There are some myths surrounding sleep, one of the most important aspects of our day. One of them is that elderly people tend to need less sleep than young people. Other factors can change, contributing to a different sleep pattern. But the amount of hours the body needs to rest are the same from the age of 20 onwards.

Another idea that proves untrue when tried is that if you're not a morning person, you'll never be. Our internal 'body clock' is not absolute, and can be adjusted. If we need to get up early in the morning we should simply go to bed earlier, in order to get enough hours of proper rest. After a while this becomes a habit and getting up early feels more natural.

Getting up early in the morning doesn't make us necessarily healthier. Again, what is important is the total amount of time spent in deep rest. Other factors can contribute to make the experience of sleeping more or less healthy, but the time on the clock when we go to bed or wake up hasn't much to do with our health. What is really significant is what lays in between.