What constitutes good quality sleep decoded

 Washington, January 24

People who fall asleep within 30 minutes or less and wake up no more than once at night, qualify for several health benefits associated with good sleep, new study has found.

The findings by the US National Sleep Foundation (NSF) may help people who use sleep tracking devices interpret their sleep patterns.

They key determinants of quality sleep includes - sleeping more time while in bed (at least 85 per cent of the total time), falling asleep in 30 minutes or less, waking up no more than once per night and being awake for 20 minutes or less after initially falling asleep.

Multiple rounds of consensus voting on the determinants led to the key findings.

“Millions of Americans are sleep technology users. These devices provide a glimpse into one’s sleep universe, which is otherwise unknown,” said Max Hirshkowitz from NSF.

“The National Sleep Foundation’s guidelines on sleep duration and now quality, make sense of it all—providing consumers with the resources needed to understand their sleep,” said Hirshkowitz.

“These efforts help to make sleep science and technology more accessible to the general public that is eager to learn more about its health in bold new ways,” Hirshkowitz added.

NSF’s recent Sleep Health Index showed that as many as 27 per cent of people take longer than 30 minutes, on average, to fall asleep.

With wider use of sleep technology and the context provided by NSF’s guidelines, consumers can better gauge and even improve their sleep.

The recommendations are instrumental to the continued development of such consumer technologies.

The report also highlights areas where research is needed to identify and further delineate additional indicators of good sleep quality across age groups.

“In the past, we defined sleep by its negative outcomes including sleep dissatisfaction, which were useful for identifying underlying pathology,” said Maurice Ohayon, from the Stanford Sleep Epidemiology Research Center in the US.

“Clearly this is not the whole story.  With this initiative, we are now on a better course towards defining sleep health,” said Ohayon.

They study was published in the journal Sleep Health. — PTI