleep Debt is the result of sleep deprivation which is simply not getting enough sleep. People in high stress jobs or who have busy lives, or involved in cryptocurrency or similar trading, will eventually experience sleep debt. How much sleep each person needs is genetically determined but the vast majority seem to need between 7 and 9 hours a night to feel refreshed. The question then becomes what does 7-9 hours even mean? Time in bed does not mean active rest.
The Sleep Cycle
The sleep cycle is quantitatively measurable by measuring the brain waves and from this we have different labels for the different levels of deepness of sleep. What you eat or drink prior to sleep or even the temperature can disrupt or disturb the quality of sleep represented by time in REM. REM stands for rapid eye movement which is the time ssociated with dreaming. The function of sleep is psychological and physiological recovery.
The most restful deep part of sleep is REM but prior to being in REM a human must transition usually from stages of nonREM into REM. Microsleep for example is the stage where a human is still awake, but drowsy for some moments, but not actually socially recognized as being asleep. What we socially recognize as sleep is typically the deeper stages.
A sleep cycle is the path from nonREM into REM and back. This is measurable by EMG data and it is typically 90 minutes (experts estimated). Over a 7 or 8 hour period a person will typically experience 5 sleep cycles. Sleep quality is associated and correlated with the amount of time in REM.
ADD and Daydreaming
One hypothesis is that people who zonk out during class or who drift off into their own world are actually in a REM sleep state. The problem is this is not socially considered sleep so it's not treated as if it's sleep. In fact, attention deficit disorder may be linked to this and in my opinion more investigation should take place. That being said it's an interesting link and hypothesis to consider.
What can be done to improve sleep quality?
Certain supplements have been shown to increase time in REM sleep while other supplements have shown in studies to reduce fatigue. If you are a person who struggles to sleep 6 hours a night or if you wake up a lot in the middle of the night then you may need to consider ways to improve sleep quality. In addition to supplements there are also newer less studied methods such as blocking blue light which has shown some ability to improve ability to stay asleep or and red light therapy.
The list of supplements below are shown in studies to improve sleep quality and I have personally tried them
- Glycine. This supplement does seem to reduce fatigue whether taken throughout a day or the night before. This supplement doesn't seem to increase time in REM but it does seem at least in my experience to improve the rejuvenation capacity of the body.
- French Oak Extract. This supplement is the only one that I have tried which actually in my subjective experience seems to improve sleep quality. There was a study on this supplement but because the study was small and industry funded I cannot really say how accurate or powerful the result is.
- Melatonin. This at best might help a person to fall asleep but does nothing at all in my experience to improve quality of sleep. It does not seem like it will help much with sleep debt nor does it help a person stay asleep if they constantly wake up.
- Vitamin C Time Release. This seem to help me stay asleep for longer but does not seem to improve the quality of the sleep itself.
Other options besides supplements include blocking blue light or blocking sound and light totally. This can help with getting back to sleep if you wake up a lot but it doesn't seem to impact quality.
Controversially fasting seems to mimic the function of sleep at least in my experience. In a fasted state the body seems to rejuvenate itself much faster but this is not well studied and is only in my subjective experience with it. Fasting for 20 hours or more seems to push the body into an autophagy state and this in my experience did remove fatigue and gave me a boost of energy. It seemed to allow me to function with less sleep but there is no explanation as to why fasting has this effect so far.
References
Belcaro, G., Saggino, A., Cornelli, U., Luzzi, R., Dugall, M., Hosoi, M., ... & Cesarone, M. R. (2018). Improvement in mood, oxidative stress, fatigue, and insomnia following supplementary management with Robuvit®. Journal of neurosurgical sciences, 62(4), 423-427.
I have struggled to get quality sleep for years and it negatively impacts every aspect of my life. A friend of mine had severe sleep problems and then one day went to sleep specialist and they ended up putting him on some sort of machine (I don't remember what it was called) but after he started using that thing, all manor of other problems that existed in his life vanished.
There is no doubt in my mind that there is such a thing as quality sleep and I feel as though I rarely achieve it. Maybe I will go and see a sleep specialist someday. In the meantime i am going to try out those pills you have listed above. Could be worth a shot!
I've found that it's very helpful to stop using smartphones and tablets at least one hour before going to bed. I've heard that the blue light emitted by those devices communicates to special cells behind our eyeballs that it's morning. I also love taking one 2.5 mg melatonin lozenge made by Source Naturals that I dissolve under my tongue about an hour or so before I go to sleep. Not all melatonin I've tried has been effective, but this particular product is fantastic. Relatives that I've shared the product with have loved it and found it very effective. You can find it at Whole Foods or Amazon.
Sometimes the only thing which I can do is take a nap. Sometimes a full 7 hour block of sleep isn't going to work because my body wakes up but it is important to simply keep trying to nap getting an hour here or a few hours there which ultimately add up. Broken sleep is a problem just as much as sleep debt and many wake up multiple times for no reason and can't fall back asleep after waking up.