15 Sleep Myths

by Brian Dunning
September 17, 2024

Everyone knows that sleep is pretty important, and most of us probably feel we don't get quite enough of the best quality sleep. That means we're likely missing out on some of these benefits, which are not only health related but cognitive as well. Is it possible that we're all sleeping so badly that it's made us too dumb to learn to sleep better? Well, we all certainly hope not. And in the interest of double checking our sleep knowledge, today we're going to examine 15 popular sleep myths. And hopefully we'll all be wrong about at least a few of them, because that means we have room for improvement.

Some of these myths were verified by a 2019 paper by Robbins, et al. published in Sleep Health which compiled a whole bunch of claimed sleep myths from the popular media and had them all evaluated by ten experts in sleep medicine, each of whom had published at least 20 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and had them rate how true or false each myth was.
So let's dive in and tackle the top 15 myths about sleeping.

Myth #1: Taking melatonin is an effective way to improve your sleep.

Melatonin is a hormone that's essential for sleep, and is produced by the pineal gland in the brain. Taking melatonin supplements orally, however, is a whole different thing. Different people, different doses, different absorption rates; its effects are difficult to predict. When we look at all the largest clinical trials of melatonin to treat various sleep disorders or just for falling asleep, results range from no effect beyond placebo, to a small effect of helping people fall asleep a few minutes sooner, and stay asleep for a few minutes longer.

Melatonin is generally safe. However, given that it's a hormone with receptors throughout the body, including the sex organs, it's usually not considered to be proven safe for children.

Myth #2: Drinking alcohol will help you sleep better.

This is one of the myths that the experts rated most strongly wrong. Alcohol is not your friend when it comes to getting a good night's rest.

It does one good thing: helps you get to sleep faster. But from there it's all downhill. It delays the onset of REM sleep. It worsens any sleep apnea you may have. Finally you're more likely to wake up repeatedly during the last half of the night.

Myth #3: If you can't get to sleep, you should stay in bed and keep trying.

There's good research supporting the idea that staying in bed and trying to sleep when you can't is the wrong call. Such people are more likely to get less sleep overall, and of lower quality.

Instead, the best advice is to get out of bed. Go do anything else – and avoid blue light while you're at it. Only return to bed once you get tired. Try to keep in mind that your bed is a sleeping place; don't let your brain associate it as a tossing & turning place.

Myth #4: It doesn't matter when you sleep, as long as you're getting enough.

Although there are certainly plenty of people who do just fine with crazy sleep schedules or with opposite sleep schedules, such as night shift workers, studies show that these people are more likely to suffer negative health consequences such as diabetes, breast cancer, and all the usual problems associated with sleep deprivation including hypertension, obesity, depression, heart attack, and stroke.

The reason has to do with our circadian rhythm, which for our species, is closely tied to the day/night cycle which guides the secretion of melatonin. Sunshine stops the melatonin, and darkness starts it. If you are a shift worker, one of the most effective things you can do is to avoid sunlight as much as possible from the end of your shift until bedtime, and sleep in as dark a room as you can.

Myth #5: A warmer bedroom results in better sleep than a colder bedroom.

You should consider about 20ºC (or about 70ºF) to be the max temperature in your bedroom; cooler than that is always better. Warmer bedrooms are associated with longer times to fall asleep, shorter overall sleep duration, and poorer quality sleep. If you can describe the bedroom as "hot and stuffy," chances are you won't get very good sleep in it.

Myth #6: The older you get, the more sleep you need.

The short explanation is that there is neither evidence nor sound theory supporting this, so it's kind of strange how the belief got started. Observational studies have found the opposite: that older people actually get less sleep than younger people. This doesn't mean they need less sleep; only that they're getting less sleep.

One likely reason for this has to do with age-related conditions that also happen to interfere with sleep. As we age, we tend to get things like chronic pain, menopause and postmenopause, gastric reflux, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, and reduced bladder control from a number of possible causes. So the older we get, the tougher it becomes to get a good night's sleep.

Myth #7: If you remember your dreams, it means you slept well.

This one is plausible, but we're calling it a myth because the evidence supporting it is insufficient. The thing is that sleep study participants who keep diaries do show an association between longer sleep duration and dreaming – the longer you sleep, the more opportunities for REM sleep, which is when we dream the most. But other people also have strong dream recall, for example, people who happen to wake up during REM sleep and have a vivid recollection.

Myth #8: The more sleep you can get, the better.

Like a lot of these, the explanation on this one is kind of complicated. In most cases, people who get a solid 8-10 hours of sleep per night perform better and have improved alertness than people who sleep less. That's for the lucky people for whom it's natural to sleep that long.

