How to Sleep Better - Good Sleep Hygiene Guide

(Body Oxygenation and Excellent Morning Health)

How to sleep: Sleep duration table

Warning. Most natural and often medical websites claim that the human body repairs itself during sleep. However, dozens of medical studies, as well as clinical observations, testify that sick people are most likely to die from 4 to 7 am due to heart attacks, strokes, seizures, exacerbations of asthma and COPD, and many other conditions (see the summary of these studies here: Sleep Heavy Breathing Effect). It is also true that over 90% of people have lowest body oxygen levels during early morning hours. Therefore, do not get fooled by those people who advice to sleep more and feel better about sleep. Your health will get worse and worse if your body oxygen drops during sleep.

Medical Research on How to Sleep

Medical research has proven that sick people are most likely to have health problems during early morning hours in comparison with any other time of the day. From about 4 to 7 am is the time of highest mortality rates and acute exacerbations due to strokes, heart attacks, diabetes, seizures, asthma, COPD, bronchitis and many other common conditions.

Medical people smiling Are there any medical therapies or groups of doctors who have been interested in sleep? Decades of systematic medical research and clinical experience of Soviet and Russian Buteyko MDs (more than 170 medical doctors) have accumulated rich practical material about the role and place of sleep in health restoration. They found that most people have good quality of sleep if their morning body oxygen levels are more than 30 seconds.

Good sleep is a very important factor of wellbeing. Poor quality of sleep, on the other hand, worsens body oxygen growth creating a vicious circle: poor sleep → poor digestion, low energy, lack of motivation, fast and heavy breathing → low body oxygen levels and overexcited hypoxic brain → poor sleep → and so forth.

Table. Summary of How to Sleep Better (Good Sleep Hygiene Guide)

Parameters	Sleep quality:
Parameters	Good	Poor
Allergic reactions during the day	Avoided	Present
Time spent outdoors	Up to 2-5 hours daily	Less than 1 hour
Physical exercise with strictly nasal breathing	Up to 1-3 hours daily	Less than 1 hour
What to do before sleep	Walk for 15-20 min outdoors or even light jogging: 15-20 min breathing exercises; have a meal earlier; cold shower; correct posture	Watching TV, playing games or working on a computer, overheating or having a late meal, overeating, slouching in an armchair, on a couch or sofa
When to go to sleep	When really sleepy	By time
Type of materials that are in touch with skin during sleep	Natural (cotton, hemp, wool, ...)	Synthetic (polyester, acrylic, nylon, ...)
Air quality in the bedroom	Excellent	Poor
Thermoregulation	If your current CP<20 s, feel normal or little warm during sleep If your CP>20 s, feel little on the cold side during sleep	Too warm blankets, too warm room
Surface of the bed	Hard (the same as when 2 thin blanket layers are lying on a hard surface)	Soft
Sleep positions	Sitting, prone, left side	On one's back, right side
What to do to fall asleep	Buteyko reduced breathing exercise	Worry about life problems tomorrow and poor health now
What to do, if no sleep for more than 10 min	Get out of the bed, go for a walk outdoors or do a breathing session	Continue to suffer
What to do in the morning	Measure the CP and get out of the bed	Continue to lie horizontally
What to do during the day in case of mild sleep deprivation or over 40 s CP	Get a short nap (e.g., 5-20 min) sitting (e.g., in an armchair)	No nap or napping in a horizontal position
What to do during the day in case of severe sleep deprivation	Try to sleep sitting, if possible for as long as the body needs with all correct rules	Get upset by sleepless night and try to sleep without sleep hygiene care

All these and many other factors are considered in more details on a different web page. Here is its summary.

