Are You Getting Enough Sleep?
A lot of us underestimate just how crucial sleep is to the human body. It’s recommenced that adults get anywhere between 7.5-9 hours of sleep every night. Unfortunately, it can be pretty common for some of us to regularly sleep less than that for a myriad of reasons.
While scientists haven’t been able to pinpoint the exact reason for why we sleep for a quarter of a day, it is known the brain uses that time to recharge and organize all the ‘clutter’ you experienced that day. We also know that not getting enough sleep can have really cause havoc on your body. Sleep deprivation in the long term has a long list of medical problems: increased risk of stoke, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease, increased anxiety, symptoms of depression, loss of sex drive, aging of the skin, shorter life expectancy, weakened immune system and impaired cognition. Just to name a few!
In the workplace, a lack of sleep can be detrimental to the team. Without a proper nights sleep, nobody is at their best and it shows. Efficiency and production can go down, along with overall mental performance. The fatigue and lack of motivation from sleepiness is not the best qualities when your trying to get your work down at high level.
Here are some quick tips to help fall and stay asleep if you’re having trouble:
- Don’t drink anything high in caffeine or sugar in the evening.
- Don’t go to bed on a full or empty stomach.
- Turn off all distractions. The light from your screens confuse your brain into thinking it’s day time, and so it decreases the production of melatonin (your body’s natural sleep-aid hormone).
- Avoid alcohol consumption. The brain can’t properly go through all of its sleep cycles resulting in a lower quality of sleep.
- Try not to take long after noon naps. 20 minute power naps are the way to go!
- Exercise regularly. You can never go wrong here!
- Use some relaxation techniques to calm yourself down.
- Try to stick to a strict sleeping schedule