Now as far as everyone else goes, waking up naturally after less sleep than that and trying to force yourself to sleep longer is usually a bad idea. This often results in further fragmentation of your sleep pattern, resulting in even less time asleep. It also flies in the face of one of the best practices to reduce insomnia, which is to enforce a consistent time to get out of bed each morning. Such people should focus on sleeping better, not longer.

Myth #9: You shouldn't exercise within 4 hours of bedtime.

This used to be the standard advice, as exercising does things like increase your heart rate and your adrenaline levels, which are the opposite of what you want your body doing if you're trying to fall asleep. But it turns out this was always just conjectural, and that there doesn't appear to be any solid science correlating exercise with poor sleep.

But what we do have is data correlating the opposite. People who exercise regularly tend to sleep better, and people with sleep problems who add regular exercise to their schedule tend to develop better sleeping patterns. One possible reason is that exercise releases endorphins which reduce stress. Today doctors recommend exercise at any time for better sleep, even if it's close to bedtime.

Myth #10: Some people are all good with only 5 hours of sleep or less.

We've all heard of them; we're all jealous of them and their superpower. We all wish we had all those extra hours in the day.

As with most of the items on this list, there are people for whom this is true. They can indeed do just fine on five or fewer hours of sleep per night. But they are in the minority. Most people who get this little sleep have a raft of accompanying problems. It's a major risk factor for conditions such as adverse cardiovascular, metabolic, and immunological problems. It's also strongly correlated with mental health problems. Anyone who frequently gets this little sleep would be well advised to see a sleep specialist.

Myth #11: It's possible to healthfully adjust to less sleep.

Some people might take a new job or a second job and suddenly find themselves with sharply restricted sleep time. Can they adjust to it? Evidence is strong that they cannot; most such people will suffer from sleep deprivation no matter how long they try to adjust. You can adjust the practical logistics of your daily life and live relatively normally, but you'll do so at the cost of increased risk of all the health consequences of sleep deprivation. There's just too much data on this for anyone to want to risk it.

Myth #12: People who can sleep anytime, anywhere are healthy sleepers.

There are certainly people who are blessed with the ability to instantly fall asleep at will, at any time or place. And it's true that some people who can do this might well be healthy sleepers, with no issues at all.

However, more likely it's a red flag that they are chronically sleep deprived. Statistically, such people tend to be those who are subject to more motor vehicle crashes and other microsleeps throughout the day. This ability is also one of the main symptoms for sleep apnea. If you know someone of whom you've always been jealous of their ability to go to sleep at will, you should probably advise them to see a sleep specialist, because they could very likely have severe sleep problems.

Myth #13: Lying in bed with your eyes closed is almost as good as sleeping.

You might think "Well, I can't sleep, so I'll just lie here and quietly rest and that will do." But you would be mistaken, and we have hard evidence of this.

We have a long list of physiological differences between a sleeping body and an awake body. If you've ever had a sleep study, you already know the EEG is different and a doctor can tell at a glance if you're asleep. Your cardiovascular and metabolic functions are measurably different. Your endocrine functions are different. Your body temperature goes down when you're asleep, and that's just one more part of a large puzzle. Your body sleeps because it needs to, and doing so makes a lot of stuff happen that won't if you just lie there with your eyes closed.

Myth #14: Snoring is annoying but mostly harmless.

Snoring is indeed annoying, but it's also the major indicator of obstructive sleep apnea, and sleep apnea raises your risk a lot for cardiovascular problems. The louder the snoring, the higher the risk. If your snore is basically just a low purr, you're probably all right; but someone who really saws the logs could easily be on borrowed time until they see a sleep specialist.

Myth #15: You shouldn't watch TV while lying in bed.

This one has a big qualifier to it: it depends what you watch, and how you watch it; but the big blanket statement of no TV is false. If you have a favorite show that you often enjoy watching in bed, that's great, and if doing so is part of your favorite bedtime schedule, then that's what you should stick with.

Things you shouldn't do are watch anything like news or a gripping movie, as these can increase your stress hormones and make it harder to both fall asleep and stay asleep. You also shouldn't watch anything on a laptop computer that emits heat, as this is also associated with sleep disruption.

Hopefully something on this list is helpful for you. If it is, and if it leads to better sleep quality for you or your partner or both, congratulations, you're more likely to be around a little longer, as you've just reduced your risk somewhat for everything from heart disease to obesity to dementia. And your mind will also be in better shape for the next Skeptoid pop quiz, and as I check my episode calendar, it appears there may be one coming up soon. So get your rest, and I'll see you next week.

By Brian Dunning
Follow @BrianDunning