How much sleep did you get last night? If your answer is anything less than 7.5 hours, know that you are a sleep-deprived person. But that’s understandable, as you are here just to know if sleeplessness is a recipe for success. Here is your answer to this.
According to experts at Harvard, adults need 7.5 to 8.5 hours of sleep per 24 hours to perform their daily functions optimally. If one gets less sleep than this, one might invite health and mental complications to its body in the longer term. So, sleeping less is not a recipe for success but for failure.
This is because when you start sleeping less than you are required to, your body starts deteriorating. In this process, a point comes when it starts causing serious repercussions and bars you from even the basic daily tasks.
If you are looking for validated facts and studies to know how sleeplessness kills your success, read on. We will first understand how much sleep we really need and then go through some of the most common repercussions of sleeplessness. Finally, I will leave out some of the remedies that you can implement today to get out of this.
So, let’s dive in with the first question.
How Much Sleep Wo We Really Need?
National Sleep Foundation recommends 7 to 8 hours of sleep for people over age 64 and 7 to 9 hours for people aged 18 to 64. Kids, however, need more sleep in their infancy but move to lesser sleep as they grow. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) goes even step further and elaborates on a table of sleep for every age.
In contrast, every adult gets an average of 6.8 hours of sleep daily, less than the recommended 7.5 hours. With less sleep, you might feel productive at the start, but as time passes, it starts to deteriorate your health.
Why Do We Sleep Less?
In truth, this was not the case before 1879, when Edison invented the light bulb. After 141 years of this invention, we are now surrounded by blue light devices that ensure we do not sleep early. Due to our mobile, laptop, and TV screens, we are deprived of sleep every single night.
To manifest this, know that the rate of sleep has dropped to 6.8 hours from the 10 hours of the pre-Edison era. However, this does not put the onus on Edison, this is on us who do not maintain the right balance and take control of our lives.
Why Sleep is it Important?
Sleep is indispensable for the human brain as when you sleep, your brain eliminates toxic proteins that are the by-product of neural activity when you are awake. So, when you do not get enough sleep, these toxic proteins remain in your brain cells, damaging your ability to think and focus. This is a state that no amount of caffeine can fix.
Also, sleep is vital for storing the information you gather all day. That means, if you are having problems recalling names and information, blame it on your sleeplessness.
Health Repercussions of Sleeplessness
What if I do not sleep enough? Does it affect my physical and mental health? Yes, below are the physical and mental repercussions of sleep deprivation.
A sleep less person is more prone to cardiovascular diseases, hyper tension, diabetes, breast cancer (woman), prostate cancer (man), and DNA damage even after one sleepless night. Mental is also disturbed as sleep deprivation causes anxiety and depression.
In truth, without sleep, your health gets poorly affected, and when you are not 100% fit, there is no chance you will be productive and achieve your goals.
This takes us to our last question of what to do if you are sleep deprived?
Sleeplessness Remedies
If you have sleepless nights, try out these 7 tips.
- Avoid caffeine and nicotine before going to bed
- Do not do your activities in bed like studying or making phone calls; rather, use it for only sleeping purposes
- Do not take your worries to your bed. If you have to plan your next day, set aside a period of time for it
- Wake up at the same time each day to set out a routine for you
- Increase your sun exposure during the day to increase Melatonin in the body, which helps you fall asleep quickly
- Consider doing exercise for 60 minutes 5 days a week
- Minimize your exposure to blue light at night
Conclusion
To conclude, sleeplessness or insomnia is like other serious diseases. Do not let anybody misguide you about sleeplessness is the recipe for success, as it is not. But, a mere recipe for failure and a recipe to end your life.
Do not fall prey to the one who claims they feel more productive when they sleep less. This happens for only a few who have rare gene mutations. For most, this is not the case; they suffer badly when not sleeping enough.
If one starts sleeping less, one might feel productive, but in the long run, his body and mind will deteriorate to the point of no return. So, if anyone asks you to sleep less and links it to professionalism, send him this article to read.