Everyone's had that experience before. You're staring up at the ceiling, wishing that you could manage to fall asleep.  You might find yourself counting sheep, or calculating the hours left before your alarm will go off. You think "If I fall asleep now, I can get five hours of sleep.  If I fall asleep now, I can get four hours.  Now..."  It makes for a long night--but here's some consolation: you might actually be catching some winks without even realizing it.

You're Probably Sleeping Better than You Think

"Now, wait a minute," you're thinking.  "I know how much I slept.  I saw the glowing, red numbers on my alarm clock at one o'clock, and two o'clock, and three o'clock..."  You remember being awake endlessly, and you remember how much trouble you had falling asleep--what you don't remember is what happened in between some of those long moments.  

Between tossing and turning, you might be getting some rest

This is a very common finding among sleep study participants.  They might swear that they "didn't sleep at all," while in fact the objective sleep study findings decreed that they had been asleep for at least part of the time they were in the bed.  

The determination of whether a patient is asleep or awake during a sleep study isn't made through direct observation of the patient, nor is it based on the amount of movement the patient is showing.  Instead, it's based on the measurement of brainwave activity.  When a patient is experiencing alpha brain waves (8-13 cycles per second), they are awake.  Any waveform slower than 7 cps indicates that the patient was asleep.  In the case of one patient who was absolutely certain that he hadn't slept at all during the study, it was determined that he was asleep for approximately 30% of the time--still not an adequate amount of sleep, but certainly enough to allow his results to be studied.  

Why you don't remember falling asleep

Why does this happen?  In general, the brain remembers its last waking thought when it is next disturbed.  If the conditions the brain takes note of remain unchanged, it may interpret that as meaning that no time has elapsed.  The patient doesn't feel rested; they don't remember falling asleep; and so they assume that no sleep has occurred when in fact, they've gotten at least a little bit.

Still, there's little doubt that tossing restlessly does not indicate optimal sleep quality. if you find yourself lying awake in bed night after night, you could have a sleep disorder like insomnia or sleep apnea. You should consider talking to your doctor about your sleep condition, or contact us for more information. 

Do you have trouble sleeping at night? What do you do to fall asleep when you're feeling restless? Share in the comments!

Photo Credit: Alyssa L. Miller