Go to Sleep: Your Future Depends Upon Your Dreams

Sleep is a state of unconsciousness in which eyes are fast shut, body is mostly motionless, where an individual recovers oneself from fatigue.  Recent research indicates that sleep is crucial for development, growth, and survival at any stage of life. Especially the sleep at night charges the mind, soothes the emotions, restores the body and strengthens nearly every system of the body. Sleep makes the human body energized, strong and refreshed. Moreover, tissues and damaged cells repair at night when the person is fast asleep.

We spend almost one third of time sleeping. What matters is to achieve the targeted duration of sleep time. As many researches have proved that less than 7 hours of sleep per 24 hours of period is not good for wellbeing. It is also important to consider sleep as necessary as food and water. “Sleep is not a luxury but a necessity for optimal functioning of the brain and other vital organs”, says Dr. James O’Brien, medical director of the Boston Sleep Care Center in Waltham, Mass.

As for the duration of sleep, surprisingly, there is no specific period. It varies from person to person. For example, an obese may require one or two hours more than the skinny person. Similarly, a worker in the field may require more sleep duration to recover from the physical exertion than the person doing desk job. In contrast, newborn babies require 16 to 17 hours of sleep per 24 hours period. This is essential for babies to develop their organs fully. This also varies according to age, as school going children need 9.5 hours of sleep, adults need 7 to 8 hours but after the age of 60, sleep times tend to be shorter and interrupted by several awakenings.

When we sleep, we undergo 4 to 6 sleep cycles which ensures that the sleep is not uniform. In the 1st cycle the heartbeat, respiration and eyes movement begins to slow down. In the 2nd stage our body systems continue to relax. In the 3rd and the 4th stage of the cycle we encounter the deep sleep in which the heartbeat and the brain waves are at their slowest motion. This whole cycle will only be completed when we take proper hours of sleep. Sleep is not only important for the proper functioning of the brain, but it is also important for maintaining a good and healthy lifestyle.

The human brain is only capable of 16 hours of wakefulness. When people push this limit, they have difficulty concentrating, remaining alert and performing basic tasks. Although the mind and body adjust to reduced hours of sleep, the overall performance of affected people continues to plummet. The causes of sleep deprivation are excess of work, time consumed in commuting to and from work and some bad habits which we learn while growing up like, for instance, when we ignored our mom’s advice early in our teens and went to sleep late at night or over slept in the mornings on weekends. Use of social media is another trend these days that keeps us busy a number of times. For starters, one should switch off the TV half-an-hour before going to sleep and try to find time for a mid-day siesta. According to experts, the best time for siesta is between noon and 3 pm for 30 to 60 minutes. Experts say that one cannot make up for sleep deprivation at a later date such as in the mornings on a weekend. This disrupts the sleep rhythm, making it even harder later to get a full night’s rest.