A crucial health activity – Sleep
Do you know that humans spend about one-third of their life sleeping! That means if your lifespan is 90 years, you will probably spend about 30 years of your life just sleeping. You might think, oh what a waste of time! But you should realize, sleep is that much important for our physical as well as mental health.
There is no fixed quantity of sleep, every human should get it every night; plus it differs from age, gender, physical activity etc. but usually it is given as 6-8 hours of sound sleep. When babies are born, they sleep more, in excess of about 14-16 hours a day! Gradually, as they grow, become older, and get accustomed to the world, their sleeping time decreases.
People who do more physical work, need more sleep as they get tired a lot. People who do more mental work, like calculations, programming, and analytics etc. people who do desk jobs and stay glued in front of digital screens for hours, also need a good night’s sleep, as their minds get tired after working a lot and their eyes too get tired and need rest after so much artificial light hitting their eyes for hours long. Americans are known to love their work, are workaholics!
Talking about digital screens, their invasion in our lives has started to play havoc with our sleep activity. Right from babies to grandparents, almost everyone has started the bad habit of peering in their digital gadgets for longer than needed, and especially at night time, which is affecting their sleep. Such people are finding it hard to fall asleep quicker than before.
It is essential to follow some rules if you want to fall asleep quickly and get a full night of quality sleep. Optimum sleep is very important for our health as there are many advantages to it. On the other hand, if you sleep less than 6 hours regularly or more than 8 hours at a stretch, you are bound to get many health issues which can be avoided with good sleep.
If you want good and sound sleep, even the surrounding conditions play a role in that. You should be in a quiet and dark room preferably with cool temperatures and fresh air. You should sleep on a comfortable cushion and mattress, all which will get you a comfortable sleep position and avoid any neck, back pain etc. If you think that when you sleep, you really and totally sleep then think again, because that is not the case.
When you sleep, your brain is actually more active than when you are awake the whole day. Plus other important processes like repairing and recycling are carried out in your body as you are sleeping. Your whole body is recovering from the day’s activities and recharging for the next day. Sleep is divided into 5 stages, from the initial light sleep to the deep REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep in which we go in a state of dreams.
Whether you are health conscious or not, besides the gym or yoga activities, diet etc. you should also seriously monitor and get a good sleep regularly.
