Sleep is a mechanism that has been put in place to ensure the body has
enough time to recover from the daily stresses it undergoes. There are a lot of
activities that occur in the body while you are asleep. They include:
·
Blood supply to
muscles increases,
·
Tissue growth and
repair occurs,
·
Energy is restored,
·
Hormones are
released (such as: Growth hormone, essential for growth and development,
including muscle development).
Evidence suggests that various sleep stages are
involved in the consolidation of different types of memories and that being
sleep deprived reduces one’s ability to learn.
Sleep is divided into two broad types: rapid eye movement (REM sleep)
and non-rapid eye movement (NREM or non-REM sleep). REM sleep is associated
with dreaming.
A University of California, San Diego psychiatry study of more than one
million adults found that people who live the longest self-report sleeping for
six to seven hours each night.
Researchers at the University of Warwick and University College London
have found that lacks of sleep can more than double the risk of death from cardiovascular
disease.
Children need many hours of sleep per day in order to
develop and function properly: up to 18 hours for newborn babies, with a
declining rate as a child ages. Early in 2015, after a two-year study, the National
Sleep Foundation in the US announced revised recommendations as shown in the
table below.
Age and condition
|
Sleep Needs
|
Newborns (0–3 months)
|
14 to 17 hours
|
Infants (4–11 months)
|
12 to 15 hours
|
Toddlers (1–2 years)
|
11 to 14 hours
|
Preschoolers (3–5 years)
|
10 to 13 hours
|
School-age children (6–13
years)
|
9 to 11 hours
|
Teenagers (14–17 years)
|
8 to 10 hours
|
Adults (18–64 years)
|
7 to 9 hours
|
Older Adults (65 years and over)
|
7 to 8 hours
|
| |
| |
| |
|
|
Scientist have not been able to really explain why we sleep; When asked,
after 50 years of research, what he knew about the reason people sleep, William
C. Dement, founder of Stanford University's Sleep Research Center, answered,
"As far as I know, the only reason we need to sleep that is really, really
solid is because we get sleepy."
Diet affects the quality of sleep and a varied diet containing fresh
fruits and vegetables, low-fat proteins, and whole grains can be the best
nutritional option for individuals seeking to improve the quality of their
sleep.
Sleep deprivation can cause many health effects ranging from ‘minor’
problems like inability to remember things to long term conditions like
hypertension and diabetes.
POWERFUL GUIDE TO REFRESHING SLEEP
The tips below
could help you get a refreshing sleep every night:
·
Go to bed at the
same time nightly.
·
Avoid stimulants
such as caffeine, heavy or spicy foods, and alcohol and other optional
medications that might keep you awake, four to six hours before bed-time.
·
Set aside enough
time to get at least 7 hours of sleep.
·
Block out
distracting lights and noises.
·
Only engage in
sleep and sex in bed (no TV-watching, reading or eating).
·
Exercise regularly
but not right before bed.
Most times, we have an important activity that will last through the
night, and we just need to get some sleep before going out, but we find ourselves
staring at the roof until we just get up frustrated. You can still get that
sleep if you follow the tips above, in addition to closing your eyes whether
you are feeling sleepy or not. When the eyes are closed, sensory input
(messages) from the eyes to the brain are cut off, this relaxes the brain. This
is because the eyes send the highest amount of sensory stimuli to the brain.
Therefore just closing your eyes for 30minutes is enough to make you sleep.
You must be in a quiet environment, imagining yourself waking up when you still
need more sleep (focus on this thought as being distracted could prevent sleep
and push you into thinking about other things). Do this same time same venue
every day, and you will see yourself sleeping when you want. It works for me,
but we are all different.
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