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Interesting facts about Sleep. What happens when we sleep?BY: Bharat | Category: Health and Fitness | Post Date: 2008-10-28
Sleeping is a natural way for body to relax and it is an essential part of our life, if we are deprived of sleep for very long periods of time, we can face life-threatening conditions. How much sleep does our body needs: There is no fixed rule, it all depends on the age, physical exertion, brain activity, health, even marital and employment status. About 7 to 9 hours of good night sleep is generally considered to be healthy for most adults but individual requirements can vary buy a few more or less hours per night. Do old people sleep less with age: Yes in most cases, but it is because they suffer from insomania. It does not mean they need less sleep. Ideal time for old people to sleep is still about 7-9 hours. Some experts say that it is normal to have insomania as we humans age. These are the average time people sleep based on their age: Age Group / Sleep averages. Infants: Sleep about 16 hours a day. 3-10 years: 11 hours. 11-14 years: 10 hours. 15-18 years: 9 hours. 19 to 30 years: 8 hours. 31 to 45: 7 hours. 45+ years: 5 to 6 hours. What are Microsleeps and what is Sleep deprivation? If we do not sleep enough or appropriately, we will suffer from sleep deprivation. Our brain activity tends to slow down during certain times like afternoon. Microsleeps are often a sign of fatigue or sleep deprivation, during this time we may face loss of attention, blank stares and keeping eyes wide open for a long time. It may also be followed by a small second or two nap. Imagine you did not sleep too well and then you attend a boring lecture that lasts for a few hours, you will likely experience several Microsleeps. What happens to our body when we sleep? Even though sleep is such a common phenomena, not all scientists agree the real purpose of sleep. Following are some of the theories behind why we sleep. (Additionally read below about the different stages of sleep) Brain recharging: This is a way to give rest to our brain, although our brain continuously works even when we sleeps, it works at a much lower power. This helps to repair neurons, archive memories and reorganize. Body relaxing: When we sleep our metabolism and energy consumption goes down, this gives most of our organs to work in a relaxed mode. Even our blood pressure and heart rate falls when we sleep. Our body also gets a chance to repair muscles and replace dead cells more easily. Certain kind of hormones are released to relax the body. Adaptive theory: This is like the Charles Darwin theory of evolution, according to it sleep improves an animal's likelihood of survival. Depending on the type of creature, everyone has a different sleeping pattern like nocturnal species sleep in the day and stay awake in the night because their food is most available in the night. What are different stages of sleep: Scientists have divided sleep into five stages and in a typical good night sleep for a healthy adult all these stages may be repeated about 5 times per night. Sleep Stage 1: The body drifts towards sleep (lasts for a few minutes). Sleep Stage 2: Heartbeat and breathing slows down and we start to progress further towards a deeper sleep. Sleep Stages 3 and 4: These are the deepest sleep stages, muscles relax, heart beat and breathing goes down further. One may experience sleepwalking or night terrors during this time. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep: Our breathing becomes more rapid, eyes jerk rapidly, breathing becomes irregular, muscles are deeply relaxed and dreams are most vivid. We can have about 5 REM sleeps each night. Lack of REM sleep can increase clinical depression. Dreaming is stimulated by the pons and it usually occurs during this phase of the sleep. Our average cycle of sleep (all stages combined) is about 90 to 110 minutes, we usually go through between 3 to 5 cycles of sleep each night. Health risks of sleeping too less: Our body can easily adjust to few days or less sleep but when one experiences continuous Sleep Deprivation, it can lead to several health and emotional problems. - Less brainpower and creativity - Quality of life degrades. - Increased stress. - Very irritable and clumsy. - Lack of concentration. - Problem recalling things. - High blood pressure and heart problems. - Psychiatric problems. - Visual mis-perceptions. - Depression. - Decreased performance. - Less sharp eyesight. - Obesity and more. What is Sleep Debt: Sleep debt is the cumulative effect of not getting enough sleep. For example many of us may sleep less on weekdays (accumulate sleep debt) and then sleep well on weekends (Saturday and Sunday). These days our high paced lifestyle is the major reason of our less sleep. In the western industrialized societies a large percentage of people suffer from sleep deprivation. Yawn .. Good night readers .. My time to sleep now :D Article Source: http://www.saching.com About Author / Additional Info: Additional Articles: * Senior citizens being ill treated by the youngsters * Tips for beginners for taking a picture of the Moon * Extra-marital affairs among girls and ways to prevent them. * Your peace and happiness resides inside you. * IT in Retailing with Indian Perspective. Software investment in Retail Industry. Does this article violate or infringe on your copyright ? It is a violation of our terms for authors to submit content which they did not write and claim it as their own. If this article infringes on your copyrights, then use our Contact us form with the detailed proof of infringement along with the offending article's title, URL and writer name. If you do not hear back from us then contact us again in another 10 days. Thank you. 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