Healthy Sleep Habits And Good Sleep Hygiene

If you need to make up for a late night, opt for a daytime nap rather than sleeping in. This allows you to pay off your sleep debt without disturbing your natural sleep-wake rhythm. Just as the way you feel during your waking hours often hinges on how well you sleep at night, so the cure for sleep difficulties can often be found in your daily routine. Sleeping well directly affects your mental and physical health. Fall short and it can take a serious toll on your daytime energy, productivity, emotional balance, and even your weight. Yet many of us regularly toss and turn at night, struggling to get the sleep we need. In some societies, people sleep with at least one other person or with animals.

In sleep dream pillow , people rarely sleep with anyone except for an intimate partner. In almost all societies, sleeping partners are strongly regulated by social standards. Sleep may be an actively social time, depending on the sleep groupings, with no constraints on noise or activity. Sleep problems have been frequently viewed as a symptom of mental illness rather than a causative factor. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that they are both a cause and a symptom of mental illness.

While napping is a good way to make up for lost sleep, if you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep at night, napping can make things worse. The more your weekend/weekday sleep schedules differ, the worse the jetlag-like symptoms you’ll experience.

While poor sleep is common among those with cardiovascular disease, some research indicates that poor sleep can be a contributing cause. Short sleep duration of less than seven hours is correlated with coronary heart disease and increased risk of death from coronary heart disease. Sleep duration greater than nine hours is also correlated with coronary heart disease, as well as stroke and cardiovascular events.

Instead, many patients simply feel tired after getting several hours of sleep and have no idea why. Major risk factors for sleep apnea include chronic fatigue, old age, obesity, and snoring. The effect of sleep duration on somatic growth is not completely known. One study recorded growth, height, and weight, as correlated to parent-reported time in bed in 305 children over a period of nine years (age 1–10). It was found that "the variation of sleep duration among children does not seem to have an effect on growth." It is well-established that slow-wave sleep affects growth hormone levels in adult men. The human organism physically restores itself during sleep, healing itself, and removing metabolic wastes that build up during periods of activity.

Human sleep needs vary by age and amongst individuals; sleep is considered to be adequate when there is no daytime sleepiness or dysfunction. The siesta habit has recently been associated with a 37% lower coronary mortality, possibly due to reduced cardiovascular stress mediated by daytime sleep. Short naps at mid-day and mild evening exercise were found to be effective for improved sleep, cognitive tasks, and mental health in elderly people. Different characteristic sleep patterns, such as the familiarly so-called "early bird" and "night owl", are called chronotypes. Genetics and sex have some influence on chronotype, but so do habits. Chronotype is also liable to change over the course of a person's lifetime. Seven-year-olds are better disposed to wake up early in the morning than are fifteen-year-olds.

Some studies have also indicated correlation between insomnia and anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicide. Sleep disorders can increase the risk of psychosis and worsen the severity of psychotic episodes. Low quality sleep has been linked with health conditions like cardiovascular disease, obesity, and mental illness.

This restoration takes place mostly during slow-wave sleep, during which body temperature, heart rate, and brain oxygen consumption decrease. In both the brain and in the rest of the body, the reduced rate of metabolism enables countervailing restorative processes. The brain, especially, requires sleep for restoration, whereas in the rest of the body these processes can take place during quiescent waking. Therefore, it is now thought that the essential function of sleep is its restorative effect on the brain.

Chronotypes far outside the normal range are called circadian rhythm sleep disorders. One neurochemical indicator of sleep debt is adenosine, a neurotransmitter that inhibits many of the bodily processes associated with wakefulness. Adenosine levels increase in the cortex and basal forebrain during prolonged wakefulness, and decrease during the sleep-recovery period, potentially acting as a homeostatic regulator of sleep.