- Poor sleep contributes to crankiness, but it can also negatively impact your cognitive function and your general health.
- How much beauty sleep is enough?
- Some primary reasons why you need to get some good shut-eye.
How Much Sleep Is Ideal, Anyway?
Sleep deprivation can be extremely harmful to your physical and mental health, resulting in unpleasant symptoms. Lack of sleep can lead to fatigue, difficulty remembering information, a reduced attention span, sluggish thinking, decreased sexual desire, poor decision making, irritability, daytime sleepiness, and other mood problems.
The amount of sleep required depends on your age — children require more sleep than adults to maintain their growth and development. According to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, adults need at least 7 hours of sleep. Babies, school-age children and teens, on the other hand, need:
- Teens need 8 to 10 hours of sleep each night
- School-aged children need 9 to 12 hours of sleep each night
- Preschoolers need to sleep between 10 and 13 hours a day (including naps)
- Toddlers need to sleep between 11 and 14 hours a day (including naps)
- Babies need to sleep between 12 and 16 hours a day (including naps)
- Newborns need to sleep between 14 and 17 hours a day 1
The Basics of Sleep Disorders
You may have a sleep disorder if you don’t get enough sleep—people with a sleep disorder experience chronic sleep deprivation, which harms their quality of life.
A healthcare professional can diagnose the symptoms of a sleep disorder, such as difficulty sleeping at night and excessive sleepiness during the day. An evaluation by your doctor typically includes an in-depth history of the patient’s symptoms, sleep logs and possibly sleep studies, which can lead to an accurate diagnosis.
Benefits of Being Well Rested
Boosts Your Attention and Concentration Power
It’s no surprise that getting enough sleep can help you stay energized. But getting enough sleep can also help keep your mind focused and prevent daydreaming.
Insufficient sleep can impair both bodies and mind the next day. Sleep deprivation increases the risk of making a mistake or being involved in an accident. But getting enough sleep can help you stay focused all day.
Weight Management
The hormones in your brain that control your hunger are leptin and ghrelin. With those hormones out of whack, your resistance to the temptation of unhealthy foods is lowered. When you’re drowsy, you’re less inclined to want to get up and move. Combined, it’s a recipe for disaster; in this case, weight gain.
Ward Off Depression
Researchers have studied the link between adequate sleep and good mental health for quite a while now. A lack of sleep may contribute to depression.
In a study published in JAMA Psychiatry, researchers looked at trends in suicide deaths over the course of 10 years. According to this study, many of these deaths can be attributed to a lack of sleep.
Sleep disorders, such as insomnia, are linked to depression, according to a new study in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.
Sleep Deprivation Can Be Dangerous
A study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that driving on six to seven hours of sleep is twice as likely to result in a car accident as driving on eight hours of sleep. Crashing increases fourfold if you sleep less than five hours at a time. When your brain isn’t rested, your reaction time slows significantly. If those statistics don’t make you want to throw on your PJs and hit the sheets, we don’t know what will!
Strengthen Your Heart!
Not getting enough rest can lead to heart health issues such as high blood pressure and heart attacks. Lack of sleep can cause your body to release cortisol, a stress hormone that makes your heart work harder. Your heart, like your immune system, requires rest to function effectively and efficiently.
Skyrockets Immunity
When you get enough sleep, your immune cells and proteins get the rest they need to fight off whatever comes their way, like a cold or the flu. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine experts say that getting enough sleep can also make vaccines work better, which is rather interesting.
Increases Your Athletic Performance
Sleep has been demonstrated to improve athletic performance.
Numerous studies have shown ample sleep improves fine motor skills, reaction time, muscular power, muscular endurance, and problem-solving abilities.
Furthermore, sleep deprivation may increase your risk of injury and decrease your motivation to exercise. Getting enough sleep may be precisely what you need to take your performance to the next level.
Interesting Worldwide Stats About Sleep
Check out some interesting sleep facts, courtesy of Single Care:
- Over 20% of adults in the United States and Canada have reported experiencing insomnia (Sleep Research Society, 2012).
- 62% of adults worldwide say they do not sleep as well as they would like (Philips Global Sleep Survey, 2019).
- 67% of adults report nightly sleep disruptions (Philips Global Sleep Survey, 2019).
- 8 in 10 adults worldwide want to improve their sleep, but sixty percent have not sought medical assistance (Philips Global Sleep Survey, 2019).
- In the past five years, the quality of sleep for 44% of adults worldwide has deteriorated (Philips Global Sleep Survey, 2019). 2
Key Takeaways
One of the most important aspects of good health is getting enough sleep.
There is a slew of adverse health consequences linked to a lack of sleep, including an elevated risk of heart disease and depression and weight gain, inflammation, and illness.
Most studies recommend that you get between seven and nine hours of sleep per night for optimal health.
That’s about all for today! Always remember to nourish your body with some high-quality snoozing!
If you enjoyed reading this blog post, please share your thoughts below on your best tips on sleeping soundly in the comments section.
