The Most Frequently Asked Questions That People Have About Sleep

How Important is Sleep?

Getting enough sleep is of the utmost importance for our health. Sleep strengthens our immune system, prevents infection and fights off all manner of sickness. Obtaining an adequate amount of regular sleep fine tunes the hormonal balances in our body. Additionally, sleep helps controlling our body weight by regulating our appetite for healthy food and maintaining a flourishing microbiome within our gut. Moreover, sleep has an important impact on the fitness of our cardiovascular system, the lowering of our blood pressure and on maintaining a healthy heart.

All of this is just the tip of the iceberg. More information on the benefits of sleep can be found on the other pages within the Sleep category.

How Much Sleep Do We Need?

When answering this question, it’s important to mention there is a difference between time slept and sleep opportunity time. Prominent organizations specialized in sleep and health such as the National Sleep Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend adult humans to spend 7 to 9 hours in bed (sleep opportunity). However, many people in the modern world only give themselves 5 to 6.5 hours of sleep opportunity. This means that in reality they only obtain around 4.5 to 6 hours of actual sleep. This causes numerous negative consequences on physical and mental health as well as a drastically reduced life expectancy.

How Do I Know if I am Getting Enough Sleep?

One of the most common questions many people have nowadays is “am I getting enough sleep?”. Answering this question is done by asking yourself two simple questions.

• First, after waking up in the morning could you fall back asleep at ten or eleven a.m.? If the answer is “yes” you are likely not getting sufficient sleep quantity and/or quality.
• Second, can you function optimally without caffeine before noon? If the answer is “no” then you are most likely self-medicating your state of chronic sleep deprivation with caffeine. You are simply not giving yourself enough sleep opportunity time during the night.

Not getting enough sleep at night builds up a sleep debt which is carried over to the next day. This sleep debt will continue to accumulate over time. This will eventually produce a condition of prolonged, chronic sleep deprivation. The negative consequences for your health and mental wellbeing are severe. Some people allow themselves plenty of sleep opportunity time but still experience high levels of daytime fatigue, impairment, and distress. It is likely that these people are suffering from an undiagnosed sleep disorder such as insomnia.

Can a Lack of Sleep Kill You?

Yes, it can both in a direct and indirect way.

• Firstly, there is a deadly genetic disorder called fatal familial insomnia in which the patient is unable to sleep, causing death shortly after. More information on this unusual sleep disorder and others can be found on the page focused on Sleep Apnea and Other Sleep Disorders. Luckily this condition is extremely rare, but it illustrates the fact that a lack of sleep over time is deadly.
• The more common occurrence of death as a result of the lack of sleep is the deadly circumstance of getting behind the wheel of a vehicle. This is the cause of hundreds of thousands of traffic accidents and fatalities each year. More information on this topic can be found on the page focused on the Increased Risk of Car Accidents.

On the page The Consequences of Insomnia, we will take a closer look at all the major health consequences of insomnia and sleep deprivation. The list of consequences of a lack of sleep on individuals and on society as a whole is very long and frightening.

Is There Such a Thing as Sleeping Too Much?

The relationship between sleep and mortality risk is not linear. Studies indicate an upward hook in the relationship between the duration of sleep and the risk of death. Sleeping more does provide significant health benefits, but only up to a certain point. Once the average sleep amount passes nine hours the mortality rate goes up.

Research indicates that individuals who regularly sleep nine hours or longer have a higher mortality rate because of infections such as pneumonia and immune-activating cancers. However, it is likely this is because these individuals were suffering from these diseases beforehand. Consequently, these types of serious sickness triggered an automatic immune response in the body which activates more sleep to battle the illness. Unfortunately, some sicknesses such as cancer prove to be too powerful to overcome, despite all efforts from the beneficial sleep extension. Generally, excessive sleep can be a symptom of an underlying health problem.

It is likely that sleep has a similar reverse-J-shape relationship with mortality risk such as food, oxygen and water. When you overeat, this shortens your life expectancy. Similarly, drinking too much water can lead to a fatal increase in blood pressure which can cause a stroke or heart attack. Furthermore, having too much oxygen in the blood is toxic to cells and especially to the brain. Sleep likely shares this relationship with mortality risk when taken to the extremes.

In conclusion, there needs to be balance between wakefulness and sleep. For adult humans this appears to be around sixteen hours of total wakefulness and around eight hours of sleep a day.

Is Hitting the Snooze Button Bad For Your Health?

The short answer? Yes, it definitely is! In fact, just using an alarm clock to wake up in the morning is harmful for our health. When the alarm clock goes off it causes a spike in blood pressure and a shock acceleration of our heart rate. Furthermore, it can significantly increase your stress levels. Using the snooze button is especially harmful as it causes your body to deal with the cardiovascular assault repeatedly in a short span of time. Additionally, snoozing your alarm causes you to be much more groggy and tired throughout the day compared to when waking up immediately. A long term snoozing habit can significantly damage your heart and nervous system.

Unfortunately, most people require an alarm clock to maintain their schedule and prevent oversleeping. If you do require an alarm clock in the morning, make sure to use it responsibly and try waking up immediately without using the snooze button. You should consider your alarm clock as your plan B, as your backup. Your plan A should be to wake up naturally without the need of an alarm clock. This can be achieved with sufficient planning and discipline.

More information on this topic can be found on the page focused on the The Negative Impact of Using and Snoozing an Alarm Clock in the Morning. This page provides effective tips and advice on how to use an alarm clock responsibly and how to get rid of a harmful snoozing habit once and for all.

Is Taking a Nap During the Day a Good Idea?

Yes it is, but only if you do it the right way! If you have the possibility to do so it would be a good idea to implement a regular napping habit in your weekly routine. It is scientifically proven that taking regular naps provides numerous health benefits. First of all, it allows you to catch up on some sleep if you are sleep deprived, making you more alert. Additionally, it is a great way to relax and it can improve your mood. Furthermore, napping can provide better performance, quicker reaction time and improved memory for the remainder of the day.

If all that wasn’t convincing enough, taking regular naps may also help you live longer! This is because it can reduce your blood pressure. Additionally, it can significantly reduce the chance of you having a heart attack later in life. More information on this topic can be found on the page focused on Why Taking a Daily Siesta Can Help You Live Longer.

How To Take a Nap Effectively and Responsibly

There are some thing to take into account when wanting to take a nap during the day. The biggest mistake that people make is that they nap for far too long. When napping during the day, it is important to limit the time to 20 minutes maximum. Sleeping longer than 20 minutes will cause you to go into a deeper stage of sleep. This will make it much harder to wake up and it can cause grogginess. Sleeping for longer than 20 min will often leave you feeling worse.

There is one exception where it is a good idea to sleep longer than 20 minutes. This is if you are very tired because you didn’t get enough sleep at night. If you are suffering from severe sleep deprivation it would be a good idea to take a longer nap. However, in that case you should nap for 90 minutes. This is because it takes around 90 minutes to complete an entire sleep cycle. As a result, you will get all the benefits of your nap and you will reduce the grogginess to a minimum. More information on the different stages and cycles of sleep can be found on the Sleep Architecture page.

Another common mistake people make is to take a nap after 3 p.m. in the afternoon. This is a bad idea because it can interfere with your nighttime sleep schedule and it can cause insomnia. If you are already suffering from insomnia it is highly recommended not to take a nap during the day because this can worsen your symptoms.