Why You Should Get More Sleep

I love to sleep. I’ve always needed 8-9 hours of sleep. My mom tells me when I was a baby she had to wake me up to eat. You may sleep a lot less and feel like you can function well so why do you need more sleep?

We live in a busy world with work, family and other obligations. We seem to find more things to keep us busy all the time. Who has time for sleep? Well sleep is more important than you may realize. But first…

 …how much sleep should you be getting? According to SleepFoundation.org you need:

Some of you are probably thinking that seems like a lot! When you think about the effects of lack of sleep you’ll understand why getting enough sleep is important.

Effects of to little sleep

• Dumbs you down-impairment of attention,alertness, concentration and problem solving.
• Leads to depression.
• Ages skin at a faster rate.
• Leads to weight gain.
• May increase risk of death from all causes particularly cardiovascular disease.

One very sneaky and dangerous result of lack of sleep is “microsleep” these are brief moments of sleep that occur while you’re normally awake. Now if your just watching television it’s no big deal.

If you’re in an important meeting you can miss a crucial piece of information. If you’re driving you can kill someone or yourself.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 2.5% of fatal crashes and 2% of injury crashes involve drowsy driving.2 These estimates are probably conservative, though, and up to 5,000 or 6,000 fatal crashes each year may be caused by drowsy drivers.3-5

That is a scary statistic.

Getting enough sleep will increase healthy brain function, emotional well-being, physical health, daytime performance and safety.

How do you increase the likelyhood of a good nights sleep?

• Limit alcohol and caffeine.
• Stick to a sleep schedule, even on weekends.
• Practice a relaxing bedtime ritual .
• Exercise daily.
• Make your room as dark as possible. Even the smallest amount of light can affect your sleep.
• Be sure your mattress and pillows are the right fit for you.
• Avoid electronics for 2 hours before bed.

If you don’t quite feel a 100% you probably just need more sleep. Now the actual amount of sleep any person needs can vary. You need to pay attention to how you feel and function in relationship to how much sleep you get.

Don’t forget napping for those times you just need a boost. The typical power nap is 10-20 minutes. Napping for 90 minutes will take you through a complete sleep cycle if your able to get a restful sleep. Napping in between 20 and 90 minutes will bring benefits but you’ll likely have that hangover like brain fog or grogginess.

The final answer to how much sleep you need is up to you to discover. Make a good nights sleep a priority. Don’t under estimate the effect of too little sleep. How much are you sleeping? Is it really enough?

P.S. Let me know what you think in the comments. What’s your bedtime ritual?