The question of “How many hours of sleep is required in a day” is one that’s been frequently asked over time and seems to be more prevalent in the present digital era where the need to be online is continuously battling with the space of sleep in our lives.
It is really not easy getting just enough sleep, especially if our sleeping schedule is not properly figured out. In the absence of a proper healthy sleep routine, it overtime becomes a rigorous task to get those hours fitted in perfectly.
Science always seems to have a thing or two to say regarding all topics, which isn’t left. Let’s put this into consideration –
A lot of attention needs to be given to the duration of shut out times we give to our eyes if we are to start the new day with a refreshed and reinvigorated feeling
The Circadian Rhythm and What You Should Know
There is a “clock” in the brain that thrives on a structured and well-organized sleep pattern. This natural “clock” is what is referred to as the circadian rhythm.
If you happen to be the kind who spends most of the late hours up and active, it would be no guesswork that your day would take the pattern of a deliberate downtime at certain points of the following day.
The effect of sleep in our lives
A recognized drop in energy levels during the afternoon hours is a clear signal and indication that such a person’s circadian rhythm is off.
This re-occurrence happening between the hours of 2 pm to 3 pm is usually a cry out from your brain to put in some regulation to your sleeping pattern, not necessarily to get stocked on some energy boosters.
From the moment the sun sets, and darkness begins to creep in, the brain (precisely the pineal glands) initiates the production and secretion of melatonin.
Exposure to external light, like our devices, easily interrupts this process, usually accompanied by consequences of its own.
The more time this process is interrupted, the more the dip in our energy levels would persist. This is the exact reason it’s essential to pay attention to these eruptions and ascertain the reasons why they are happening.
What sleep does to your body?
Long hours of deep sleep is a prerequisite to a healthy life and well-being. It is at this point; the muscles have time to repair.
The body also has ample time to replenishes and reinvigorate your immune system, keeping it re-energized. To this end, we can see that to maintain wellness and see that illness is prevented, we must get the right amount of sleep, enough deep sleep.
How Many Hours of Sleep Should You Get?
Following from our discussion above, you would easily realize that the right and exact hours of sleep you should get majorly depends on you.
Although six to seven might no longer be sufficient as science and other results of continuous research pegs, recommended hours are between eight to nine.
At the ninth hour, your brain would have successfully processed all the sleep cycles that are requisite and essential for the body’s optimal functioning.
All the cycles must be hit to ensure one does not feel like a walking zombie during the next day. A persistent inability to hit all the cycles could result in a steady decline of performance at work and would easily draw people’s attention to you.
Lack of sleep hinders your creativity
Lack of the necessary amount of deep sleep could also affect how promptly and intelligently the mind responds to situations in virtually every setting of life, and memory is also one of those things that get affected in the long run.
For every career one chooses to pursue, there is a constant dependence on memory. To a certain extent, in nine out of ten test cases, life is usually a test of how much we can adequately remember certain details of available information.
So to this end, the next time you find your thoughts on the paths of “It is perfectly fine if I work really late tonight, I will still get to wake up early as with other days,” you need to scrap that thought out quickly.
Irrespective of how confident you feel about getting just about five to six hours of sleep daily, if you continue in that path, you will, in no distant time, find yourself having quite a lot of costly downtime in the long run.
How does sleep affect your general wellbeing?
Burnouts are really not just detrimental to your health; it slowly and steadily creeps into your career and general life sooner than you might realize, not until something inevitable happens.
No one should really sit around and watch to the point when irreversible things occur due to exhaustion.
From how science looks at it, nine hours of sleep is the target everyone should lookout to achieve, but then, life mostly interferes.
It’s important to note that night of deep (concluded circle) sleep actually goes a long way toward managing the stress that living life brings.
It’s nothing new that our mind is always buzzing from one thing to the next, so it’s necessary to develop an effective sleep routine that will encourage a peaceful night of sleep.
For those who have constantly used their phones during the odd hours of the night, it is advisable to dim the screen, but most importantly, bear in mind that the recommended nine hours of sleep and time spent in a couple of hours beforehand will make or mar your tomorrow.
