If you “miss” the train, it’s like at the station, you will have to wait a little while before you can get on the next one.
“Go to bed quickly otherwise you will miss the sleep train”. Like a train made up of a locomotive and several wagons, the sleep train is a representation of what we call “a sleep cycle”. This cycle is divided into several cars which each represent a different phase of sleep. The locomotive corresponds to the falling asleep phase, the first wagon represents the light slow-wave sleep phase, the second the deep slow-wave sleep phase and the third the paradoxical sleep phase. Our night is a succession of 4 to 6 trains, the journey of each train lasting approximately 1h30. Thanks to these different phases, we recover mentally and physically.
You can miss the train if you delay going to bed when the first signs of fatigue appear. And if we “miss” the train, it’s like at the station, we will have to wait a little while before we can get on the next one. We risk losing the desire to sleep, having insomnia or poorer quality sleep and being tired the next day. What time does this famous train run? “At different times because we don’t all have the same sleep rhythm, answers Caroline Rome, sophrologist specializing in sleep and author of the book “Sleep regained” (ed. Solar). Someone who has night owl genes will have his sleep gate (or the train door, if we continue the metaphor, editor’s note) which will open later than the others, around 11:30 p.m.-midnight for example. Someone who is more of an early bird will have a sleep door that opens around 10 p.m.“.
You have to listen to your body and spot the first signs of drowsiness to jump on the bandwagon. “The most obvious ones are itchy eyes, heavy eyelids or yawning, but there are plenty of others. Feeling your body heavier and heavier, a rather pleasant heaviness, but which becomes unpleasant when you fight against it. Being cold or slightly shivering, rereading the same sentence from your book 3 times means that the train is almost at the platform. “There is also the fact of changing positions frantically because the body is already looking for its sleeping position without you being aware of it. continues our interlocutor. As soon as these signs appear, it is high time to go to bed.
“If we are not ready to go to bed immediately, by the time we get into bed, get ready, brush our teeth, we will notice the time at which these signs of fatigue appear. and the next day, we anticipate and start getting ready for bed 10 minutes before to be sure not to miss it“, advises Caroline Rome. Likewise, if we live with someone who doesn’t have the same sleep schedule as us, “it is better not to focus on it and take its own pace, otherwise the brain becomes disaccustomed and loses its bearings“.
