But few of us realise just how important it really is. Scientists continue to discover just how sleep (or a lack of it) affects us, but there’s no doubt good, healthy sleep can do lots to improve many different areas of our life.
How Long Should We Sleep
The amount of sleep a person needs depends a lot on his or her age. Babies sleep a lot ‐ about 14 to 15 hours a day! But many older people only need about 7 or 8 hours of sleep each night. Most kids between the ages of 5 and 12 years old are somewhere in between, needing 10 to 11 hours of sleep. Some children might need more and some need less. It depends on the children.
Sleep, food for the brain
Sleep is food for your brain and is a hugely complex machine and it needs looking after just like the rest of your body. Sleep is really important to keep your brain healthy and working well. It also allows the brain to absorb the information it’s had passed through it when you’re awake. Some scientists also believe the brain uses the periods when you are sleeping to repair and adapt for the future based on what you’ve learnt. Some other things your brain needs sleep for include:
Sleep, Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome
Habitually insufficient sleep could contribute towards obesity, metabolic syndrome, etc, via sleepiness‐related inactivity and excess energy intake; more controversially, through more direct physiological changes. Epidemiological studies in adult/children point to small clinical risk only in very short (around 5h in adults), or long sleepers, developing over many years, involving hundreds of hours of 'too little' or 'too much' sleep. Although acute 4h/day sleep restriction leads to glucose intolerance and incipient metabolic syndrome, this is too little sleep and cannot be sustained beyond a few days. Few obese adults/children are short sleepers, and few short sleeping adults/children are obese or suffer obesity‐related disorders. For adults, about seven hours uninterrupted daily sleep is 'healthy'. Extending sleep, even with hypnotics, to lose weight, may take years, compared with the rapidity of utilising extra sleep time to exercise and evaluate one's diet. The real health risk of inadequate sleep comes from a sleepiness‐related accident
Healing and staying healthy
Your immune system uses sleep to recharge so it works more efficiently. When you’re ill with a flu or a cold you’ll want to sleep more. This is because your body needs to focus on making you well and sleep enable this to happen. Scientists also believe sleep boosts your immune system to stop you becoming ill in the first place
Sleepy and at Risk
Experiments in sleep deprivation have shown that there are changes in the brain and in behaviour which impact on our health, intellect and safety. Our ability to learn and remember is affected by lack of sleep.
Research shows that children's performance is affected after a poor nights sleep. Studies have shown that more errors are made with inadequate sleep and that driving while drowsy is a major contributing factor in road accidents.
Although we may not be aware of why we need to sleep, most of us have experienced the consequences of a poor nights sleep. Feeling tired we may become irritable and lose concentration and find it difficult to perform even familiar tasks. Our mood may be affected causing emotional disturbances, which may manifest as anger, tearfulness, anxiety or depression.
Longer term sleep deprivation may result in psychological problems such as depression.
Sleep Information