Lately, many people have been complaining about the same thing: you seem to sleep for 7-8 hours, but in the morning you still have a heavy head, cotton-wool muscles, and the feeling that you missed the night altogether. Doctors say that in most cases the problem is not the duration of sleep, but how you prepare for it and in what conditions you sleep.
The first thing that quietly destroys recovery is a chaotic regime. If today you went to bed at 22:45, and tomorrow at 01:30, the body does not have time to adjust the internal clock. Even if the total hours are enough, the brain does not enter the deep phases of sleep stably. The body loves predictability: the same time of going to bed and getting up (including weekends) works better than any “I will sleep in on Sunday until lunch”.
The second habit that affects sleep more than you might think is screens in bed. The light from your phone, laptop, or TV stops the production of melatonin, the hormone that tells your brain, “It’s time to sleep.” As a result, you’re physically lying down, but your nervous system is still “online,” just like it is during the day. Ideally, you should spend an hour before bed without bright screens at all. If that seems unrealistic, at least turn on a warm yellow filter and reduce the brightness.
Another unpleasant factor is how you spend your evening. There are two poles, and both are harmful: on the one hand, dehydration during the day (especially if you drink a lot of coffee and almost no water), on the other hand, a heavy late dinner. When the body lacks fluids, it wakes up in the middle of the night in a state of stress. When you eat right before going to bed, the digestive system is forced to work, instead of resting with you. The most comfortable thing for the body is a light meal 2-3 hours before bedtime and a normal drinking regimen during the day, rather than “remembering water at 11:10 p.m.”
There is another thing that is often forgotten: oxygen and stress. If you have been sitting in the office or at home all day, practically not going outside and not moving, the body may be tired mentally, but not physiologically. In this state, you can fall asleep, but the sleep will be superficial and restless. A short walk in the evening, fresh air and at least minimal activity give the body a signal “the cycle is complete, you can turn off”. It is a very simple thing, but the difference is felt literally the next morning.
What can you do about it today? Stabilize your bedtime, remove your phone from your pillow, air out your room, and don’t overload your stomach before bed. This isn’t a “big life hack,” it’s the foundation of sleep hygiene. And the most interesting thing: when it works, the morning feeling of tiredness disappears not because of extra hours of sleep, but because those hours become better quality.
