I've been having trouble sleeping — for as long as forever. Sometimes it's just a feeling. Other times, it's a fact (I know because my watch tells me). But then my watch may be part of the problem. It's constantly reminding me to get to bed on time and accosting me with poor sleep scores. It drives my anxiety through the roof, my heart races and I feel like I can't sleep. But then I still feel fine the next day. Weird.
"When you're sleep deprived, you have poor judgment," said Catia Reis, a sleep researcher at the University of Lisbon, when we spoke.
That might explain my predicament. Because even when I feel fine during the week, I oversleep at the weekend — which is a sure sign of sleep debt, she said.
Reis has studied a variety of sleep-related conditions, including the effects of jet lag and sleep deprivation among athletes.
One investigation compared levels of sleepiness among patients with sleep apnea — a condition where you stop breathing intermittently through the night — and shift workers, who work against their natural, circadian rhythm. That's our inner clock that tells us when we're wakeful or sleepy.
