If you eat well and exercise regularly, but don’t get at least seven hours of sleep every night, you may be undermining all of your other efforts. Sleep is crucial for our health — and many of us are lacking when it comes to it, you can click here to read more on this.
How much sleep do you actually need?
Everyone feels better after a good night’s rest. But now, thanks to a report from the National Sleep Foundation, you can aim for a targeted sleep number tailored to your age.
The foundation based its report on two years of research and breaks it down into nine age-specific categories, with a slight range that allows for individual preferences:
Adults, 65+ years: 7 to 8 hours.
Adults, 26 to 64 years: 7 to 9 hours.
Young adults, 18 to 25 years: 7 to 9 hours.
Teenagers, 14 to 17 years: 8 to 10 hours.
School-age children, 6 to 13 years: 9 to 11 hours.
Preschool children, 3 to 5 years: 10 to 13 hours.
Toddlers, 1 to 2 years: 11 to 14 hours.
Infants, 4 to 11 months: 12 to 15 hours.
Newborns, 0 to 3 months: 14 to 17 hours.
Effects Of Insufficient Sleep
Accidents
Sleep deprivation was a factor in some of the biggest disasters in recent history: the 1979 nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, the massive Exxon Valdez oil spill, the 1986 nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl, and others.
But sleep loss is also a big public safety hazard every day on the road. Drowsiness can slow reaction time as much as driving drunk. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that fatigue is a cause in 100,000 auto crashes and 1,550 crash-related deaths a year in the U.S. The problem is greatest among people under 25 years old.
Studies show that sleep loss and poor-quality sleep also lead to accidents and injuries on the job. In one study, workers who complained about excessive daytime sleepiness had significantly more work accidents, particularly repeated work accidents. They also had more sick days per accident.
Dumbs You Down
Sleep plays a critical role in thinking and learning. Lack of sleep hurts these cognitive processes in many ways. First, it impairs attention, alertness, concentration, reasoning, and problem solving. This makes it more difficult to learn efficiently.
Second, during the night, various sleep cycles play a role in “consolidating” memories in the mind. If you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t be able to remember what you learned and experienced during the day or the games you played at usa online casino.
Serious Health Problems
Sleep disorders and chronic sleep loss can put you at risk for:
Heart disease
Heart attack
Heart failure
Irregular heartbeat
High blood pressure
Stroke
Diabetes
According to some estimates, 90% of people with insomnia — a sleep disorder characterized by trouble falling and staying asleep — also have another health condition.
Kills Sex Drive
Sleep specialists say that sleep-deprived men and women report lower libidos and less interest in sex. Depleted energy, sleepiness, and increased tension may be largely to blame. For men with sleep apnea, a respiratory problem that interrupts sleep, there may be another factor in the sexual slump. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism in 2002 suggests that many men with sleep apnea also have low testosterone levels. In the study, nearly half of the men who suffered from severe sleep apnea also secreted abnormally low levels of testosterone during the night.