Sleep Disorders Prevented! How Much Sleep is Enough?
Americans get 3 hours less sleep per night than they did before the invention of the light bulb.
We average 6.
9 hours of sleep on week nights and 7.
5 hours per night on the weekend.
(Sleep in America poll from 2002).
When asked, most of us will say that we have recently suffered with some type of sleep disorder.
However, most people do nothing about our apparent sleep deprivation.
Instead, we rub our eyes and push ahead with our busy lives.
This is our common behavior.
So how much sleep is enough to keep us off pills and away from the doctor's office? Better yet, how do we maximize the effectiveness of our sleep so we can spring out of bed with plenty of energy? There is no magic number of hours of sleep right for all people.
People range in their need for sleep from 4 hours all the way to 12.
On the bell curve, the average is 8, over 90% of us fall between 6-10 hours of sleep, but there is a small percentage of folks that need either less or more.
The acid test for determining the right amount of sleep for you is waking refreshed and energized.
When you consistently wake up renewed, take the average of hours you sleep every night, and voila! You've found your magic number.
It's important to understand that sleep is cumulative.
That means that if you are comfortable sleeping 6 hours every night during the week and 10 hours per night on the weekend, then your average nightly sleep need is 7.
14 hours.
When you consistently fall behind on your average nightly sleep needs you will build a cumulative sleep debt.
Also known as sleep deprivation, symptoms can include: * Reduced cardiovascular performance * Diminished mental functioning * Reduced endurance * Increased perceived exertion * Impaired moods * Impaired motor function * Delayed visual reaction time * Delayed auditory reaction To avoid these symptoms, we need to simply follow good rules for overcoming sleep debt.
1.
Go to bed at the same time every night - regularity will maximize the effectiveness of your sleep.
Your body will naturally respond to a regular bedtime by falling asleep more quickly and resting more deeply.
2.
Exercise 5-6 times per week for at least 20 minutes per day.
But don't exercise within 3-5 hours of your bedtime as this will tend to keep you awake past your bed time.
3.
If you can't sleep at night, don't try to fight it.
Get up and do something else until you feel sleepy.
4.
Use caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol sparingly.
Try not to use these within 6 hours before bedtime.
Caffeine and nicotine are stimulants and will keep you awake.
Alcohol makes you feel sleepy, but it also creates erratic sleep patterns that disturb a natural sleep rhythm.
5.
Don't eat or drink within 2 hours of bed time.
Digesting food takes a lot of energy and will disturb your sleep.
Drinking fluids before bedtime will make you get up in the night to pee, interrupting sleep.
6.
Plan a quiet, peaceful period before bed can help you relax.
This will allow you to fall asleep more quickly and sleep more deeply.
7.
Only use your bedroom for sleeping or sex.
Anything else you do in the bedroom will create mental association that can pull you out of sleep.
Because we are faced with a modern sleeping epidemic, sleep deprivation seems normal.
But it is not natural.
Getting enough sleep makes us feel good and enjoy life in a healthy way.
In the past, common perception held that getting too much sleep was a form of laziness, and that being constantly tired was an OK part of industrious work and success.
With today's fast paced lifestyle, getting healthy sleep must be a consciously planned activity.
To make enough time in our schedule to meet our nightly sleeping needs, it seems we must say no to some commonly accepted routines of our modern world, television, computer, and late nights out.
But using the 7 rules for healthy sleep we can overcome sleep deprivation and achieve a better quality of life.
We average 6.
9 hours of sleep on week nights and 7.
5 hours per night on the weekend.
(Sleep in America poll from 2002).
When asked, most of us will say that we have recently suffered with some type of sleep disorder.
However, most people do nothing about our apparent sleep deprivation.
Instead, we rub our eyes and push ahead with our busy lives.
This is our common behavior.
So how much sleep is enough to keep us off pills and away from the doctor's office? Better yet, how do we maximize the effectiveness of our sleep so we can spring out of bed with plenty of energy? There is no magic number of hours of sleep right for all people.
People range in their need for sleep from 4 hours all the way to 12.
On the bell curve, the average is 8, over 90% of us fall between 6-10 hours of sleep, but there is a small percentage of folks that need either less or more.
The acid test for determining the right amount of sleep for you is waking refreshed and energized.
When you consistently wake up renewed, take the average of hours you sleep every night, and voila! You've found your magic number.
It's important to understand that sleep is cumulative.
That means that if you are comfortable sleeping 6 hours every night during the week and 10 hours per night on the weekend, then your average nightly sleep need is 7.
14 hours.
When you consistently fall behind on your average nightly sleep needs you will build a cumulative sleep debt.
Also known as sleep deprivation, symptoms can include: * Reduced cardiovascular performance * Diminished mental functioning * Reduced endurance * Increased perceived exertion * Impaired moods * Impaired motor function * Delayed visual reaction time * Delayed auditory reaction To avoid these symptoms, we need to simply follow good rules for overcoming sleep debt.
1.
Go to bed at the same time every night - regularity will maximize the effectiveness of your sleep.
Your body will naturally respond to a regular bedtime by falling asleep more quickly and resting more deeply.
2.
Exercise 5-6 times per week for at least 20 minutes per day.
But don't exercise within 3-5 hours of your bedtime as this will tend to keep you awake past your bed time.
3.
If you can't sleep at night, don't try to fight it.
Get up and do something else until you feel sleepy.
4.
Use caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol sparingly.
Try not to use these within 6 hours before bedtime.
Caffeine and nicotine are stimulants and will keep you awake.
Alcohol makes you feel sleepy, but it also creates erratic sleep patterns that disturb a natural sleep rhythm.
5.
Don't eat or drink within 2 hours of bed time.
Digesting food takes a lot of energy and will disturb your sleep.
Drinking fluids before bedtime will make you get up in the night to pee, interrupting sleep.
6.
Plan a quiet, peaceful period before bed can help you relax.
This will allow you to fall asleep more quickly and sleep more deeply.
7.
Only use your bedroom for sleeping or sex.
Anything else you do in the bedroom will create mental association that can pull you out of sleep.
Because we are faced with a modern sleeping epidemic, sleep deprivation seems normal.
But it is not natural.
Getting enough sleep makes us feel good and enjoy life in a healthy way.
In the past, common perception held that getting too much sleep was a form of laziness, and that being constantly tired was an OK part of industrious work and success.
With today's fast paced lifestyle, getting healthy sleep must be a consciously planned activity.
To make enough time in our schedule to meet our nightly sleeping needs, it seems we must say no to some commonly accepted routines of our modern world, television, computer, and late nights out.
But using the 7 rules for healthy sleep we can overcome sleep deprivation and achieve a better quality of life.