Dream On & On

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise!

Sleep is important to the same extent as food and water for a human organism’s proper functioning and existence in general. It is not a fable that it is possible to die if a man’s organism is totally sleep deprived.

History really registered such outcomes. For example, a person ill with Fatal Familial Insomnia will surely die in the end, and there is nothing that can prevent him/her from death even today. It is a rare hereditary sleeping disorder that makes a man suffer from not sleeping a wink during 7-36 months.

Nowadays, people are obsessed with the idea of healthy nutrition, body beauty and healthy lifestyle. There are a lot of different investigations on this theme published on the pages of glossy magazines; more and more gyms open each month ready to welcome conscious visitors who really take care of their body look and physical condition; it is stylish to have a neat sporting figure and boast of it downloading its photos into one of social networks.

Good for them! Being healthy physically contributes to a person’s state of mind and longevity as well. Also, the risk to have cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and obesity decreases by times, and the chances to have a totally healthy baby get higher.

It is quite strange why less attention is devoted to the problems of a sound night sleep. It is really a serious problem! It is not popular and widely discussed in a modern society. But why? !

Sleep influences all processes of our organism. Do you know that if a person is sleep-deprived, he/she runs a risk to gain extra pounds? The explanation is that if a person does not provide an organism with a sufficient amount of sleep at night, a hormonal set is likely to change. In the result, his/her appetite habits may change towards junk food that is high-caloric and greasy. The problem is that these calories won’t turn into muscles but into adipose tissue.

Also, a person who does not keep to a sleep schedule has more chances to catch an infection because his/her organism cannot fulfill its function of strengthening the immune system.

Besides, being ruined after a sleepless night damages coping with social responsibilities (may lead to problems at work) and developing private relationships because a man in such a state usually feels depressed, over fatigued, aggressive, indifferent and inattentive.

Is it not as valuable as being fit, for example?.. Thank God there are people who concern about sufficient night sleep problem. Due to these scientists’ interest, many investigations which helped to reveal the secrets of the process (not state!) we spend one-third of our life in were conducted. Now, we know what sleep deprivation is fraught with, what benefits sleep has for a human organism, why people need to rest at night and for how long. How much sleep do people need on average to feel refreshed and cheerful? It is probably the most often asked question...

Dr. Rubin Naiman, Ph. D. in Clinical Psychology, adheres to the opinion that it is impossible to answer this question for all people on Earth because a sleeping norm is a very subjective notion which varies from person to person. Each person’s organism is unique. Some people are more sustainable and some are less; some need 9 hours to have a good night’s sleep and for others 5 hours is quite enough.

However, there is an alternative opinion. Regarding it, ideal duration for being asleep can be defined, although it differs depending on age and season (in summer a man’s organism needs to sleep less hours at night than in winter):

Newborns (1-2 months) 10.5 – 18 hours > Infants (3-11 months) 9-12 hours at night + daytime naps (1-4 times a day) 30 min.-2 h. long Toddlers (1-3 years old) 12-14 hours Preschoolers (3-5 years old) 11-13 hours School-aged children (5-12 years old) 10-11 hours Teenagers (11-17 years old) 8.5 – 9.5 hours Adults 7-9 hours Older adults 7-9 hours

Scientists say that if an adult usually sleeps less than 6 hours per night, risk of falling ill with diabetes, cardiovascular, infectious and mental diseases increases. If he/she sleeps less than 5 hours, to this list can be added angina, coronary heart disease, heart attack and stroke.

In 2014, Dr. Joseph Mercola, an osteopathic physician, conducted a survey in 21 largest US cities. Their citizens were asked how many hours they sleep at night. He found out that the number is 6.8 hours per night on average. For feeling good and being healthy it should be higher.

It is important to realize that sleeping above the norm is as dangerous as being sleep deprived! If a man’s usual night sleep lasts longer than 9 hours, he/she runs the risk to have the same health disorders which has a person who is used to sleep less than 5-6 hours.

Still, all specialists from around the globe agree in opinion that a daytime nap is extremely important and useful for a man’s wakefulness but only under a condition that it lasts no more than 30-40 minutes!

Apart from the question about the duration of a sound night’s sleep, people are also concerned about at what time it is better to go to bed from a scientific and medical point of view.

Modern scientists and experts in this field assume that the best variant is to go to bed a couple of hours after sunset. Till this time, in a human organism certain amount of melatonin is generated that is why we become drowsy. Melatonin is a brain hormone that is produced by darkness and involved in our circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythm is each person’s body clock which mostly depends on the availability of natural light (day-night cycles) and establishes the time when it is necessary for a particular organism to have a rest and for how long. Also, circadian rhythms are responsible for hormones, body temperature, etc. Each person has his/her own circadian rhythm due to the organism’s sustainability.

Melatonin is on offer at drug stores usually. It is not problematic to buy it. Melatonin can be used to help a person to fall asleep quicker (as a rule, 0.5 mg will be enough in such a case), survive a jet lag (about 3-5 mg is needed then) and get free from some sleeping disorder.

Be attentive using it because it may have some side effects like daytime sleepiness, headache, dizziness, abdominal pains, short periods of depression, irritation, aggressiveness. It is strongly prohibited to drive within 4-5 hours after taking melatonin.

In 2014, there was a survey worldwide which showed that New Yorkers go to bed at 11:15 p. m. on average. It is surprising that the result is not that bad. New York citizens go to bed earlier than people in other parts of the world.

For people aged 18-45, an optimal time to fall asleep is at 9-12 p.m. During this period, sleep will come to you easier and be deeper that’s why you will be cheerful and full of energy in the morning and during the day.

If a person does not have an opportunity or desire to go to bed within the recommended hours (though, he/she has to wake up rather early in the morning), there are good chances that he/she will be drowsy, inattentive, absent-minded and over fatigued not only in the morning, but during the whole day. Caffeinated drinks will make him/her relieved but only for a short period of time. When their effect vanishes, a man will flake out even more. Exhaustion accumulates every day, and some time it will be shown up. That is why a man who does not sleep enough at night should pay off his/her sleep debts.

How can it be done?

A man can sleep to his/her heart’s content on weekends. But in such a way, a sleep debt will be satisfied only partially. It is recommended to use other ways of energizing an organism at the same time.

A man’s sleeping hours should correspond to a norm, i.e. a grown-up man who is constantly sleep deprived should sleep at least full 7-9 hours per night, though it would be even better if he/she added 1-2 hours to this number.

It would be beneficial for a man’s health condition if he/she went to bed at the same time every night and woke up by themselves in the morning, without an alarm clock. Let your organism decide when it is satiated with sweet dreams. Then, you will feel rested and refreshed for sure.

You may have heard about the supposition that sleeping hours before and after midnight have different value. A person is more likely to have a better night’s rest if he/she goes to bed before midnight; falling asleep after midnight sometimes does not have any value at all.

Here is the schedule: Time Value of sleep 7-8 p.m. 7 hours 8-9 p.m. 6 hours 9-10 p.m. 5 hours 10-11 p.m. 4 hours 11-00 p.m. 3 hours 00-01 a.m. 2 hours 1-2 a.m. 1 hour 2-3 a.m. 30 minutes 3-4 a.m. 15 minutes 4-5 a.m. 7 minutes 5-6 a.m. 1 minute

Falling asleep after 6 a.m. is senseless: hours become equal to minutes. Count how many hours you sleep per night. The number is smaller than you expected, isn’t it?

However, this theory is quite contradictory. Not all scientists and specialists in the sphere of a sound sleep approve of it.