2023-08-27 14:00:00
En the back-to-school period, we are always very attentive to the biological rhythms of children, forgetting a little too quickly that adults also need to take care of themselves! “It is sometimes more difficult for them to return to working hours following the summer break than for the children. As you age, past 45 or 50, it is a challenge to resynchronize, because the biological clock is less flexible”, confirms Damien Davenne, chronobiologist at the University of Caen and member of the scientific council of the National Institute of sleep and alertness.
The biological clock is this small structure nestled in the brain, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which gives its tempo to the whole organism. Programmed on a cycle of approximately 24 hours, it is synchronized throughout the year according to the perceived light intensity and the alternation of day and night. It is she who will be the great organizer of our return in good shape – or not – to the office.
Indeed, adults are not all equal in the face of the rhythms imposed by professional life or the school life of their children. “Each of us lives under the influence of his chronotype. The biological clock is not set for everyone in the same way on the time scale,” explains Damien Davenne. Some people are genetically programmed to be “night owls” or “early risers”, others have intermediate profiles. The latter are the most numerous. “Nearly 50% of the population falls asleep naturally between 11 p.m. and midnight, and wakes up around 7 or 8 a.m.,” continues Damien Davenne.
READ ALSOLearn to sleep once more in a dayNobody decides to be “in the morning” or “in the evening”, it is a profile with which we have to deal. “Wanting or having to fight all your life once morest your chronotype, that won’t change anything. And when the end of the holidays rings, it is the “night owls” who suffer the most,” says the researcher. During the holidays, their chronotype naturally caused them to drift towards nights starting around 2 a.m. and ending at 9 or 10 a.m. If the intermediate profiles are not spared, these “night owls” must show more rigor than the others to recalibrate.
But when should you start preparing for the start of the school year? A week to ten days before is the ideal time slot. Those who would like to prolong their summer lifestyle at all costs must plan at least two or three nights of acclimatization, before D-Day, in order to limit the damage. “Waking up is the key to successful resynchronization. To recalibrate effectively, you have to be intransigent with yourself and go back up slowly but surely by a quarter of an hour or half an hour, every day, the moment to leave your bed, ”explains Damien Davenne. And no question of lying down, half awake, following stopping the ringing, you really have to get up.
The biggest mistake would be to hoard in the mornings before the start of the school year, imagining that you are building up a stock of sleep – a bit like you would with food in anticipation of difficult days. “It’s a counter-productive method, because the most restorative hours for the body are those at the start of the night,” explains the scientist.
To last in the long term, it is important not to count on sleeping in. They brutally indicate to our biological clock that it made a mistake in its waking time for the rest of the week. The organization will pay him for several days. So, getting up following 10 or 11 a.m. on Sunday sabotages waking up on Monday, leaving an impression of fatigue. “Hence the classic expression ‘it’s going like a Monday’ around the office coffee machine”, laughs the chronobiologist. This disruptive effect of the biological clock is still measured on Tuesday mornings. You often have to wait until Wednesday to finish paying for the negative effects of sleeping in on your morning freshness.
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To keep fatigue at bay, the secret is quite simply to preserve a good regularity of your sleep. Our nights are not elastic at will. “Good health is synonymous with a constant sleep-wake cycle, which does not derail the biological clock. Many adults are unaware of this or have not taken full measure of the influence of regular nights on their general condition. We are talking regarding daily cognitive and physical performance as well as the risk of long-term development of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases or even cancers,” the chronobiologist further indicates.
Fortunately, there is a margin of maneuver of regarding an hour to allow yourself a mini sleep in, without desynchronizing your biological clock. For example, you can wake up at 8 a.m. on weekends instead of 7 a.m. on weekdays, without paying the price the following days.
Back to school is not necessarily the most difficult time to go through. Indeed, “fatigue is felt more readily during the second week following the end of the holidays. The repercussions of the change of pace manifest themselves with a slight lag”, warns Damien Davenne. Fortunately, this state is transitory. If you bet on a good regularity of sleep, the form will return quickly.
Just as there are recommendations for establishing a bedtime ritual that makes it easier to fall asleep, we must think regarding adopting an awakening ritual that will maintain the workings of the biological clock: not lying around in bed, stretching, taking a coffee, sit next to the window, or even go for a quick walk outside in the garden… The clock perceives daylight in the morning, and thus calculates the period of wakefulness and sleep that we will need. In the evening, it will send sleep signals pushing us to go to bed, such as itchy eyes, body temperature dropping slightly, etc.
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Without always being aware of it, the months of October and November correspond to the period of the year when our body needs the most vacation. With the combination of shorter days and the transition to winter time, our biological clock is put to the test. Our body adapts by demanding more sleep. In our latitudes, it may be necessary to increase the length of our nights by one to two hours until February. In the Far North, the Inuit have extremely short nights in the summer – barely a handful of hours –, then adopt very long sleeps, going up to fourteen hours at a stretch, in the heart of winter. Humans, depending on their environment, are therefore subject to a natural adaptation process. Even if we find it difficult to accept it in our modern societies. As fatigue sets in in the fall, many don’t have the instinct to simply go to bed earlier.
In general, “we should alternate between seven weeks of activity followed by ten days of vacation. It would be ideal”, recommends Damien Davenne. In the meantime, don’t hold back from planning your next vacation. On the contrary ! An American study confirms that people who anticipate are the happiest. The feeling is growing as the long-awaited date approaches. Thinking regarding your next “off” days, leafing through travel guides, asking for an option on a ticket or selecting hotels, is to follow a clear path to happiness and rest.
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