Sleep

Some things are necessary for survival. Air, water and sleep. Let's talk about the last one a little bit.

Did you know, you probably spend a third of your lifetime sleeping? And that is ok, because your body need to regenerate from the daily stress and the physical activities, no matter how light or intense they are.

Sleeping is more than just closing your eyes. At one point you need to reach a deep state, so your body and mind can, repair, relax and recharge. For each hour you awake, supposedly you should have 20-30 minutes sleep.

Drowsy sleep will last approximately 10 minutes, when your muscles relax, body temperatures lower and eyes moves slower.

Light sleep will last about 60 minutes, when your eyes will stop moving, heart rate and breathing slow down and the brain will fire up, consolidating memories from the day.

Deep sleep will last for maybe 40 minutes. Blood pressure drops and heart rate slows down 20-30%. The brain stops working and muscles paralysis.

After passing through the first three stages, you will enter the active stage of sleep.

The reason why adults need 7 hours to sleep, because the body goes through the whole sleep cycle during this period of time.

How much time of sleep needed:

-Newborns 14-17 hours

-Toddlers 11-14 hours

-Kids (7-12) 10-13 hours

-Teens 8-10 hours

-Adults 7-9 hours

It is suggested to sleep that certain amount of time continuously to go through the whole sleeping cycle. Unfortunately it's not possible for some of us. I have to break it into 2, so I sleep 2-3 hours in the afternoon and about 4 in the night. Is it good? Probably not, but my schedule won't allow me to do other way, and I've tried to sleep only the night time, but this way is better for me now.

Insomnia can affect you for many reasons. Some of the examples are, getting exposed to blue light, like cell phones, computers, etc. Not getting enough movements during the day. Stress. Food you eat, not digested properly, because you eat too late. The environment surrounding you is not calming, like pets in your bed, partner snoring or other noises.

Or you have a medical condition interfering. You need to pay attention on these and fix them somehow.

How can you sleep better?

-Stay cool

-Keep it quiet

-Reduce blue light activity prior bed time

-Remove electronics from the bedroom (TV, computer, etc.)

-No pets

-Finish your meal 3 hours before bed time

-Monitor beverages

-Sunlight exposure (in the morning expose your eyes to sunlight 2-3 minutes)

Benefits of sleeping enough are reduces stress, helps your body to regenerate, repair, relax, burning fat, gives you energy for the next day and later you will have less chances to develop dementia in your elderly ages.