The appropriate amount of sleep
The amount of sleep people need is determined by a variety of factors, but in most cases, it is determined by our age. Each person may or may not need sleep, and sleep time will vary from person to person, but it is not a bad idea to consider sleep guidelines appropriate for your age group.
Generally speaking, babies and toddlers aged four to twelve months require twelve to sixteen hours of sleep every twenty-four hours, which includes naps for children aged one to two, eleven to fourteen hours, ten to thirteen hours, nine to twelve hours, eight to ten hours for children aged thirteen to eighteen, and more than seven hours for adults each day (Olson, 2021).
Do all animals need to sleep?
Every animal with a reasonable-sized brain goes through a time of rest known as sleep, during which the brain changes into a state of altered awareness that makes it less instantly aware of its surroundings. The majority of animals with average-sized brains go to sleep since it is a time for rest for them. The conscious state of the brain transforms to one that is less sensitive to the environment when we sleep, and this is because the brain is less responsive to the environment while we are asleep than it is when we are awake (Gee, 2023).
Why do animals sleep?
Circadian rhythms, or biological alterations depending on Earth’s 24-hour cycle of light and dark, seem to be followed by all creatures. They control human sleep cycles, and they even have an impact on blind animals. According to Franks, it is true that every animal experiences a day of quiescence, during which they move less. “The question is, are they really getting sleep as we understand it in humans?”
Similar to consciousness, it might be challenging to determine whether all animals experience sleep in the same ways that humans do. Like humans, animals follow a circadian biological rhythm that is based on the 24-hour cycle that the Earth provides. This 24-hour cycle provides food—or sleep rules—for humans, other animals, and even blind animals.
However, we are unable to determine whether animals and humans have the same definition of sleep. Therefore, it can be exceedingly challenging to determine if animals sleep at all and whether their sleeping patterns differ from those of humans (CORDIS, 2022).
How sleep affects us
Sleep has a variety of impacts on humans. Specifically, one of the most critical elements affecting our health is our sleep schedule. It controls the chemicals that alert our bodies to hunger and fullness when they are experienced respectively. Unhealthy weight increase is directly linked to sleep deprivation rather than good weight gain since sleep is what makes a difference.
Thus, you run the danger of becoming obese as a result of weight growth or other illnesses that deteriorate your health if you don’t get enough sleep. Our quality of life can be enhanced and we can have a restful night’s sleep if we adhere to the nightly guidelines for sleep.
Poor sleep can cause disruptions to your daily schedule, drastically reduce your quality of life, or raise your risk of weight gain-related disorders including diabetes and obesity. Weight and sleep quality are tightly correlated, so if you continue to have days when you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll consume more unhealthy, unnutritious meals rather than considering the nutrients that are better for your health. You have a choice (Vafiadis, 2023).
3 Negative Effects of Prolonged Sleep Deprivation
– Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
There exist several views about the impact of insufficient sleep on the brain, even if the exact relationship between sleep and dementia remains unclear. Research indicates that after a restful night’s sleep, our brain starts purging itself of a protein known as amyloid. Lack of sleep causes an increase in this amyloid protein. Studies have indicated that it will build up. Amyloid proteins aggregate into clusters known as plaques. It is believed that these plaques have an impact on how brain cells operate. Additionally, if all of these processes accumulate over time, dementia or Alzheimer’s disease may result (Liao, 2019).
– Diabetes
Our bodies need the hormone insulin to control blood sugar levels; however, when we don’t get enough sleep, our bodies release less insulin, which can lead to an imbalance in blood sugar regulation.
Additionally, sleep deprivation might lessen our cells’ sensitivity to the insulin that controls blood sugar levels. Additionally, if this sleep-deprivation pattern persists, insulin secretion may become obviously out of balance, raising the risk of extremely high blood sugar levels. You might get type 2 diabetes if your blood sugar levels get dangerously high.
According to this study, the risk of developing diabetes is almost twice as high for those who don’t get enough sleep.
If you have diabetes due to lack of sleep, it may be a good idea to get enough sleep and control your blood sugar to control your diabetes with your doctor (Liao, 2019).
