Healthy Sleep: What you should know?

Details: Category: Region 9; Published: 24 September 2022

Getting enough quality sleep can help you feel your best, says Alexa Fry of the Sleep Foundation. Healthy sleep habits enhance mood, memory, creativity, and learning. A balanced diet is simpler to maintain and the immune system is strengthened by getting enough sleep. On the other hand, if you don't get enough sleep, you could feel sluggish, confused, melancholy, and low-spirited. When you are not sleeping well, it can sometimes be easy to tell. In other instances, a lack of sleep and its negative effects might creep up on you gradually, making it possible for you to get used to them without realizing how they are affecting your health and quality of life.

As per Kimberly Holland of Healthline, the study of the body's need for sleep is a relatively recent one. Researchers are trying to understand what occurs to the body while we sleep and why it is so important. We are aware that sleep is essential for maintaining vital bodily processes as well as for recovering energy, healing muscular tissue, and processing new information in the brain. We also understand the effects of insufficient sleep on the body. Lack of sleep can affect your capacity to think properly, focus, react, and control emotions, among other mental and physical issues. Serious issues on the job and at home may emerge from this.

A healthy sleep pattern is mostly dependent on getting a sufficient amount of sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, most adults should receive between 7 and 9 hours of sleep each night, while seniors over 65 should aim for between 7 and 8 hours. Children require more hours of sleep due to their rapid growth and development, with age-specific guidelines varied. While teens need between 8 and 10 hours each night, babies may need up to 17. According to Gerhard Whitworth, a few things can affect how much sleep you'll need. How much sleep you get depends on your genes. How effectively you adapt to a lack of sleep may also depend on your genes. In a similar vein, the quality of your sleep has a role in how much sleep you ultimately require each night. A bit less sleep may be required by those who experience restful sleep without waking up than by those who wake up often or have problems falling asleep. Each person has different needs for sleep.

Is Your Sleep Good for You? According to the Sleep Foundation, there are various short- and long-term advantages to healthy sleep-in addition to assessing your nightly experience of sleep-in terms of duration, continuity, and timing. The daytime signs that you have developed a good sleep schedule are listed below:

Waking up feeling refreshed in the morning
Having lots of energy during the day
Being in a good mood
Feeling clear-headed

On the other hand, an unhealthy sleep pattern has distinguishing characteristics as well. You may have specific symptoms, such as the following, if you experience chronic sleep deprivation or if your sleep each night is of poor quality:

Having trouble getting up in the morning
Struggling to focus
Irritability, depression, or anxiety
Feeling sleepy during the day or needing to schedule daytime naps
Sleeping much longer or later on unstructured days

The Sleep Foundation strongly advises speaking with your doctor if you are unsure about how to incorporate healthy sleep habits into your life. It's also vital to consult a health expert if you currently practice proper sleep hygiene but still have trouble falling asleep or if you think you could be suffering from a sleep problem. Your doctor can help you assess the variables that might be affecting your sleep and talk about therapies or methods to improve it.

DMO II Marie-Claire Gaas

References:

What Is Healthy Sleep?

By Written by Alexa Fry, Senior Health Editor, Updated April 29, 2022

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene/what-is-healthy-sleep#:~:text=Sleep%20Duration&text=The%20National%20Sleep%20Foundation%20recommends,between%207%20and%208%20hours.