Sleep is one of the best things for our health, and waking up after a good night’s sleep can leave us refreshed, energized, and ready for the day.
However, sleep is one of the things that can often be overlooked in today’s society, although there are a number of surprising benefits to a good night’s sleep. According to sleep expert Shawn Stevenson, millions of us today suffer from chronic sleep deprivation. He goes on to say that lack of sleep can lead to immune system failure, diabetes, cancer, obesity, depression, and memory loss, just to name a few.
He says the best time to go to sleep is at 10 p.m. M., Which is the time when melatonin kicks in for adults and you start to feel drowsy. Melatonin is a hormone that regulates sleep-wake cycles. It is between 10 pm and 2 am when you get the best quality of sleep and your body repairs itself.
There is also an economic impact from lack of sleep. The Sleep School (thesleepschool.org) says that “poor sleep costs the economy £ 40 billion each year.” The Rand Report (2016) analyzes in detail the economic impact of sleeping too little.
Sleep has been shown to help turn short-term memories into long-term memories and help with our level of creativity. Health.com cites that researchers from Harvard University and Boston College found that “people appear to strengthen the emotional components of memory during sleep, which can help stimulate the creative process.”
It also locates a Stanford University study that links more than 10 hours per night of sleep with greater performance, more endurance, and less daytime fatigue among college football players.
For me personally, it was only recently that I began to understand the amazing benefits of a good night’s sleep. Before changing my sleeping habits and going to bed much earlier, I found that most of the time, I felt lethargic during the day, was constantly exhausted, and had limited concentration.
Going to bed before midnight and sleeping between seven and nine hours on average means that I now have more energy during the day, better concentration, and am more productive than before.
Lack of sleep can have a serious effect on our cognitive functions, mood and, over time, can contribute to chronic diseases, from chronic fatigue syndrome (chronic fatigue syndrome) to cancer. Research suggests that the optimal amount of sleep we need per night is 7-10 hours.
So try this for the next seven days:
1. Go to bed before midnight and sleep a minimum of 7-8 hours. If you have trouble sleeping, at least take the opportunity to rest your body as much as you can in bed.
2. Keep a note during the week of how you feel, how you function during the day, and how you interact with those around you.
3. At the end of the week, reflect on what you need to do to improve your sleep pattern.
Sleep well!
