Along with Healthy Diet and Fitness , Sleep is also considered as one of the major contributors to one’s overall health. Have you ever regarded the sleep to be on the top of your priority??
Although considered as very important the matter of getting enough sleep by majority of adults is questionable. National Sleep Foundation recommends about 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night for the adults. Based upon the Philips Global Sleep Survey (2019) conducted among 11,006 adults across 12 countries found that on average adults slept 6.8 hours per night on weekday, followed by 7.8 hours per night on weekend. Similarly, the same study reflected; majority (62 %) of the adults responded of not having good sleep. Sound sleep helps one’s heart vessels to rebuild and supports in maintaining the sugar level and blood pressure.Whereas, doing the contrary might possess the increased risk of having cardiovascular diseases.
Sleep deprivation has long term and short term health related problems. Short-terms consequences are increased responsivity to stress, mood swings, emotional distress, problem related to cognitive functioning and memory. The long-term ones are obesity, cardiovascular disease, increased risk of type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and hyper tension. Similarly, insufficient sleep may weaken the immune system resulting longer time to get recovered as well as prone to chronic illness. From the perspective of the mental health and long-term memory; the adequate sleep is highly essential.
Lifestyle factors such as stress, sleeping environment, school or work schedule, entertainment and health condition were reported as the top five factors considered as disrupting factors for sound sleep.It may sound apparent to consider, however the treatment for sleep deprivation is also to sleep more. Few hours of nap in the day might be helpful for the chronic sleep deprivation. Following the specific routines could be beneficial for solving sleeping problem in the
long-term.
- Discrete your Bedroom as the Sleep Sanctuary
- Reserve your bedroom only for sleeping and for restful activities such as reading and meditating
- Have a relaxation routine involving body calming exercises, mediation, breathing exercises which could be helpful for having sound sleep
- Avoid caffeine in the late afternoon which increases the alertness causing the deterioration in the regular sleeping routine
- Although nap is considered as the supplement for the sleep loss; however, one should be aware that frequent naps in the afternoon might interfere the one’s ability to sleep during the night. So, sleep when it is only necessary
- Guided audio recordings for sleeping might also be beneficial technique for falling asleep quickly
- For the chronic Insomnia consultation with Doctor is the best way to go through