How Much Do we Need?

How much sleep do we need?

Sleep deficiency is one of the most common modern health complaints. 100 years ago the average amount of sleep per night was 9 hours, now we get an average of only 7 hours per night. Only 10% of us always sleep well and 20% of us suffer from lack of sleep. There are numerous views of how much sleep we should be getting; eight hours seems to be understood as the common ideal. However in reality it is far less black and white. All we need is enough sleep to feel recharged and to continue to feel awake and alert throughout the next day and this varies from person to person. If it takes you anything less than five minutes to fall asleep at night it could mean that you are sleep deprived. The optimal time is between 10 and 15 minutes, meaning you're still sleepy enough for a deep slumber, but not so exhausted that you feel tired during the day. Try following these guidelines to enjoy a good night's sleep:

Before you go to bed rid your mind of any of the days tensions by writing a list of things to deal with tomorrow or exercise to relieve your stress but beware, exercising too close to bed time could keep you awake.
Train your body into regular sleep patterns by going to bed and waking up at roughly the same time each day.
Don't drink caffeine, alcohol or overeat in the evenings as it could prevent you from falling asleep and interfere with your sleep cycles. Before turning in have a hot milky drink or herbal tea instead.
Don't smoke; smoking results in a longer pre-sleep wait, frequent awakening and more disruption during the night.
If you can't sleep; don't work yourself up by just lying there thinking about not being able to sleep, get up and do something until you feel like you can finally drift off.
Create a tranquil sleeping haven. Your bedroom should be kept for rest and sleep; it should be quiet, dark and the bed should be the main focus of the room.
Make sure your bed is comfortable as possible. Deep, revitalizing sleep is easier to achieve with a quality mattress, comfortable duvets that are temperature appropriate, pillows that suit your sleep style and soft bed linen that can really snuggle in to.

Sleep and work

The average Brit loses 51 minutes of sleep per night worrying about work; that's almost one month a year! Sunday has been identified as the most sleepless night of the week; that's no shocker since workers and students are mentally preparing themselves to go back to work. Work is named as the cause for disrupted, or lack of, sleep by a quarter of the adult population. Disrupted sleep is blamed for lack of concentration at work by half of us, feeling of irritation towards our bosses by a quarter of us and, for 20% of us, even an impromptu snooze at the desk!

The Sleep Cycle

Your sleep takes place in five phases; the first is a very light sleep during which you can be easily woken, the second takes you into a slightly deeper sleep and during phases three and four you experience your deepest sleeping. Throughout these four phases your brain waves are steadily reducing towards the slowest brain waves during deep sleep. About 90 minutes into your sleep you reach the final phase, REM sleep. You complete around three to five of these five phase cycles nightly. During Rapid Eye Movement stage (REM) your brain activity increases to a similar or heightened level as when you are awake. Your eyes dance around under your eyelids, your heart rate, breathing and blood pressure rise but your body is paralysed. This is when most of your dreams occur. Paralysis is stimulated by your brain, many believe it is induced a protection against any harm that could occur from acting out your dreams.

The four phases before REM sleep are called non-REM sleep (NREM). Although most dreams do happen during REM sleep, dreams can take during any of the sleep phases. However, most NREM dreams don't have the intensity of REM dreams.