How much sleep do we need?

Circadian Rhythm
•  An internal pace maker and biological control system: Biological processes that repeatedly occur on roughly a 24-hour cycle. e.g. sleep, body temperature etc.
 
•  Circadian Rhythm may vary from person to person in terms of its pattern; some people feel like going to sleep early and some late; even during the day some need a midday nap and some do not.

REM: Rapid Eye Movement Sleep
•  Sleep characterized by rapid movement of the eyes.
•  REM dominates a little more than twenty percent of an adult’s sleeping time.
•  Occurs during stage-1 sleep.
•  Eyes move back and forth.
•  Sleep is very deep and the major muscles seem as if paralyzed.
•  Difficult to wake up the person during REM sleep.
•  Usually people dream during REM.
•  It is thought that eyes move back and forth duringREM because they are following the action-taking place in dreams.
•  REM sleep plays an important part in a person’s life, both physical and psychological, as the body needs a certain amount of REM sleep.
•  Experiments have shown that people whose REM sleep was interrupted and disturbed by being awakened, exhibit a rebound effect: they try to avail every chance to get REM sleep whenever they get a chance. How much of sleep is required?
•  At least some amount of sleep is necessary.
•  The number of hours people need togo to sleep my range from 3 to 9 hours, and even less or more: But on average people sleep for 7-8 hours at night.
•  Sleep has a cumulative effect. The person tries to make up for the hours of sleep that he missed in previous nights.
•  Sleep deprivation in humans as well as animals has adverse effects although temporary.
•  Sleep deprivation affects all faculties, mental  and physical: causes fatigue, and irritability; concentration and logical thinking are adversely affected.
•  Reaction time is slowed.
•  Sleep Deprivation may have serious consequences in case of academic performance, automobile driving, and certain professions requiring sharp alertness of mind and body.
•  A good night’s sleep keeps one fresh and ready for facing stresses of everyday life.

Sleep Disorders
•  Sleep related problems ranging frominability to sleep, to difficulty falling to sleep, to interrupted sleep, to feeling sleepy even when one has had enough hours of deep sleep; Generally known by the name of Insomnia, sleep disorders include sleep walking and sleep talking as well.

Causes of Sleep Disorders
•  Sleep disorders or slumbering problems may be due to various reasons:
•  Stress
•  Preoccupation (concern or fear etc.)
•  Mental illness
•  Noise pollution
•  Digestive problems
•  Physical illness
•  Drug abuse and medication
•  High caffeine intake, and many other

How to Handle and Treat Sleep Disorders?
REMEMBER:The actual problem of most people suffering from sleep disorders is not that they can not fall asleep, but the concern that “ I will not be able to sleep today too.”

Practical Steps for Getting Rid of Most Sleep Problems
•  Avoid taking sleeping pills.
•  Fix a place/room where you will go to sleep every night, and do not do anything else over there.
•  Do not “think” about going to sleep.
•  Keep television away from your sleeping place, and if it is there NEVER EVERwatch an interesting movie or program at sleep time.
•  Develop a habit of reading at bedtime, but NEVER EVER read an interesting or exciting book.
•  If you are in your bed and still can’t go to sleep, then get out of the bed and take a round around the
house and come back.Develop a habit of rising early in the morning every day, at the same time.
•  Do not change your sleep time.
•  Learn some relaxation exercises.
•  Avoid caffeine.
•  Avoid heavy meals at night, and eat your dinner about two hours before bedtime.
•  A glass of warm milk helps quite often. 

Dreams and Sleeping
•  Dreams are mental experiences during sleep.
•  Every body dreams though they may forget the contents.
 
Why do we dream?
•  Different psychologists have tried to explain this phenomenon, thus pointing towards the significance of dreams. The main explanations are:
•  Theory of unconscious wish fulfillment: Sigmund Freud
•  Reverse Learning Theory
•  Dreams for Survival Theory
•  Activation Synthesis Theory

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