Content of the web page Good Sleep Hygiene:
- Sleep is Death for the Sick (Medical Facts)
- Criteria of Good Sleep (When You Need to Worry How to Sleep)
- Allergies, Headaches, Migraines, and Sleep
- Time Spent Outdoors
- Physical Exercise with Strictly Nose Breathing (In and Out)
- What to Do Before Sleep
- When to Go to Sleep
- Type of Materials that Are in Touch With Skin During Sleep
- Air Quality in the Bedroom
- Thermoregulation
- Hard Beds
- Sleep Positions
- What to Do to Fall Asleep
- What to Do if No Sleep for More Than 10 Min
- What to Do in the Morning
- What to Do During the Day in Case of Mild Sleep Deprivation
- What to Do During the Day in Case of Severe Sleep Deprivation
- Table. Summary: main factors of good sleep hygiene
- Special Concerns Related to Good Sleep Hygiene (coughing, blocked nose, hypoglycemia, cold hands or feet, skin itching, etc.)

More detail about all these topics (with all these factors explained) can be found on the page Good Sleep Hygiene.

Some most important factors for good sleep hygiene and some other causes of hyperventilation are discussed in this YouTube video Good Sleep Hygiene (How to Sleep Better):

Reference Web Pages: Breathing norms, Medical Graphs and Tables about Breathing Rates (Minute Ventilation) and Body Oxygen in Healthy, Normal and Sick People
Breathing norms Parameters, graph, and description of the normal breathing pattern
6 breathing myths 6 myths about breathing and body oxygenation (prevalence: over 90%)
Hyperventilation Definitions of hyperventilation: their advantages and weak points
Hyperventilation Syndrome in the Sick. Table 1. Western scientific evidence about prevalence of CHV (chronic hyperventilation) in patients with various chronic conditions (34 medical studies)
Normal Minute Ventilation in Healthy Subjects: Easy and Light Breathing (14 Studies)
Hyperventilation Prevalence Present in Over 90% of Normal People (24 medical publications)
HV and hypoxia How and why deep breathing reduces oxygenation of cells and tissues of all vital organs
Body oxygen test How to measure your own breathing and body oxygenation (a simple DIY test)
Body oxygen in healthy Table 4. CP (body oxygen level) in healthy people (27 medical studies)
Body oxygen in sick Table 5. CP (body oxygen level) in sick people (14 medical studies)
Buteyko Table of Health Zones with clinical description of most common zones
Morning HV Morning hyperventilation effect or how and why critically ill people are most likely to die during early morning hours

References: CO2 Effects Web Pages
Vasodilation: CO2 expands arteries and arterioles facilitating perfusion (or blood supply) to all vital organs
The Bohr effect How and why oxygen is released by red blood cells in tissues
Cell Oxygen Levels and oxygen transport are controlled by alveolar CO2 and breathing
Oxygen Transport depends on breathing and these two effects (Vasoconstriction-Vasodilation and the Bohr effect) are parts of two diagrams that summarize influences of hypocapnia (low CO2 content in the blood and cells) on circulation and O2 delivery
Free Radical Generation takes place due to anaerobic cell respiration caused by cell hypoxia. Hence, antioxidant defenses of the human body are also regulated by CO2 and breathing
Inflammatory Response is controlled by breathing since hypoxia leads to or intensifies chronic inflammation through over-expression of the hypoxia-inducible factor 1, while normal breathing reduces these processes
Nerve stabilization takes place due to calmative or sedative effects of carbon dioxide in neurons or nerve cells
Muscle relaxation or relaxation of muscle cells is normal at high CO2, while hypocapnia causes muscular tension, poor posture and, sometimes, aggression and violence
Brochodilation - dilation of airways (bronchi and bronchioles) by carbon dioxide, and their constriction due to hypocapnia
CO2: Best Natural Cough Suppressant and "home remedy" since it calms urge-to-cough nerve receptors located in the tracheobronchial tree and larynx
Blood pH regulation and regulation of other bodily fluids
CO2: Lung Damage Healer: Elevated carbon dioxide prevents injury and promotes healing of lung tissues
CO2: Skin and Tissue Healer
Synthesis of Glutamine in the Brain, CO2 fixation, and other chemical reactions
CO2 myth "CO2 is a toxic waste gas" myth
Breathing control How is our breathing regulated? Why hypocapnia makes breathing uneven and erratic?

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