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Why Is A Good Night Sleep Important and How To Get It?

 

In general, a person’s optimal sleep duration varies with age. According to experts, newborns need between 16 and 20 hours spread throughout the day, while young children require 9 to10 hours. 8 to 9.5 hours of sleep is essential for teenagers, but adults just require 6 to 10 hours of sleep.

Not having enough sleep, you would likely to have poor concentration and unsatisfied overall well-being. In the meantime, you would probably put on weight.

At “Sleep 2009” in Seattle during June 2009, researchers from University of Pennsylvania announced that people who consistently fail to get enough sleep might experience weight gain. They studied 92 healthy adults and concluded those who had less than the average amount of sleep gained an average of 1.3 kilos during the 11-day experiment.

Another study by Stanford University in California found that among the 1,000 volunteers participated, those who slept less than 8 hours a night had higher levels of body fat. They also reported that those who reportedly slept the least weighed the most.

These findings are not surprising at all! According to sleep specialists, inadequate sleep could affect the hormones that help control our appetite and metabolism.
Sleep deprivation is a stressful state, which alters the body's hormonal environment. It would cause level of leptin to decrease and level of ghrelin to increase. Leptin is a hormone that makes you feel full after eating, while ghrelin is a hunger hormone that stimulates your appetite. The overall result would cause you to overeat and put on weight.

On the other hand, some people who cannot have enough sleep can suffer from sleep disorder. Their problem can go beyond weight gain. In Singapore, between 10 and 30 percent of the local population have insomnia and up to 15 percent have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Their quality of sleep is affected because their breathing is interrupted during sleep.

Continuous gaining extra weight will eventually make you overweight or even obese. This will certainly increase your risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), etc. Moreover, OSA can increase a person’s blood pressure and even cause heart attack during sleep.

So, how to qualify a good night's sleep?

When you wake up naturally without the help of an alarm clock, feel refreshed, alert and can function at peak mental performance. Also, you should not need to nap in the middle of the day.

An internal clock, which determines when you feel sleepy, regulates your sleep-wake patterns. Therefore, you should go to bed and wake up at around the same time every day. Once activities synchronized with your internal clock, you will naturally sleep better.

In case if you cannot fall asleep within 15 to 20 minutes, you should leave the bedroom and do something relaxing, for example, read some books or magazines, or listen to soft music. You should only return to bed when you absolutely feel sleepy again, no matter how long it takes.

If you have insomnia, you should not read, watch TV or work in bed.

Do not consume caffeine and perform stimulating activities just before bedtime. Caffeine is a stimulant that can stay in your body for more than 10 hours. Stimulating activities include vigorous exercise, intense work and exciting TV programs.

You should avoid long afternoon naps, which can make you difficult to fall asleep at night. After a day of hard work, taking a warm bath, dimming the lights, reading quietly or listening to soft music can be a good lead-up to sleep.

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