These 17 Unbelievable Common Sleep Myths Are Debunked

Absolutely everybody needs sleep, it’s simply a fact of life. For something everyone does, however, there sure seem to be a whole lot of common misconceptions, misinformation and downright myths which have been spread around for years. Sorting through what’s real and what’s not can be a definite hassle, and latching onto the wrong information can leave you without the sort of proper rest you need to be a normal human being.

Myth: The Brain is Inactive During Sleep

Some folks out there believe when you sleep, your body goes into a sort of stasis. Everything stops, calms down, and rests for eight hours, or however long you manage to rest. On the contrary, your brain actually becomes quite active as you sleep, particularly during the Rapid Eye Movement portion.

It’s telling your heart rate to slow down, your blood pressure to chill out, your body to start repairing itself and all kinds of helpful things that keep you going and make your sleep actually worthwhile. It’s also, of course, dishing out dreams and such, and even storing memories to help them last longer. Your brain does pretty much everything but be inactive during sleep.

Myth: You Can Train Yourself to Need Less Sleep

Read this next part carefully: You can train yourself to sleep less. You cannot train yourself to need less sleep. Your body needs what it needs, and that can’t be fixed. Yes, you can wake up after four hours of sleep each day, feeling somewhat refreshed, but this will catch up with you.

Your brain will not be functioning as well as it would on a full night of sleep and you’re going to have to repay that sleep debt at one point or another, and it’s not as easy as you might be led to believe. That’s a myth for another part of this list. The fact of the matter is, your body needs to rest and repair, and just because you’re only getting four or six or whatever hours of sleep doesn’t mean it’s doing its job faster, it just means you’re not giving it the time to do it, and this can be detrimental to your health.

Myth: Sleeping in on the Weekend Prevents Effects of Sleep Loss During the Next Week

Unfortunately, you can’t get sleep credit. Spending your weekend sleeping the days away isn’t going to do you any good when you’re not getting enough sleep during the week. You might be able to make up for some sleep you missed during the previous week, but anything you do sleep wise on Saturday won’t help you Tuesday if you didn’t get enough rest on Monday night. Make sure you’re setting aside enough time to fall asleep and wake up naturally, if possible. This is the best way to make sure your body is rested.

Myth: Daytime Sleepiness Will Always Get Better if You Spend More Time in Bed

This really depends on what may be causing your daytime sleepiness. If you didn’t get enough sleep one night and are spending some extra hours in bed to rest up, that would work, but if you’re getting a full night of rest and still finding yourself tired during the day, sleeping more may not fix that.

There definitely could be a chance of more serious issues affecting the quality of your sleep, issues such as obstructive sleep apnea. If you feel the amount of time you’re sleeping isn’t giving you the energy it should, consider a visit to your friendly neighborhood doctor.

Myth: Daytime Naps are a Waste of Time

While the sentiment on this is understandable, it simply isn’t true. There’s a reason we took naps in kindergarten and it wasn’t just to give the teachers a break. Taking naps is a great way to give yourself a boost of energy, and that’s just the beginning. Depending on the length of the nap, you can get a quick boost, or a long-burning boost, or even one which can help you stay more alert. It all comes down to the stages of sleep, of which there are four.

Non-REM sleep is made up of three, each of which puts your body into a different sort of state. During Stage One, your eyes are closed, but you’re hardly asleep. If somebody said your name, you’d probably be alert quite quickly. Stage Two begins about five to 10 minutes after stage one starts. In Stage Two, you’ve fallen asleep, but only lightly. Here, some physical things begin, such as a drop-in body temperature and the lowering of your heart rate. Stage Three is deep sleep, when you become hard to wake. This is when your body starts repairing damaged or missing tissue, fixes up bones and muscles and makes your immune system stronger.

About an hour and a half after you fall asleep, you exit non-REM sleep and enter the REM stage, at which point your heart rate and breathing pick up a bit and your brain becomes even more active. This is where some of your more intense dreams can happen, but dreaming isn’t exclusive to this stage.

So, as far as naps go, depending on which stage you wake up in, you can have different effects. Waking up during Stage Three, for instance, is no good at all, as you’ll be fairly groggy from being in such a deep sleep. Waking up during REM sleep works because your brain will already be active. Waking up during Stage Two will have a similar effect, as you’re just barely asleep. Once the REM stage completes, the cycle starts all over, so keep that in mind when setting the alarm for your nap.

