The four biggest myths about sleep

1. sleep before midnight is the best.
Not true. The first half of the night's sleep seems to be the most important for feeling refreshed in the morning, as this is when you have a particularly large amount of deep sleep. However, whether this first half is before or after midnight is irrelevant, says Oskar Jenni from Zurich Children's Hospital.
2. you sleep through the night without waking up.
Wrong. Sleeping through the night is not essential, even for good sleepers. In fact, waking up at night is a completely normal phenomenon and not pathological. In any case, most sleepers experience far more interruptions than they realise: some people wake up for a few seconds up to 10 times an hour and are awake for more than a minute up to 23 times a night. Anything less than 1 to 2 minutes goes unnoticed and is not remembered in the morning. Only when the waking phase lasts longer than 5 minutes does the person become aware of it and is actually awake. This happens about 1 to 4 times per night. Anyone who lies awake for 5 minutes or longer more often feels that their sleep has been disturbed.
3. early risers are more intelligent than late risers.
Yes and no. In principle, an early riser can also be a late riser if they go to bed early in the evening. According to Oskar Jenni from the Children's Hospital in Zurich, there is some evidence in the literature that short sleepers are more intelligent.
4. children grow while they sleep.
True. Studies have actually found that sleep duration is linked to growth. The longer the child sleeps, the more likely it is to experience growth spurts. Growth hormones are released during the night, especially during deep sleep. However, the exact relationship between bone growth and sleep is still unclear.

More about sleep:

• 6 questions for the sleep researcher
• Sleep! Little child! Sleep!
• Is the mobile phone to blame for the sleep disorders?
• All in one bed? Combat zone family bed