Still sleeping like a baby?
Did you know that we spend about a third of our lives in bed? So if we live until 75 we’ll have been asleep for 25 years! We all know that a good night’s sleep is important but how much sleep do we really need and why do we do it?
The question of why we sleep is actually quite mysterious. In simple terms it’s a daily extended bout of rest where we lay down with our eyes closed. But there’s more to sleep than meets the eye. During this time, our bodies replenish energy stores and make vital repairs, while our minds organise and store the memories of from day before. The amount of sleep we need depends on our age, sex, health and other factors, and our sleep cycles change as we grow older.
Most of us know (or think we do) that we should get ‘8 hours sleep a night’ but in fact there is no magic number for how much sleep we should get because we’re all diff erent. Providing you’re not regularly trying to get through your life on two or three hours a night (unless you’re a new mother in which case you have my sympathy) it’s important not to get too hung up on the quantity of your sleep but instead focus on the quality.
When we fi rst fall asleep we enter non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM). This is divided into three stages, with each becoming progressively deeper. NREM1 and NREM2 are light phases of sleep, from which we can be easily roused. NREM3 becomes deeper, and if woken up, we can feel disorientated.
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Following on from this is rapid eye movement sleep (REM), the stage at which we dream. When scientists study brainwaves during REM sleep they fi nd that the brain behaves similar to when we’re awake, but our muscles are more-or-less inactive.
Each sleep cycle lasts around 90 minutes, and in order to feel fully rested and refreshed when we wake up, we must experience all four stages. A full night’s sleep will include of fi ve or six cycles, while a disturbed, restless night consists of fewer.
The perfect sleep environment • Comfortable temperature (16-18C) • •
Fresh air circulating but no draughts. Dark - try using blackout blinds or an eye mask.
• A large bed - Buy the largest you can accommodate
• A quality mattress - try out lots and buy the best you can aff ord.
• Ban technology - The blue light emitted by screens is hazardous to good quality sleep.
• Quiet - you can buy soft earplugs if noise is a problem though some people sleep better with white noise in the background.
•
Routine - A regular bedtime routine is an important cue to help us fall asleep. Think about the bath, book, bed routine we often establish for our children. You can use essential oils, a good book and a warm milky drink. Avoid caff eine, alcohol and screen use too close to bedtime, and never go to bed on an argument!
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ona@thewireweb.co.uk
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