5 Reasons Why Our Body Needs Sleep – How much sleep do you need

 

Just like your car needs an oil change, tire rotation, and regular maintenance to operate at it’s best, your body needs 7-9 hours of sleep a night to recharge your battery and prep your brain and body for a productive day. You will spend up to ⅓ of your life asleep, which sounds like a waste of a lot of time, but the fact is that it is not a waste. Sleep is as necessary as food, water, and breathing for humans to survive and tolerate each other.

 

5 Why your body need sleep:

1.Sleep Debt

Studies show that you need 7-9 hours of sleep a night to function at your best mentally and physically. Not getting the right amount of sleep leaves you with sleep debt.

Sleep debt can be hard to repay on the weekends or days off, a typical American practice. Say you get just 6 hours of sleep a night 5 days in a row, that means you need to sleep an additional 6 hours on Saturday to catch up. Even if your family and friends let you sleep straight through a Saturday or Sunday morning, it will likely be that much harder to fall asleep Sunday night,  starting the cycle all over again.

2.Reset your brain

When you are awake the chemical adenosine builds up in your blood and it is broken down when you sleep. When you get less sleep than your body requires it builds up in your bloodstream slowing your reaction time and creating a situation where your body is making your drowsy and begging for sleep.

Your brain needs sleep to get rid of toxic byproducts like plaque that is present in brains that have Alzheimer’s disease. Studies show that the brain is likely processing the information it has gathered throughout the day. Connections are made stronger or weaker during sleep. Important things are reinforced while trivial items are disposed of. That is why when you cannot remember something from days past, you can honestly say, “I slept since then.” You just might not want to share that it was unimportant to your brain and was trashed.

3.Take a load off

Your muscles and organs relax at night. Your liver can stop trying to detoxify and move to building and synthesizing to prepare for the next day.Your blood pressure and body temperature drop when sleeping, while Doctors do not know why this happens, during REM sleep your body loses the ability to maintain its core temperature. Perhaps it is a very mild version of cryogenics.

4.Growing, healing, building

Studies show that if you get just 2-3 hours of sleep for a few nights in a row it affects your body the same as an all nighter. While you are sleeping your body grows new skin cells, heals that cut from shaving and build muscle from that great workout you pushed through.

5.Gives you self-control

Wonder why after getting 4 hours of sleep you are not able to resist the bear claw with your morning coffee? Often when we do not get enough sleep we crave high- calorie foods. Studies seem to show that the hormones leptin and ghrelin get out of balance when we don’t get enough sleep, which leads to weight gain which many women would consider to be the best reason to get the amount of sleep that you need.

So how much sleep is needed:

Studies have determined new sleep ranges for various age groups:

Age	Sleep Range
Newborns (0-3 months )	14-17 hours
Infants (4-11 months)	12-15 hours
Toddlers (1-2 years)	11-14 hours
Preschoolers (3-5)	10-13 hours
School-age children (6-13):	9-11 hours
Teenagers (14-17):	8-10 hours
Adults (18-64):	7-9 hours
Older adults (65+):	7-8 hours

 

Foggy brain, low energy

Losing just one hour of sleep a night will affect your day, especially when it is a normal occurrence. You might not notice since you have likely grown accustomed to less sleep and are not even sure what well rested even feels like. Over time it takes a toll on your energy balance, immune system, and cardiovascular health.

Signs you may be sleep deprived:

• Dependent on snooze button
• Feeling sluggish in afternoon
• Need a nap every day
• Fall asleep in the evening relaxing or watching TV
• Need to sleep in on the weekends

Develop good sleeping habits

Examine your habits and needs. Keep a sleep diary and how different amounts of sleep affect your mood, health and energy after a poor vs good night’s sleep.

Change your habits

• Stick to the same schedule, even on weekends
• Exercise daily
• Turn off electronics before bed
• Begin and continue a relaxing night time ritual

Make sure bedroom is your ideal temperature, sound, and light level
We only have one body and as women, we tend to put everyone else’s needs above our own. In order for us to function at 100%, we need to practice whole body health which will result in us being better able to care for our family and those we love. So by taking the time to rest and restore our bodies we are actually doing more for our loved ones as well.