Sleep Article Done Sleep occurs when your body and brain drop into an unconscious, restorative state. While you're sleeping, many of your body's basic functions are altered or suspended while other specialized functions happen. You may not remember much of your sleep, but you're likely to spend about a third of your life in this state.
Sleep can do remarkable things for you. It allows your body to rest and perform essential maintenance on your memory, hormones, immune system, and other critical functions. It improves the brain's ability to learn, helps the body fight infection, allows your heart to rest, and even lowers blood pressure. Not getting enough sleep can have adverse effects in all of these areas and others.
So how do you know when you're getting the right amount of sleep? When you wake up and feel rested, you've likely gotten enough. The amount of sleep someone needs is highly individual. In general, adults should get 7-8 hours of sleep, kids should get 9-13 hours, and infants need between 12-15 hours.
Over the course of a day, you build up sleep pressure. You may find yourself nodding off or feeling tired. This is your body's way of saying it needs to sleep.
Benefits of sleep.
When you're running low on sleep, you'll probably have trouble holding onto and recalling details. That's because sleep plays a big part in both learning and memory. Without enough sleep, it's tough to focus and take in new information. Your brain also doesn't have enough time to store memories so you can pull them up later properly.
Sleep lets your brain catch up, so you're ready for what's next.
Another thing that your brain does while you sleep is processed your emotions. Your mind needs this time to recognize and react the right way. When you cut that short, you tend to have more negative emotional reactions and fewer positive ones.
Chronic lack of sleep can also raise the chance of having a mood disorder. One large study showed that you're five times more likely to develop depression when you have insomnia, and your odds of anxiety or panic disorders are even greater.
Refreshing slumber helps you hit the reset button on a bad day, improve your outlook on life, and be better prepared to meet challenges.
While you sleep, your blood pressure goes down, giving your heart and blood vessels a bit of a rest. The less sleep you get, the longer your blood pressure stays up during a 24-hour cycle. High blood pressure can lead to heart disease, including stroke.
Short-term downtime can have long-term payoffs.
If your sport requires quick bursts of energy, like wrestling or weightlifting, sleep loss may not affect you as much as endurance sports like running, swimming, and biking. But you're not doing yourself any favors.
Besides robbing you of energy and time for muscle repair, lack of sleep saps your motivation, which is what gets you to the finish line. You'll face a harder mental and physical challenge -- and see slower reaction times.
Proper rest sets you up for your best performance.
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