In this post, I will discuss all the aspects of sleep which help us lead a healthy lifestyle.
Sleep has always remained an underrated aspect in terms of maintaining a healthy body. In many motivational quotes also, people are encouraged to “sleep less and work more”. And there are various other reasons also when we are forced to or tend to get less sleep. This may be because of stress, some pending work etc.
Let’s see the stats for the hours of sleep an average person gets in some countries and compare whether it’s equivalent to the recommended number of hours of sleep or not.
- Japan – 6 hr
- Saudi Arabia – 6 hr 8 min
- Sweden – 6 hr 10 min
- India – 6 hr 20 min
- Phillipines – 6 hr 22 min
- Ireland – 7 hr 22 min
- United Kingdom – 7 hr 24 min
- Finland – 7 hr 26 min
- Netehrlands – 7 hr 28 min
- New Zealand – 7 hr 30 min
I think before comparison, we must know what is the recommended number of hours of sleep according to experts.
Age group – Number of hours
13-18 – 8-10 hours
18-60 – 7 hours or more
61-64 – 7-9 hours
65 above – 7-8 hours
Note : The survey for stats of countries was conducted mainly among the 18-60 year age group.
And as we can see, the recommended number of hours of sleep is at least 7 hours. But apart from some European countries, the citizens of other countries recieve almost 1 hour less sleep than the recommended number. You may think that nothing would happen with the deduction of 1 hour. But actually these “sleep-lacking” people miss out on a lot of benefits which they could have got by just sleeping an hour earlier than their regular bed-time. Some examples of dis-benefits –
- You will rarely remember something from yesterday like something new you learned yesterday. E.g – Some new word’s definition of a language
- Increased weight ( Check out this study to know more)
- You are likely to get into a accident if you travel in morning
- You will feel dizzy
These benefits are too good to miss out !! Do you want to miss out on these? I am guessing “NO” from you ! Okay, so first let me mention some other more crucial benefits of getting sleep so that you REALLY DO UNDERSTAND the importance of sleep and then I will give some tips on how you can have a great sleep –
The “other” benefits
- Good sleep = Healthy weight – It may sound crazy at first. But according to research, sleep and weight are related. See, when we get proper sleep, our body releases less ghrelin. Ghrelin is a hormone which tends to boost our hunger or appetite. So if we release less ghrelin, we will not eat extra calories which we could have consumed if we hadn’t got proper sleep. Thus, we will not be in a calorie surplus and as a result we will not gain weight.
- Good sleep leads to good mood – It’s simple. If we get a good amount of sleep, we will not feel irritated or annoyed about the fact that you couldn’t rest properly. And if we don’t feel bad, we will be cheerful and then even if a problem comes to us, we would face it with a cheerful attitude. Also, if we remain cheerful or energetic in the morning, then the people we meet in the morning will also be humble to us because we will act humble to them.
- Healthy Sleep = Healthy Heart – As I discussed in the above point, lack of sleep leads to a very stressful mood. And as we feel stressed our body releases stress hormones, becasue of which blood cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure tends to increase. And all these things point to HEART ATTACK !!!
- Want good Memory? Get good sleep – Sleep is one of the most important factor in memory consolidation according to new researches. These were the words of an article on sleep by Harvard which explains the “memory consolidation takes place during sleep through the strengthening of the neural connections that form our memories”. I guess you got it, but in case you need to know more, click here.
I think I have mentioned quite a few benefits of sleep. Now that you fully understand the “sleep importance”, I will give you some useful tips on having an un-disrupted sleep. Well I can’t help if some other person disturbs you!
- Leave your screens at least 2 hours before sleep
- Don’t consume caffeine after evening, which is found in coffee, tea etc.
- Do not take afternoon naps
- Don’t eat late in night
- Purchase a comfortable mattress and pillow
- Increase your weekly hours spent on exercise
- Take an hot shower if necessary
So that’s it for today guys!! Ho pe you got some valuable info!!
