Sleep

Benefits of Sleep
Sleep is a critical and often under-appreciated aspect of well-being affecting academics, behavior, and emotional health. Proper sleep is associated with better health, attention, learning, memory, and quality of life, making it a critical performance enhancer. Conversely, a lack of sleep is associated with deficits in these capacities as well adverse physical health. Both the hours and quality of sleep are important in maintaining vitality. 

To help determine your quality of sleep, ask yourself the following:

• • Is it hard to wake myself up in the morning?

  • Do you have difficulty focusing during the day?

  • Do you often doze off during the day?

• Source Credit: US National Library of Medicine, National Sleep Foundation, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine and the Center for Disease Control.

Recommended Hours of Sleep
The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine recommends the following sleep durations:

• • Children 3 to 5 years of age: 10-13 hours

  • Children 6 to 12 years of age: 9-12 hours

  • Teenagers 13 to 18 years of age: 8-10 hours (this is so important!)

  • Adults: 7-8 hours

• Source Credit: The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine

Health Effects of Sleep Deprivation
Not getting enough sleep, or sleep deprivation, can adversely affect mental and physical health. Mentally, a lack of sleep can affect a your mood, leading to possible:

• • Irritability

  • Problems with relationships

  • Anxiety

  • Depression

• Physically, not getting enough sleep can also mean that you may lack the hormones needed to help grow and build muscle mass, fight infections, and repair cells. Over time, chronic sleep deprivation can also increase risk of:

  • High blood pressure

  • Heart disease

  • Stroke

  • Kidney disease

  • Obesity

  • Type 2 diabetes

Developmental Sleep Considerations

• For Adolescents:

  • During the teenage years, the circadian rhythm, or biological clock, is shifted such that teens do not become tired until later in the evening and wish to sleep later in the morning.

  • Not allowing for proper sleep can lead to behavioral and academic problems, car crashes, and the over-use of caffeine and other stimulants.

  • Teenage students have competing demands between sleep, school, and extracurricular activities leading 7 out of 10 high school students to not get enough sleep.

  • One tool to make sure sleep is honored amid the array of various activities is to chart the time devoted to the week’s events, delegating around 9 hours for sleeping each day. 

• Source Credit: CDC.gov

Tips for healthy sleep!

• Go to bed and wake up at the same time everyday

• Create a wind-down routine including relaxing activities like reading

• Turn off electronics at least a half-hour before bed to reduce blue light which blocks the release of sleep-inducing melatonin

• Leave phones out of the bedroom

• Turn down the lights

• Take a warm bath or shower

• Keep the temperature in the bedroom cool

• Limit light and make the bedroom as quiet as possible