Work every day and night, hustling every day and night. Trying to make your life a success? That’s it right? You see everyone wants to make a success out of life and we sacrifice a lot of things including our sleep. While it is understandable, it is also necessary to know the effects of the sacrifices we’re making. Some people deprive themselves of sleep because they have targets to meet while others may do it because they are having fun – chatting, watching movies etc. Whatever your reason for depriving yourself from sleep for, you need to know the effect of lack of sleep.
Now, the question is what is a good sleep duration? According to many investigations and researches done by medical teams and even the National Sleep Foundation, the normal sleep time is as follows:
- Adults ( 18 years and above) – Between 7 to 9 hours
- Teenagers ( 14 to 19 years) – Between 8 to 10 hours
- Kids (6 to 13 years) – 9 to 11 hours
- Infants, toddlers should get 10 hours and more while newborns between 0 to 3 months should get 14 – 17 hours of sleep.
Below are 7 reasons you should sleep very well;
1. Sleeping well improves your alertness
Lack of sleep can make you appear dumb. Sleep deprivation affects the cognitive ability and may hinder you from being able to concentrate and think properly. You may find it more difficult to solve problems quickly.
2. Sleeping well helps the memory
Sleep deprivation causes one to easily forget things. You may find it difficult to recall information, so your brain and your whole body needs to get enough rest.
3. It helps body immunity
During sleep, substances like cytokines are produced which helps the body fight against diseases. When a person lacks sleep, the body could lack immunity to fight off some diseases and it would take more time recovering from illnesses.
4. It could help you in losing weight
This should be noted specially especially by people trying to lose weight. You need to sleep well if you want to keep your weight low. When you deprive yourself of sleep, your body craves for foods that are high in fat and carbs and this will not help you.
5. It helps your mental well being
One of the thing people find difficult to do when they are depressed is sleep but that’s why you need to sleep more often. Lack of sleep can affect you mentally, it can increase risks of depression and and anxiety which is not good for you.
6. It could increase risk of diseases
Lack of sleep could make you break down and fall sick. Lack of sleep has also been found to increase risks of certain illnesses like diabetes, heart diseases, irregular heartbeat. Lack of sleep has also been found to cause low drive for sexual intercourse.
7. Sleeping well makes you effective during the day
Sleeping helps keep your body well rested and fit for the day. Lack of sleep can make you feel tired, ineffective and slow in your daily activities. Sleeping well improves your ability to perform physical tasks better.
So that’s it, 7 reasons you should sleep very well.
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