Let’s talk about Sleep Disorders (Day 1).
Sleep Disorders
We begin a new series today. #Sleep disorders.
How long do you sleep at night? 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or more hours? Or even less? Are you able to sleep in the day time, what people refer to as #siesta or simply a nap?
Apart from the duration of your sleep, What is the quality of your sleep? Do you feel you have a sleep problem?
What is sleep?
Sleep is essentially an activity we do each day to rejuvenate us.
What happens during sleep? While asleep we are relatively unresponsive and in a state of calm but this state can be easily reversed.
Did you know that about a third of our lives is spent asleep? This underscores the importance of sleep to our well being.
How do you feel when you haven’t had enough sleep?
Sleep Functions
Let’s look at functions of sleep, we’ve said earlier that sleep rejuvenates us, however the functions of sleep are not totally clear. Despite this, observations have shown that people who have a full night’s rest i.e. those that sleep between 7 to 9 hours have been shown to have fewer illnesses than others who don’t.
Another important function of sleep is that it helps to conserve energy, you may have observed this when you sleep before an important event, you find you have more energy when the event eventually starts.
Can you think of any other function of sleep?
Sleep – how much do you need?
Before talking about sleep disorders it will be good to know how long is normal for one to sleep. The length of sleeping time varies with age.
New-borns are expected to sleep about 14 – 17 hours daily.
Toddlers 11-14 hours.
School age 9-11 hours.
Teenagers 8-10 hours.
Adults 7-9 hours.
Of course it is normal and there will be some people whose sleep lengths vary from the given range either for shorter or longer times. These are called short sleepers or long sleepers as the case may be.
Where do you fall? Join me tomorrow as we discuss sleep disorders. This is Dr Gabby wishing you a great day.
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Stay healthy.