A GROWING obsession with sleep is consuming our waking hours. Sleep is as vital for life as food or water. Lab rats deprived of sleep die within a month, and people who inherit the rare disease fatal familial insomnia meet the same fate, but on a longer timescale. We still don鈥檛 know why. But while the fundamental reasons for sleep remain a mystery, the many ways it affects our well-being are frequently in the news.
In recent years, sleep has been labelled the third pillar of good health, along with diet and exercise, says at the University of California, Berkeley. But that鈥檚 underselling it: sleep is the foundation on which these two other pillars rest. 鈥淭here is no tissue within the body and no process within the brain that is not enhanced by sleep, or demonstrably impaired when you don鈥檛 get enough,鈥� says Walker.
In addition to its well-recognised benefits for memory consolidation, repair and growth, sleep 鈥� or the lack of it 鈥� is now thought to have a host of other effects. Too little time in the land of nod messes with your emotions and your ability to make sound decisions. It affects your immune system and appetite, and has been linked to metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Increasingly, a lack of sleep is implicated in mental health problems including depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and neurological conditions like Alzheimer鈥檚 disease (see 鈥�How much sleep do you really need?)鈥�. What鈥檚 more, sleeping at the wrong time plays havoc with your body clocks, adding to the negative effects.
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But just as we are learning that sleep is vital for so many facets of good health, it seems we are also failing to get enough of it. A recent report by the UK鈥檚 Royal Society for Public Health says Britons . A poll found that 17 per cent of people in the US with a sleep disorder and a .
If all this is enough to keep you awake at night, don鈥檛 worry. On the following pages, we tackle the questions that may haunt you in the wee small hours. For a start, how much sleep do you really need? If you鈥檙e short on shut-eye, does a lie-in or nap redress the balance (鈥�Can you catch up on missed sleep?鈥�)? What can you do if you want more sleep (鈥�How to nap like a pro鈥�), or want to cheat the system and get by on less (鈥�Can you cheat the sleep system with a smart napping schedule?鈥�)? And how do you best nod off and make sure you wake up feeling rested (鈥�How to sleep better鈥�)? We sort fact from fiction to find out what鈥檚 normal and reveal what you can do to become master of your unconscious hours.
39
per cent of people in the US take their cellphone into the bedroom and
34
minutes is the average extra sleep people get per night after bed for 7 days
67
per cent of the time that men dream about people . Women dream equally about men and women
1.2
minutes is the sleep lost per night for
5
is the number of minutes it takes you to fall asleep if you鈥檙e sleep deprived. The ideal is 10-15 minutes
100
times an hour: how often someone with sleep apnoea might stop breathing in the night
We answer all the questions keeping you up at night in 鈥淪leep: A user鈥檚 guide鈥�
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This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淪leep: A practical guide鈥�
