sleep is the new sex (are you interested?)
Just found this great article in The Times newspaper (UK) :
“On the phone to a particularly fast-living friend the other day, I found myself telling her how positive I was feeling about the year ahead. “I put it down to the fact that I’ve been getting so much great sleep,” I beamed into the handset. “Now you just sound smug,” came the disgruntled reply. For sleep, it would appear, is the new sex. Admit that you’re getting more, or better, sleep than your friends and you might as well be confiding a series of secret hotel dates with Robert Pattinson.”
To read the full article, please click here.
I found the article very interesting, but I have to say that I’m not completely convinced that it’s only women who are sleep-deprived, or that it’s a feminist issue, per se.
pzizz sells products designed to help with stress relief and sleep problems - and while there are an increasing number of women now coming to our site - the truth is that the ratio of male to female customers is completely skewed. We have barely any female customers by comparison with male.
I wonder why?
Could it be that more men than women have realised that “sleep is the new sex” - and are the most excited about it?!
How Much Sleep Does An Average Person Need?
If you’re trying to figure out exactly how much sleep you should get in order to be physically healthy and feel well rested, you should know that, to an extent, people’s needs vary. Different people require different amounts of sleep.
However, there is most definitely a range that is considered healthy. A wide ranging study conducted by the Scripps Clinic Sleep Center in La Jolla, California, has examined this question. A study of more than 1 million adults, who participated in a study on cancer prevention, and recorded their average nightly amount of sleep, shed light on how much sleep people really need.
The study revealed that people who sleep between 6.5 hours a night and 7.5 hours a night live the longs. And people who sleep much more or much less than that don’t live as long.
This varies by age, however. That number is for adults. Teenagers need about 8.5 to 9 hours per night, which is not surprising with their growing bodies.
And, ultimately, a lot of it comes down to how you feel when you wake up in the morning. Do you feel refreshed, alert, energetic? Then you’ve had the right amount of sleep for you. Do you feel tired and groggy? Does that feeling persist even after a shower, a cup of tea or coffee, even after you’ve left for work or school? Then, even if you got the “scientifically correct” amount of sleep, it’s not the right amount for you.
The goal is to live a life where you are clear-headed, energized, and alert, not dragging through your day struggling to keep your eyes open. So it will help you to really assess how you feel when you wake up each morning, and if you don’t feel awake and full of energy, it’s time to work on finding a solution; the difference in the quality of your life will be noticeable.
Happy pzizzing!
What Happens to Your Body When You Don’t Get Enough Sleep?
Everyone’s experienced the occasional sleepless nights, or perhaps many sleepless nights. And everyone knows how unpleasant it is to spend the day feeling groggy and tired.
The fact is, though, that poor sleep has numerous negative consequences beyond just feeling fuzzy and out of it.
Numerous studies have revealed that sleep deprivation is not just unpleasant, it’s downright dangerous to one’s health.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drowsy driving is responsible for at least 100,000 automobile crashes, 71,000 injuries, and 1550 fatalities a year.
A Johns Hopkins study found that people who are sleep deprived are more prone to obesity. In fact, when compared with people who got seven to nine hours of rest each night, people who regularly slept less than four hours nightly were 73% more likely to suffer from obesity, the study found.
And a study by the University of Chicago Medical Center had people cut back to four hours of sleep a night - and found that people’s basic bodily functions, including regulation of blood sugar levels, were severely altered. When people were tested during the height of their sleep debt, their ability to secrete insulin and respond to insulin had decreased so much that they were similar to that of a diabetic.
Chronic sleep deprivation causes premature aging and impaired cognitive function, as well.
Everyone’s busy these days, and it’s tempting to try to cram more activities into daily living then there are hours in the day - and then cut back on sleep. But it’s important to realize that if you get a good night of sleep you will actually function better the next day and get more done, as well as be physically healthier.
That’s why you owe to to yourself to make sure that you get a good night’s rest each night.