Myth: The Brain Can Adjust Quickly to Changes in Sleep Schedules

Unfortunately, this is also inaccurate. Just as we can't train our brain to need less sleep, we can't expect it to change what it needs on the fly. This is thanks to our internal clock. Many things influence it, including sunlight. Our internal clock is run by a part of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, or the SCN. Scientists figured this out when they removed it from the brains of hamsters and found the hamsters daily rhythms got messed up.

When the eye sees light, signals are sent to the SCN which seem to reset our internal clock. By doing this, our body is kept in time with the rest of the world, waking as the sun rises and doing everything it needs to do within the next 24 hours. Interestingly, humans who don’t see light still have an internal clock, but it runs slower. It resets at around 24.1 hours.

So, because of this internal clock, it is very difficult to try to switch up sleep schedules. Your internal clock is typically set to be sleepy at night and more awake during the day. This can be changed, but it is going to take time and a whole lot of patience. Even if you can switch it up, your sleep may not be all that good. Sleeping during the day comes with its own issues, such as being less restful.

Myth: We Need Less Sleep as We Age

While it is true our sleep needs change from birth to young adulthood, they don’t change much after that. Newborns should be getting between 14 and 17 hours of sleep, infants need 12 to 15 hours, toddlers should aim for 11 to 14 hours, preschoolers need 10 to 13 hours, school age kids should have 9 to 11 hours and teenagers get 8 to 10. Starting at age 18, 7 to 9 hours are all that is needed.

As we age, sleep can become less efficient thanks to things interfering with it, such as aches and pains. This can require longer time in bed, but it isn’t going to be a regular thing, or at least it shouldn’t be.

Myth: Children Who Don’t Get Enough Sleep Will Always Be Sleepy During the Day

The trick here is the “always.” Just because your child isn’t getting enough sleep doesn’t mean they’re going to be falling asleep in class. Children, as well as adults, need sleep in order to help with concentration among other things. Just because they aren’t sleepy during the day doesn’t mean they aren’t getting enough sleep. Keep an eye on our child’s grades and make sure they’re getting enough rest.

Myth: Regular Snoring is Normal

In general, snoring isn’t a big deal. From time to time, it happens. However, if you find you are snoring every night, you could have a larger issue. Snoring can be a sign of various issues, including obstructive sleep apnea. Obstructive sleep apnea can be very dangerous as it means your lungs aren’t getting the right amount of oxygen they need to work properly.

Obstructive sleep apnea, often shortened to just sleep apnea, is a condition caused when something blocks your breathing path as you sleep. This is often caused by an excess of fatty tissue in the throat. Many people who are overweight suffer from sleep apnea. The increased fatty tissue can block the pathways, causing the lungs to not get enough air.

This is characterized by snoring and by gasping in the middle of the night. When a person with sleep apnea suffers an attack, they are typically forced to loudly exhale, which is their body’s way of forcing that pathway back open to bring in some air. As you might expect, this can lead to severe issues with getting proper rest.

Fixes exist for sleep apnea. Using a CPAP machine, which is short for continuous positive airway pressure, helps increase the pressure in the air passageway while sleeping, making breathing easier. CPAP machines come with their own issues, such as discomfort and nasal draining, Still, the tradeoff is well worth it.

Myth: Stress is the Most Likely Cause of Sleep Trouble

Stress can absolutely cause you to have issues falling asleep, but it’s far from the most likely cause. There are numerous things you can do to keep you from sleeping well, some of which you may not even realize. If you don’t have a good sleep environment, you’re not going to sleep well.

If you don’t have good sleep habits, you’re not going to sleep well. If you ate or drank something too late, you’re not going to sleep well. There are even various medical conditions which can lead to poor sleep. Determining which of these is at the root of your problems can take visits to the doctor, or even the psychologist.

Myth: Everyone Needs Eight Hours of Sleep Each Night

It would be more accurate to say most people need eight hours of sleep every night. The number eight came around as an average of various people studied over the years. Most people need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep, this is true. Some, however, need less, or even more, than that.

Since each person is unique, each person can potentially need a different amount of sleep. If you want to figure out your ideal amount of sleep, you can do a bit of a test. On your next day off, or the next day you don’t need an alarm, go to sleep at a normal time, then just sleep until you wake up naturally.

If you do this a couple times and find the length to be consistent, congratulations, that’s about how much sleep your body needs. It’s important to do it this way, rather than forcing yourself to wake up after four hours or so, because doing that can mess up your sleep cycle in the wrong sort of way.

Myth: Eating a Big Meal Before Bed Will Cause You to Have Nightmares

Contrary to what we learned from that amazing episode of The Cosby Show in which Cliff Huxtable eats a sandwich before bed and dreams of the Muppets wanting to cut him open, enjoying a large meal before bed will not cause you to have bad dreams. In fact, it may not help you have any dreams. However, that doesn’t mean you have carte blanche to eat a big meal before climbing into bed.

