Benefits of Sleep Archives - Page 4 of 11

How Sleep Deprivation Affects Our Immune Systems

Trouble sleeping not only causes us to feel fatigued during the day but it can also take a toll on our health and weaken our immune system. It turns out that those who do not get enough sleep are more susceptible to colds and stay ill longer. Why? Because during sleep, our immune system produces cytokines, small protein molecules that combat viruses and bacteria.

Sleep disorders, frequent waking up at night and shallow sleep can all cause disorders in our immune system — making us more vulnerable to disease and virus attacks. Therefore getting an adequate amount of sleep is important for our well being; average adults need 7-8 hours of sleep while school-age children need up to 9-10 hours (although individual needs may vary).

Here are some tips to help you get to sleep and stay asleep during the night:

– Stick to a schedule. Go to sleep at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning.

– Do not over indulge before bed. While it is important not to go to sleep hungry it is also crucial not to overeat. Have a light dinner at least 30 minutes before heading to bed.

– Relax. Before bedtime, take an aromatic bath, read a book or listen to music.

– Ventilate your bedroom – Experts agree that the most comfortable temperature for sleep is 65-70 degrees.

– Avoid sleeping during the day. If you have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep then naps are not recommended as they may disturb your day/night sleep rhythms.

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Important:
The Sleep Blog does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Instead, this website provides general information for educational purposes only. Always seek the advice of a qualified health care provider if you have questions or concerns regarding any medical condition or treatment.

Napping During the Day Can Benefit Children’s Vocabulary.

Taking naps during the day allows kids to memorize abstract information. Children less than a year-and a half old organize the structure of language and other information supplied by their everyday environment during nap time.

Regular naps at a young age are no waste of time claims psychologist Dr. Almut Hupbach, co-author of research conducted at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Children who take naps soon after learning are able to better grasp the essence of language structure.

In the first phase of the study researchers visited the homes of 24 healthy 15 month old babies. The experimenter played a 15-minute recording of a woman reading sentences in an artificially created, non-existent language while interacting with the infant. The recording contained 48 sequences requiring the child to track sequential dependencies between first and third word in the three word sentences (e.g. Pel-wadim-jic, vot-kicey rud, pel-deecha-jic). All children were then put to bed 4 hours after the visit. The next day, parents brought the infants to the lab and sat them in front of two speakers that alternatively played familiar and new sequences. The children clearly remembered, listen attentively and responded more vigurosly to the structure of the entire sequence from an earlier session than at the single word of the new sequence.

The second phase of the experiment also included 24 healthy 15 month old infants that listed to the same recording of the artificial language but did not fall asleep in the next 4 hours. Tested the next day the children showed no differences in behavior, regardless of weather the recording was already known to them, or completely new.

The team, which in addition to Dr. Hupbach included Professor Lynn Nadel, Dr. Rebbeca L. Gomez, and Dr. Richard R. Bootzin, concluded that sleep plays a beneficial role for a variety of cognitive functions during infancy. Taking naps contributes to the development of learning ability and memory in infants.

To read the full study on Nap-dependent learning in infants, click on the link below

http://web.arizona.edu/~tigger/Hupbach-Gomez-Bootzin-Nadel-sleep-09.pdf

Be Healthy and More Productive at Work – Take a Nap

If your boss caught you sleeping at your desk a few years ago, you surely would have been fired. But getting in trouble for catching zzz’s at work may soon be the thing of the past. While most of us rely on artificial stimulants like caffeine to power us through the day, experts say that what we really need to recharge our minds is a good nap. Some industries and big companies such as Nike, Google, Ben and Jerry’s and Zappos.com encourage their workers to simply ….nap.

Mark Rosekind, a former scientist at NASA, and now Founder and President of Alertness Solutions, a company creating “fatigue management” solutions, claims that a 15-minute afternoon nap increases our productivity by 35 percent, creativity by 40 percent and the ability to make decisions by as much as 50 percent. On top of that, afternoon naps also significantly decrease the risk of stroke and heart disease, especially in men.

The authors of the largest ever study of this phenomenon discussed this two years ago in the Journal of Archives of Internal Medicine. The study was conducted over about six years on a group of 23,681 adult Greeks-mostly over the age of 50. People who took at least three 30 minute naps a week had 37 percent lower risk of death due to heart or other cardiovascular problems than in those who slept only at night.

It is worth noting that a siesta during the day belongs to the normal practice in many countries in southern Europe. So far, experts believed that the low incidence of heart disease in those countries is a consequence of the Mediterranean diet. Although the study also takes into account factors such as diet, physical activity, smoking habits and other factors related to the circulatory system, it still seems that napping at work has a beneficial effect.

In conclusion, companies benefit from having workers who are healthy, rested and focused. Those who may still oppose the idea of letting their employees nap on company’s time well, perhaps they will change their mind if they just sleep on it?

Share your feedback in the comments below.

By Agnieszka