Why do we need enough sleep?

Filed in archive Cases , Sleep Disorders on February 8, 2008

Because lack of sleep make us bad-tempered, tearful, forgetful, depressed and clumsy, among others!




And then in the morning, you drag yourself out of bed and to work.

Theoretically, we do better at work if we had 8-hours of sleep. The question is, that does apply to everybody? Or is say 3 hours of deep sleep enough? I guess it varies from person to person and to how much one can tolerate sleepiness during the day without being bad-tempered, forgetful, depressed, etc.

Most people said they were either too busy or too stressed to get enough sleep. But cutting corners in kip could well be a false economy; lack of sleep has been linked to obesity and high blood pressure as well as more obvious symptoms such as poor concentration.

And an experiment on rats found lack of sleep could cause the brain to stop producing new cells.
But if you're just not getting your eight hours a night, it's not all bad news.

Professor Jim Horne, director of Loughborough University's Sleep Research Centre, reckons we don't need any set of amount of sleep - it's all down to genes and whether we feel fresh and alert during the day.

"It's nonsense," he said, of the widely-held belief that less than eight hours means not enough sleep.
"It's like saying everybody should have size eight shoes, or be 5ft 8ins tall. There is a normal distribution - the average sleep length is seven-and-a-quarter hours."

Elaine agreed. "It's a myth that we all need eight hours," she said.

"Some people need more, some less. Think of Margaret Thatcher, who famously survived on five hours a night - and she was a human dynamo."

See? Eight hours of sleep is a myth. Hope you slept well my friend.

Find more details from Lancashire Evening Telegraph.