Going to bed on a full stomach gives your body extra work to do. A full stomach needs have its food digested, so the blood in your body is going to go toward that, and your body will be working on that, rather than working on itself. This can also lead to issues with acid reflux or heartburn.

Myth: Not Getting Enough Sleep Can’t Hurt You

Sleep just affects your energy levels, right? If you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll just feel tired throughout the day, but no other issues, right? Wrong. A whole lot goes on while you sleep. Avoiding sleep means those processes don’t happen, which can absolutely lead to health concerns. For instance, one of the stages of sleep slows your heart rate and lowers your blood pressure. If you’re not getting the right amount of sleep, your blood pressure isn’t being reset and thus can continue to rise, or at least no longer be regulated.

If you’re sick and you’re not getting enough sleep, you start running into more issues, as well. While you sleep, your body fights infections and heals itself. Not sleeping keeps this from happening, making you sicker for much longer.

Myth: Missed Sleep Can Be Replaced on the Weekend

This is sort of a half-truth. It depends, however, on much sleep you’re lacking. If you’re down a dozen or so hours over the course of the work week, you can make up for that a bit by adding a couple extra hours on weekend days, then by adding some extra time over the next week. Obviously, this won’t work for people who always hold the same schedule, but perhaps it will allow you to find creative ways to fix it, such as short daytime naps.

If you’ve gone months, however, without proper sleep, your sleep debt is going to be far too extreme to fix on a simple weekend. In situations such as this, taking some time away from the world, from your normal routine, to focus on your sleep is going to be the best way to restore some normalcy. Take a week off and ditch the alarm clock. Go to bed at a normal time, and wake up when you wake up. After a while, you should start feeling pretty good again.

Myth: Watching TV or Using Your Smartphone Can Help You Fall Asleep

This may seem like a great way to wind down at night, and it may even seem as though it’s helping you fall asleep, but it’s not. If you’re getting tired while using these devices, it’s because you were already tired and are now just getting too tired to focus. Using a smartphone or television while in bed exposes you to “blue light.” This only serves to keep your brain active, focusing on what’s in front of you with the bright screen, rather than working toward making sure you’ll fall asleep.

Instead of going the entertainment route, try going with the healthy route. Create a nighttime routine, instead. Brush your teeth, drink some herbal tea (herbal tea tends to have no caffeine), stretch, take a bath, read a book, etc. Just keep away from the electronics and you’ll find you’re going to have a better time.

Myth: Lying in Bed is the Best Way to Fall Back Asleep if You Wake Up in the Middle of the Night

If it’s 2 a.m. and you suddenly find yourself awake in bed, unable to fall back asleep, you may think laying there and adjusting your position and switching stuff up will help you fall asleep again. In truth, it may, but if it’s taking a long time to work, you’re actually better off just getting out of bed and doing something until you feel tired enough to fall asleep again. Just as with your potential nighttime routine, do things which are relaxing and won’t stimulate you much. Read a book or something.

Myth: Drinking Alcohol Will Help You Sleep Better

Here’s the thing about getting drunk and falling asleep. Yes, you can pass out after drinking a lot of alcohol, and it will absolutely help you fall asleep, but your sleep will not be good. You’ll get some deep sleep for a time, but you won’t experience much of the REM stage of sleep, which means you’re not going to reap the benefits of it. Additionally, alcohol has the awful side effect of dehydrating you. This is part of what leads to hangovers.

According to research, people who use alcohol to fall asleep are more prone to sleepwalking, talking in their sleep and not remembering a whole lot, none of which are good things. Now, to be specific, we’re talking here about excessive drinking. The research also showed having just a couple drinks didn’t have much of an effect on sleep, but, as we learned before, everyone is different. Only you can judge what does and does not work for you.

Destroying the Myths

Sleep is one of the most complicated things our bodies does, and it’s still something of a mystery. Because of this, and because everyone interprets things in different ways, it’s completely understandable so many myths exist. One thing I’ve learned is to never take something at face value. Even this list. Check out our references and sources and look for yourself. The experts out there know a whole lot. They have dedicated their lives to making sure you get a great night’s sleep, and they want to debunk this myth just as much as anyone else, if not more.

The keys to a great night of sleep are to create good sleeping habits, in the form of before-bed activities and proper use of your bedroom; to work toward figuring out what is best for you, by sleeping and waking naturally and documenting everything; and to avoid the things which can force you to have a poor night’s rest, such as alcohol, caffeine and late meals. Don’t just sleep, sleep well.