What are some things you do on a daily basis? Eat, brush your teeth, read, but most importantly sleep. According to Scientific American, “You can only live seven days without sleep.” However, why is sleep so important?
What Does Sleep Do?
Sleep plays an important role in your physical health. Stay Alert. Good sleep allows your mind to regain focus and tackle those tricky mental challenges. It can also stimulate creativity. Boost Memory. Sleeping is the most important time to shape memories and make the connections between events, feelings and experiences. In fact, sleep is a requirement to form new learning and memory pathways in the brain. Fight Infection. Sleep is your body’s mechanism to ward off infection. When you don’t get enough, your immune system is weaker, making you more susceptible to illness. Be Active. Energy levels after healthy sleep are higher, and your mental awareness is more acute. Good sleep is also tied to improved athletic performance, including greater speed, agility and reflexes. Replenish. During sleep, your body repairs the damage caused by stress, and other harmful exposure, as well as muscle injuries (etc.)
Misconceptions About Sleep
One misconception about sleep is that a person can’t just accumulate sleep deprivation and then log many hours of sleep to make up for it although paying back “sleep debt” is always a good idea if you’re sleep deprived, the best sleep habits are consistent, healthy routines that allow all of us, regardless of our age, to meet our sleep needs every night, and keep on top of life’s challenges every day. Another misconception is getting just 1 hour less per night than you need doesn’t affect your daytime functioning. While you may not feel noticeably sleepier during the day, even losing an hour of sleep can affect your ability to think properly and respond quickly.
How much sleep do we need?
If sleep is so important, how much do we need? Healthy sleep is critical for everyone, since we all need to retain information and learn skills to thrive in life. Sleep requirements vary from person to person. How much sleep you need will vary depending on your age and especially by lifestyle and health. Children tend sleep more than older people. While adults need 7-9 hours of sleep per night, babies need roughly 11 to 14 hours, school age children between 9 and 11, and teenagers between 8 and 10. During these critical periods of growth and learning, younger people need a heavy dose of slumber for optimal development and alertness.
Conclusion
In conclusion, sleep is a very important factor. You must sleep to stay healthy and active.