5 RANDOM THINGS
YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT SLEEP
The Daily Doze
Sleep is a vital (but often overlooked) component of a person’s wellbeing.
Your health depends on it -- sleep is when the body repairs itself to be fit and ready for another day. Sleep regulates your stress hormone levels and improves your general performance and resilience.
Despite this, exactly what happens while we sleep is still being discovered. Scientists contribute new information to our understanding all the time.
We’ve put together five interesting and random things you didn’t know about sleep. Ready to learn?
#1. Sleep deprivation leads to weight gain and more!
Lack of snooze time can sabotage your diet, leading you to gain weight. Why? Proper sleep helps regulate your hunger levels and reduces cravings for sugar, thus lessening your risk of heart disease, diabetes and chronic illness. A night of poor sleep raises levels of ghrelin, the hunger hormone, and lowers levels of leptin, the hormone that makes you feel full.
Interestingly, there is a deeper connection between sleep and diet: Certain foods make you sleep better! Fibrous foods have a higher likelihood of getting you to deep sleep, while sugars may disrupt it and cause you to wake up during the night more regularly.
#2. There is such a thing as ‘too much sleep’.
Sleeping more than 10 hours a night has been linked to health and performance issues. Oversleeping can indicate an underlying medical condition that needs to be treated, such as those that interfere with the circadian rhythm cycles.
One exception may be athletes, who tend to perform better after getting 10 hours of sleep.
#3. Driving drowsy is the same as driving drunk!
Don’t go driving sleep-deprived! The more hours of sleep you miss, the more difficult it is for you to perform on the road.
Studies have shown that drowsiness affects response times, coordination, judgment, and other cognitive abilities on a level comparable with being intoxicated with alcohol.
#4. Sleep boosts memory and creativity.
Your brain is busy during REM sleep! It strengthens recent memories or "practices" skills learned while awake in a process known as ‘consolidation.’ Sleep helps new information stick in your mind. Thus if you’re trying to learn or study, you’ll perform better after sleeping.
Sleep also improves your creativity. Production of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine is doubled compared to when you’re awake. Acetylcholine promotes altering of connections between neurons, facilitating new links, perspectives and connecting disparate pieces of information.
#5. Your sleep requirements are written in your genes.
Your genes contribute to your need for sleep in terms of when and how long. Some people are genetically wired to wake up and rise early, while others, a good 40% of the population, are predisposed in their genes to be night-owls.
Most people need an average of 8 hours of sleep daily, but an estimated 5% of the population can sleep with 5 hours or fewer. This is an exception to the rule, though, a mutation that affects a small portion of the world’s population.
Sleep is truly mysterious and complicated. Thankfully, researchers are slowly and continuously learning more about it, teaching the public so many things we never previously dreamed about (excuse the pun!).
If you want to understand your sleep even better, our Majestic Beds Team is here to help! Feel free to contact us to speak with our Sleep Experts. We can help you find the best sleep solution for your needs.
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