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Sleep. We spend a third of our lives doing it. But why do we need to do it? Apart from the fact that we get tired and grumpy if we don’t do it, there are numerous very important reasons why we need sleep. It is recommended that we get 7-8 hours of sleep a night, otherwise we become sleep deprived. Sleep deprivation is not only bad for your mental and physical health but it can be dangerous as you go about your day. Your attention span, reaction times and ability to make good decisions are all affected by a lack of sleep and as such, activities like driving can end with fatal consequences.
Our brains are directly affected by how much sleep we’re getting on a night. As our ability to learn and retain information becomes strained, we struggle to solve problems, pay attention or be creative. Therefore it is essential that people, especially students, get a full, undisturbed night’s sleep. Our emotional well-being is also affected by our sleep pattern; people suffering from sleep deprivation can often feel depressed and in extreme cases can become suicidal or divulge in unreasonable risk-taking behaviour.
A healthy sleep routine also helps to maintain physical well-being. While we sleep, our muscles and tissue repair and strengthen, a must for fitness fanatics and the young. A lack of sleep can leave you feeling hungrier than you actually are due to an imbalance of the hormone ghrelin and as such can lead to weight problems and diabetes.
Not only does sleep make you smarter, stronger and happier, but it also makes you more beautiful. The maintenance of a beauty sleep routine is essential. The most noticeable feature on a person who gets plenty of shut-eye is their skin. While you sleep, your skin produces more collagen and as such, creates less sagging and wrinkles. Also, as you sleep, your skin receives a boost in blood flow, leaving you rosy and glowing in the morning. Your hair follicles also benefit from this sleep-induced boost of blood flow, encouraging strong hair growth.
Of course it’s easy enough saying that we should get plenty of sleep, but there are plenty of factors that can negatively affect us resting properly at night. An irregular work pattern or conflicting shifts can confuse your body clock and leave you feeling lethargic and unable to settle at correct times. Stress from our daily lives is a big aspect of sleep deprivation. Work deadlines, tight study timetables or unforeseen personal problems can end up stealing away our precious sleep time. Obviously, these problems are often out of our control, everyone has personal problems and people need to work, sometimes during unsocial hours. There is one factor affecting your sleep that you can control- your mattress. Over years of use, our mattresses can be become lumpy, uncomfortable shadows of their former selves and this can have severe detrimental effects on our sleep. Bedstar have created a Mattress Finder Quiz in order to help us find the perfect mattress that suits our body types and personal sleeping preferences. In this age of online convenience, there is no reason why any of us should have to scrimp on our beauty sleep.
