The Importance of Sleep and How to Get More

Sleep is usually taken for granted by most people in the modern age. Since everyone is very busy with work, school, and other matters, a lot of people suffer from a lack of sleep. A lack of sleep can cause many different problems in people's lives. Feeling sleepy during work in the daytime can lower efficiency, and cause irritability and moodiness. Most people need at least eight hours of sleep, and children need ten hours of sleep at least. But the amount of sleep needed varies from person to person, so make sure that you are getting enough sleep to function during the day. If you can go into a darkened, quiet room in the middle of the day and fall asleep within ten minutes you are probably not getting enough sleep.
In order to remember information that the brain receives in the day, it is important to sleep. During sleep, the brain goes through memory consolidation which helps store information. It has been proven that sleeping after learning something new helps improve memory better than staying up and practicing.
If you are worrying about your weight, then you should be sleeping more. Sleep helps decrease the amount of ghrelin, which is the hormone that causes hunger. This means that people who sleep more get less hungry and have more energy than people who sleep less. A lack of sleep can also have serious effects on your health. People with sleeping disorders have been proven to be more susceptible to hypertension, increased stress and irregular heartbeats. Also, it lowers your immune system so not sleeping enough could cause you to get sick.
For teenagers, sleeping disorders can cause depression and low self-esteem. Youth who lack sleep are more likely to get into vices like alcohol, smoking, and drugs. Sleeping more can decrease a teenager's chances of going off track. Teenagers are also still growing, so they need their sleep in order to grow up healthy and fit.
Babies require eight hours of sleep at night plus lots of naps in between. This may total twelve hours or more daily. More growth hormones are released during sleep than in the day, and babies use sleeping to develop their muscles and skeleton. This is why it is important to make sure that your baby's sleep is as comfortable as possible by giving them a soft bed and a quiet room.
In order to sleep better, it is important to sleep in a dark and quiet room. It is also best not to drink any coffee, soft drinks or alcohol before sleeping. Also, smoking before sleeping is not suggested since it increases blood pressure. Having a warm bath and a comfortable bed can make you more relaxed and help you settle into a sleeping mood. Reading before bed can also be calming. Exercising in the early morning or early afternoon can also help you sleep better at night.
Explain to your children why sleeping is important, and encourage them to sleep enough and set an example by getting enough sleep yourself. Do the math and be sure that you don't count bathing, brushing teeth, reading and other bed time preparations as sleep time. Make sure to set a realistic bed time, where you can get enough sleep and still wake up early enough to do all the things you need to in the morning.