If you regularly find yourself waking up feeling groggy, despite having slept for a substantial amount of time, it may be due to the point you wake up during your sleep cycle.
In a TikTok posted by NHS surgeon Dr Karan Raj, he revealed that by adjusting our sleeping time to fit our sleep pattern, we can wake up feeling more refreshed.
The video has been viewed 1.6 million and in the clip, Dr Raj explained how we go through natural sleep cycles.
He said: “Every night your brain moves through several sleep cycles. Each cycle starts with light sleep, then you enter deep sleep, then dream, then back to light.”
Dr Raj then explained that each of these cycles takes around 90 minutes. Typically, he said, we feel at our best when we wake up during a period of light sleep.
He continued: “You feel most refreshed if you wake up at the end of one of these 90-minute cycles. It’s because you’re closest to your normal waking state.”
The surgeon then shared a tip on how to use this knowledge to our advantage to increase the chances that we feel well-rested after sleep.
To work out the ideal time to go to sleep so you wake up during the end of a cycle, you will need to know what time you want to wake up and count backwards in 90-minute intervals.
Dr Raj explained: “Work backwards in 90-minute blocks until you reach a time closest to when you want to sleep.”
Comments on the post suggested the theory seemed to match some people’s experiences.
One user wrote: “Would explain why I still feel tired after eight hours of sleep.”
Another said: “This is nuts. I work night shift for three years, go to bed at 6am, wake up at noon. Almost six hours of sleep exactly every night.”
