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Issue 62 October 2017 Village Eye

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According to the National<br />

Sleep Foundation, the<br />

recommended number of<br />

sleeping hours depends<br />

on the age factor. The<br />

quality of your sleep<br />

determines the energy you<br />

have throughout the day,<br />

and affects your health<br />

condition.<br />

How much is enough?<br />

It is common sense that our bodies<br />

need to unwind and rest each night<br />

and that insufficient sleep can<br />

leads to severe health problems, so<br />

trying to get enough rest throughout<br />

the night is paramount. Recently,<br />

Charles Czeisler, a professor at<br />

Harvard University, gathered a team<br />

of experts, to research. They went<br />

through numerous studies conducted<br />

in the period between 2004 and<br />

2014. The goal of their research was<br />

determining the proper number of<br />

sleeping hours for every age group.<br />

They also studied the effects of<br />

sleeping on overall health.<br />

What stops us?<br />

If you are having trouble nodding<br />

off when the lights go out, it could<br />

be down to a number of factors.<br />

Stress and modern technology are<br />

the most common. Stress stimulates<br />

the secretion of cortisol. Excessive<br />

secretion of the stress hormone<br />

causes sleep disorder, sickness, and<br />

discomfort.<br />

The light released by<br />

technological devices blocks<br />

the production of melatonin.<br />

To help combat this, most<br />

modern smartphones<br />

have a nightime mode<br />

which turns the screen<br />

to a yellowish tinge - but<br />

experts recommend that we ditch the<br />

tv and tech at least an hour before<br />

retiring. If you are, like many of us so<br />

often are these day - scrolling your<br />

messages or faffing on Facebook<br />

late in the evening, now might be time<br />

to get back into old fashioned habits<br />

and read a good paperback?<br />

Our challenge to you is to try this<br />

for one week and see if your sleep<br />

improves.<br />

Unhealthy sleeping patterns often<br />

lead to fatigue, and make you unable<br />

to make decisions, concentrate, think<br />

clearly and even eat. Scientists have<br />

now confirmed the link between<br />

sleep disorders and health problems.<br />

If you sleep less than five hours<br />

a night, your heart will suffer a<br />

lot. Sleeping less than 7 hours<br />

creates perfect conditions for<br />

the development of severe health<br />

problems like uncontrolled weight<br />

gain and diabetes. Try to sleep well,<br />

and your body will thank you.<br />

So, how can<br />

you achieve<br />

sleep nirvana?<br />

Apparently,<br />

it’s all about<br />

keeping in<br />

sync with<br />

your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle.<br />

Getting in sync with your body’s<br />

natural sleep-wake cycle, or circadian<br />

rhythm, is one of the most important<br />

strategies for sleeping better. If you<br />

keep a regular sleep-wake schedule<br />

you’ll feel much more refreshed and<br />

energized than if you sleep the same<br />

number of hours at different times,<br />

even if you only alter your sleep<br />

schedule by an hour or two.<br />

Experts also advise that we should<br />

try to go to sleep and get up at the<br />

same time every day. This helps set<br />

our body’s internal clock and optimize<br />

the quality of the sleep we get..<br />

Choose a bed time when you normally<br />

feel tired, so that you don’t toss and<br />

turn. If you’re getting enough sleep,<br />

you should wake up naturally without<br />

an alarm. If you<br />

need an alarm<br />

clock, you may<br />

need an earlier<br />

bedtime.<br />

Avoid sleeping in—<br />

even on weekends.<br />

The more your<br />

weekend/weekday<br />

sleep schedules<br />

differ, the worse the<br />

jetlag-like symptoms<br />

you’ll experience. If you need to<br />

make up for a late night, opt for a<br />

daytime nap rather than sleeping in.<br />

This allows you to pay off your sleep<br />

debt without disturbing your natural<br />

sleep-wake rhythm.<br />

Be smart about napping. While<br />

napping is a good way to make up for<br />

lost sleep, if you have trouble falling<br />

asleep or staying asleep at night,<br />

napping can make things worse. Limit<br />

naps to 15 to 20 minutes in the early<br />

afternoon. Apparently - 18 minutes<br />

is the optimum we need for a pownap<br />

reset - who knew!<br />

Fighting after-dinner drowsiness.<br />

If you get sleepy way before your<br />

bedtime - we’ve all done it... midway<br />

through the evening and we find<br />

ourseves dozing in front of the TV...<br />

Even if you don’t feel like it, get off<br />

the couch and do something mildly<br />

stimulating, such as washing the<br />

dishes, calling a friend, or getting<br />

clothes ready for the next day. If you<br />

give in to the drowsiness, you may<br />

wake up later in the night and have<br />

trouble getting back to sleep.<br />

Here’s what is needed and what is not<br />

throughout our lives.<br />

Newborn (0-3 months) -- 14-17 hours.<br />

Babies (4-11 months) -- 12-15 hours.<br />

Children (1-2 years) -- 11-14 hours.<br />

Preschool (3-5 years) -- 10-13 hours.<br />

School Age (6-13 years) -- 9-11 hours.<br />

Teens (14-17 years) -- 8-10 hours.<br />

Youth (18-25 years) -- 7-9 hours.<br />

Adults (26-64 years) -- 7-9 hours.<br />

Seniors (over 65 years) -- 7-8 hours.<br />

eye<br />

Heah &<br />

Wlb<br />

Are you getting enough?<br />

13<br />

<strong>Issue</strong> <strong>62</strong> <strong>October</strong> D <strong>2017</strong>(Paul).indd 13 19/09/<strong>2017</strong> 17:30

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