Lifestyle -
Sleep Habbits
Why sleep is important?
Sleep plays a vital role in good health and well-being throughout your life. The way you feel while you are awake depends in part on what happens while you are sleeping. During sleep, your body is working to support healthy brain function and maintain your physical health
In children and teens, sleep also helps support growth and development. Getting inadequate sleep over time can raise your risk for chronic (long-term) health problems. It can also affect how well you think, react, work, learn, and get along with others.
Hormones and sleep
Your body makes different hormone at different times of day. This may be related to your sleep pattern or your circadian clocks. In the morning, your body releases hormones that promote alertness, such as cortisol, which helps you wake up. Other hormones have 24-hour patterns that vary throughout your life; for example, in children, the hormones that tell the glands to release testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone are made in pulses at night, and the pulses get bigger as puberty approaches.
Sleep Phases and Stages
Non-REM sleep
Non-REM sleep has three stages, defined by measurements of brain activity taken in sleep studies.
Stage 1
This stage is the transition between wakefulness and sleep.
Stage 2
When you reach stage 2, you are asleep.
Stage 3
This stage is called deep sleep or slow-wave sleep, after a particular pattern that appears in measurements of brain activity. You usually spend more time in this stage early in the night.
Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep
During REM sleep, your eyes twitch and your brain is active. Brain activity measured during REM sleep is similar to your brain’s activity during waking hours. Dreaming usually happens during REM sleep. Your muscles normally become limp to prevent you from acting out your dreams. You usually have more REM sleep later in the night, but you do not have as much REM sleep in colder temperatures. This is because, during REM sleep, your body does not regulate its temperature properly.
Why do teenagers want to stay up late?
In this age group, there is a change in the timing of sleep. It is natural for them to want to go to bed later at night and to sleep in. However, this needs to be within reason and teenagers often need to be taught good sleep habits. They need to know that they won’t function as well during the day if they miss sleep and fail to catchup on it.
The NIH report says:
- More than 70 percent of college students say they get less than eight hours of sleep a day.
- Sixty-percent of college students say they are “dragging, tired, or sleepy” at least three days a week.
- More than 80 percent of college students say loss of sleep negatively affects their academic performance.
- College students rank sleep problems as the No. 2 cause of difficulties with academic performance. Stress is No. 1.
What happens when the sleep/wake cycle gets out of sync?
Some people have problems with their sleep/wake cycle, meaning that their brain does not keep them awake or asleep at appropriate times. They may have one of the following sleep disorders.
- Insomnia: People who have insomnia have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or both. As a result, they may get too little sleep or not enough quality sleep. They may not feel refreshed when they wake up.
- Narcolepsy: Narcolepsy causes periods of extreme daytime sleepiness. The disorder may also cause muscle weakness.
Consequences of Sleep Deprivation
- Memory loss
- Poor academic performance
- Negative impact on learning
- Significant compromise in performance of cognitive tasks
How Much Sleep Is Enough?
Experts recommend that adults sleep between 7 and 9 hours a night.
Adults who sleep less than 7 hours a night may have more health issues than those who sleep 7 or more hours a night. Sleeping more than 9 hours a night is not necessarily harmful and may be helpful for young adults, people who are recovering from sleep deprivation, and people who are sick.
How much sleep children should get depends on their age. Sleep experts consider naps to be appropriate for children under age 7.
The sleep duration recommendations are based on a report of an expert panel convened by the US based National Sleep Foundation and published in 2015 in their journal Sleep Health
Common sense solutions for a good sleep:
- An evening nap can make it hard to sleep at night.
- Get some sunlight during the day.
- Avoid going to bed on a full or empty stomach.
- Avoid Caffeine atleast 6 hrs before your bedtime.
- Keep regular times for going to bed and getting up.
- Don’t exercise before bedtime
- Keep electronics away from your bed
