The Power of Sleep
Quality not quantity of sleep is a problem facing many Americans. Almost half of all Americans report getting poor or insufficient quality of sleep which affects their day to day lives. The average sleep quantity for adults is around 7 and a half hours of sleep, which falls between the recommended 7 to 9 hours, but despite this a significant amount of people feel like their sleep quality isn’t significant.
| Age | Recommend hours of sleep |
| Up to 3 Months Old | 14 to 17 Hours |
| 4 to 11 Months | 12 to 15 Hours |
| 1 to 2 Years | 11 to 14 Hours |
| 3 to 5 Years | 10 to 13 Hours |
| 6 to 13 Years | 9 to 11 Hours |
| 14 to 17 Years | 8 to 10 Hours |
| Adults | 7 to 9 Hours |
| 65 + Years | 7 to 8 Hours |
Sleep Deprived?
Being short on sleep one day may not cause you any major issues, but constant and consistent sleep deprivation will start to slowly seep into your everyday life, until one day you may find it a massive challenge just to keep your eyes open. The most common symptoms of sleep deprivation are:
- Excessive Daytime Sleepiness
- Yawning
- Moodiness
- Fatigue
- Irritability
- Depressed Mood
- Difficulty Learning New Concepts
- Forgetfulness
- Inability to Concentrate
- Lack of Motivation
- Clumsiness
- Increased Appetite and Carbohydrate Cravings
- Reduced Sex Drive
Additionally not getting enough sleep will make you more prone to becoming sick, or if already sick, will increase the time it takes to fully recover. Sleep can also cause weight gain because of increased appetite. So as you can see sleep quality can greatly affect your day to day life.
“After thirty years of intensive research, we can now answer many of the questions posed earlier. The recycle rate of a human being is around sixteen hours. After sixteen hours of being awake, the brain begins to fail. Humans need more than seven hours of sleep each night to maintain cognitive performance. After ten days of just seven hours of sleep, the brain is as dysfunctional as it would be after going without sleep for twenty-four hours. Three full nights of recovery sleep (i.e., more nights than a weekend) are insufficient to restore performance back to normal levels after a week of short sleeping. Finally, the human mind cannot accurately sense how sleep-deprived it is when sleep-deprived.”
“Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker PhD
What causes this?
We live in a 24 hour world; people are incredibly busy and sometimes they would rather keep going than go to sleep. Sometimes they have no choice, and others they just want to squeeze just that little bit extra productivity out of the day and before they know it its 2 a.m. Life is a journey, no need to rush to the end, take the time to get extra sleep, tomorrow is another day. Living a rested life will bring more joy than an extra hour of work, unless of course its crunch time and you waited to the last moment to finish a project. Which happens; we’re all human after all. Lack of sleep a night or two may not cause you a lot of trouble just don’t make it a habit.
Recommended Read on Amazon:
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“Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker, PhD: https://amzn.to/3dFsOZT
Next week we will talk about improving your sleep habits to live a more restful life.