Sleeping Basics

Have you ever wondered why all human beings and animals need to sleep? Studies show that humans spend about one third of their entire lives sleeping. Sleep in not an optional activity but a required one. It is essential for a person to remain not only healthy but survive. Did you know that rats that are deprived of sleep die within three weeks? Unfortunately few people know about the importance and functions of sleep and how it affects the human body.

So why does the body need sleep and what happens during the process? Well enough to say that it is required for body growth, development and maintenance and for having a health immune system. Have you ever felt your brain going dead at work after a whole night of partying with no sleep at all? That's also a result of sleep deprivation. Sleep enables the brain to rejuvenate, learn and store recently received information. You can read more information about the effects of sleep in the links provided on this site.

It's interesting to note that the brain is actually very active during sleep. We go through five different stages of sleep and each of these stages has specific brain activity taking place. Stages 1 and 2 are considered light sleep whereas stages 3 and 4 are deep sleep. Stage 5 is when we dream and is known as Rapid Eye Movement or REM sleep. You might have also heard lots of other abbreviations and acronyms connected with sleep like NREM, PLMS, and ASPS and so on. Our links provides a glossary of all these sleep related jargon along with their meanings.

How do you decide how much sleep is right for you? Ever noticed that your grandparents are awake much before you can even open your eyelids and keep them that way? People at different stages of life require varying amounts of sleep. It does not remain the same from the time you are a bay till when you become an adult. Babies require much more sleep than others. An adult needs an average of about 8 hours of sleep.

Random Sleeping Tip

We all have a biological clock inside us. If you have to get up early in the morning and you have slept late and you know that you might not be able to get up with the alarm that you are going to set for the morning, then the best thing is to just tell yourself as to what time you need to get up. When you tell your mind that you need to get up at one specific time then you will automatically get up at that point in time and that would amaze you. This has really amazed me and I have tried it several times and it has worked every time I told myself that I need to be up at a specific time.

But many people suffer from a host of sleeping disorders especially if they are over they age of 65. Apart from the disorders, the other factors that can cause lack of sleep are excessive intake of caffeine, drugs and antidepressants as well as back and neck problems. Recent research has found out that light therapy can be used to cure some of these disorders like jet lag and insomnia.

From the above, we can conclude that sleep in necessary for preserving cognitive and motor functions in the body. It is not something people do for lack of anything else to do! Sleep definitely makes your feel rested and alert. There are also sleep tests available these days to find out if you have any sleep related problems. So read on if you are interested to find out more about these tests and how they can help you.

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