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, despite the fact that there are a number of surprising benefits of a good night’s sleep. According to sleep expert Shawn Stevenson, millions of us are chronically sleep deprived today. He goes on to say that sleep deprivation 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 10 pm, which is the time melatonin kicks in for adults and you start feeling drowsy. Melatonin is a hormone that regulates sleep and wake cycles. It is between 10 pm and 2 am when you get the best quality sleep and your body repairs itself.
There is also an economic impact of lack of sleep. The Sleep School (thesleepschool.org), says that “poor sleep costs the economy £40 billion every year.” The Rand Report (2016) takes a detailed look at the economic impact of too little sleep.
Sleep has been shown to help with the conversion of short-term memories into long-term memories and helps with our level of creativity. Health.com cites that researchers from Harvard University and Boston College found that “people seem to strengthen the emotional components of memory during sleep, which may help stimulate the creative process.”
It also cites a Stanford University study linking more than 10 hours of sleep per night to higher performance, more endurance, and less daytime fatigue among college football players.
Personally, I have only recently begun to understand the amazing benefits of a good night’s sleep. Before I changed my sleeping habits and went to bed much earlier, I found that most of the time I felt lethargic during the day, constantly exhausted, and had limited focus.
Going to bed before midnight and sleeping between seven and nine hours on average means that I now have more energy during the day, I focus better and I 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 CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) to cancer. Research suggests that the optimal amount of sleep we need per night is 7 to 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. Take notes throughout 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 should do to improve your sleep pattern
Sleep well!