– Depression and anxiety
As mentioned earlier, sleep has a huge impact on our mental and physical strength.
Prolonged sleep deprivation can interfere with brain function. A lack of sleep can negatively impact our emotions and thinking by interfering with our feelings and cognitive processes. This is why chronic insomnia, or sleep deprivation, raises the chance of getting anxiety or depression by nearly 10 times.
Insomnia-related depression and anxiety can make it difficult to wake up easily in addition to making it difficult to fall asleep. Anxiety and depression might make you sleep considerably more than the normal person. Cognitive behavioral therapy has been found to be an effective treatment for insomnia, however medicine and therapy are also options for treating depression and anxiety (Liao, 2019).
The effects of oversleeping on your body
Oversleeping may result in some health issues. Three main theories as to why you shouldn’t sleep too much are as follows:
– Headache
Oversleeping can cause headache sufferers to feel discomfort in their heads. In general, sleeping longer than normal when one has the time can be a kind of relaxation for those without regular headaches; nevertheless, sleeping too much might be harmful to those who experience headaches. Indeed, there is. Researchers looked into the causes of this. It is believed that specific neurotransmitters in the brain, such as serotonin, are responsible for oversleeping. For this reason, those who sleep a lot throughout the day and at night may get headaches when they wake up the next morning (Parker, 2008).
– Lumbago
Getting too much sleep can give us back pain.
Lower back and buttock discomfort might manifest as back pain. Back pain sufferers used to be advised to stop exercising regularly and to stay in bed. These prescriptions are no longer written, though. It is now well known by doctors that staying active has more advantages than excessive laying down. In addition, unlike previously, we advise against obtaining more sleep than normal if at all possible.
– Heart disease
A study conducted on 72,000 women, the Nurses’ Health Study, discovered a connection between heart disease and excessive sleep. According to the findings, women who slept for nine to eleven hours a night had a 38 percent higher risk of coronary heart disease than women who slept for eight hours. But the exact cause of your increased risk of heart disease is still unknown (Parker, 2008).
The Benefits of Having just the Right Amount of Sleep
To find out why you are sleeping longer than usual, you might wish to visit a doctor if your sleep duration exceeds seven to eight hours. You can find out why you are sleeping more than usual by consulting your doctor.
If alcohol or prescription medicines are the source of your above-average sleep duration, cutting back on these substances may help you get less sleep overall. You should continue taking prescription drugs until your doctor instructs you to stop taking them, though, if they haven’t already ordered you to.
Whatever the cause of your excessive sleeping is, seven to eight hours a day is a healthy amount of sleep, and maintaining this sleep schedule will benefit your health. Regular sleep and wake hours are advised by experts. Additionally, it is advised against consuming coffee or alcohol just before bed in order to establish a regular sleep schedule. You may achieve the ideal amount of sleep by exercising frequently and creating a peaceful haven in your bedroom where you can unwind both physically and psychologically (Parker, 2008).
References
CORDIS (2022). Do all animals sleep? [online] phys.org. Available at: https://phys.org/news/2022-05-animals.html [Accessed 2 December 2023].
Gee, H. (2023). Do all animals sleep? [online] www.discoverwildlife.com. Available at: https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/do-all-animals-sleep [Accessed 2 December 2023].
Liao, S. (2019). How Sleep Affects Your Health. [online] WebMD. Available at: https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/poor-sleep-affects-health [Accessed 2 December 2023].
Olson, E.J. (2021). How many hours of sleep do you need? [online] Mayo Clinic. Available at: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/expert-answers/how-many-hours-of-sleep-are-enough/faq-20057898 [Accessed 2 December 2023].
Parker, H. (2008). Physical Side Effects of Oversleeping. [online] WebMD. Available at: https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/physical-side-effects-oversleeping [Accessed 2 December 2023].
Vafiadis, D. (2023). The National Council on Aging. [online] www.ncoa.org. Available at: https://www.ncoa.org/article/how-sleep-affects-your-health [Accessed 2 December 2023].
