A group of medical professionals are drawing awareness towards the beneficial effects of a correct sleep pattern and the importance of sleep hygiene.
Having a healthy sleep conduct is just as important for the well-being of a person as a having a proper well-balanced diet is. If certain rules are respected on a daily basis, a good night’s sleep can lead to a sufficient amount of energy and positive enough mood to last the entire day.
On the other hand, when sleeping issues make their way into a person’s life, they have the potential of disrupting the harmony in the daily routine of a person. Getting insufficient sleep can lead to extensive difficulty in concentration, drowsiness, and fatigue.
A group of sleep hygiene experts have conducted an extensive meta-analysis and based on that, they have drawn up the most important facts about sleep. They advise that people sleep between 7 and 9 hours a night, as this is the optimum amount of time, that can lead to the most beneficial aspects.
Anything under 6 hours a night is considered to be to little, and acquiring a sleep pattern of 6 hours a night or less can lead to serious distress and have the potential to predispose people to long-term illnesses.
On the other hand sleeping more than 9-10 hours a night is not healthy either, as such a long sleep period does not boost energy levels, but in fact leaves people feeling drowsy and not at all properly rested.
The time when a person sleeps also plays a significant role, as the quality of sleep is greatly related to the circadian rhythm, which entails that the human body is wired to stabilize itself according to the light of the sun.
Therefore, going to sleep before midnight is advisable, as that is a time when quality sleep can be staked.While going to bed at 9 o’clock in the evening is not something in line with the habits of our generation, particularly to the longer working hours, the optimum time would probably be shifted to anytime between 10 and 11 o’clock.
However, these are only the guidelines to a proper sleep pattern, as this also depends on individual features of the person. The absolute optimum sleep duration could be established along extensive analysis of a person’s reaction to several sleep time frames.
Also, the optimum duration greatly depends on age as well, because of the great differences that arise in a person’s metabolism with age. Therefore, teenagers require not only more hours of sleep than adults, but the best outcome of a night’s rest can be observed when the waking hour is later in the day.
This is why moving the teen’s classes to later times has had amazing effects on attendance rates, concentration levels during school hours and even test scores. Unfortunately, this particularity of the teens’ metabolism cannot be the only fact that is taken into consideration when assigning the school schedule.
Other factors like commuting hours, the correlation with the average parents’ schedule, compatibility with the teachers’ schedule, and many financial issues that arise from these, also play an important role in the development of the schedule.
Nevertheless, even respecting the guidelines of sleep hygiene alone could greatly improve the overall outcome of a person’s sleep pattern and lead to impressive results.
Image Source: lilieshaven.files.wordpress.com
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.