There is an Italian proverb that says, "Bed is medicine."University of Pittsburgh's research: Sufficient sleep increases the antibody levels of people who received the hepatitis B vaccine. Conversely, sleeping for less than 6 hours made the vaccine abortive.Researchers from the Universities of Louisville and Chicago: Sleep deprivation in mice injected with cancer cells made cancer grow faster. In addition, lack of sleep affects how the immune system reacts to cancer, making the disease more aggressive.

Bed is Medicine

In Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, death from overwork is called Karoshi, Guolaosi, and Gwarosa.The phrase has no word in English, but people around us are victims.Sleep deprivation is a significant issue in our world today.

Death from Overwork

Gallup Poll: 40% of American adults get less than the needed amount of sleep, at least 7 hours per night.Many people believe that to be productive, they have to sleep less.Sleep significantly impacts our mental and physical health and can be linked to most mental health disorders, especially depression and anxiety.

Depression and Anxiety

<ol><li>Light Sleep: You are sleeping but still at a point of wakefulness. You can easily wake up. Your eyes and muscles will still be moving.</li><li>Slight Deep Sleep: Your eye movements slowly stop, and your body temperature decreases.</li><li>Slow–wave Deep Sleep: The cessation of muscle and eye movements. If you're woken up, you might likely feel dizzy and disoriented.</li><li>REM Sleep: It begins about an hour into your sleep. It is characterised by increased blood pressure, heart rate, and faster brain wave frequency. Dreaming takes place at this stage; if you wake up, you are more likely to remember your dreams.</li></ol>

4 Stages of Sleep

Very common in marriage, our spouses determine when, where, and how we sleep.The fear of not having sex is one of the primary reasons couples sleep in the same bed. However, if a spouse is experiencing sleep deprivation because of the other, it can also result in troubles in the relationship.Tips: First, you can use earplugs and noise–canceling headphones to block out sounds that might disturb your sleep. If those fail, you might consider sleeping in a different room.

Sleep for Married Couple

Acupuncture has been used as a sleeping aid.Emory University: Acupuncture could be up to 93% effective in relieving insomnia.Center for Addiction and Mental Health: Acupuncture increases melatonin and reduces anxiety.

Acupuncture

Stanford: A 6–week mindfulness meditation course helped people sleep faster in 15 instead of 33 minutes.Mattieu Ricard (The molecular geneticist and the French Buddhist monk): Those who make contemplative retreats in hermitages are far from doing nothing since they constantly train their minds. This means there is less to repair during sleep, and the sleep quality of meditators is more profound.

Meditation

Stop tying your identity to external things like achievements, success, jobs, marriage, family, etc.Instead, let your focus shift to you.When you do that, you will begin to value sleep.

Shift Your Focus to You

Sleep deprivation can lead to sleeping disorders.<ul><li>Obstructive Sleep Apnea: People have issues breathing normally because of the blockage in the airway. This leads to snoring most times.</li><li>Central Sleep Apnea: The brain fails to send accurate signals to the muscles that control breathing. This leads to tiredness, inability to concentrate, and illnesses. </li><li>Insomnia: When you constantly find yourself in that situation where you are trying hard to sleep but to no avail. </li></ul>

Sleeping Disorders

Sleep is the major activity of the brain during early development.Sleeplessness affects a child’s learning, emotional regulation and can lead to infections, high blood pressure, obesity, and other health problems.Children who slept below 10 hours per night had more behavioral and emotional issues as they got older.

Benefit for Early Development

It affects sperm count and hormone production.Men with high levels of sleep deprivation experienced a 25% reduction in sperm count. Lack of sleep is also linked with erectile dysfunction.Dr. Lisa Shives, the founder of Northshore Sleep Medicine: Testosterone is produced during the night. Studies show that a decrease in total sleep can lower a man’s testosterone, and REM sleep is vital to the production and release of testosterone.

Sleep Affects Reproductive System

Your sleeping pattern changes as you age. The National Sleep Foundation did the following breakdown:<ul><li>Ages 0–3 months: 14–17 hours.</li><li>Ages 4–11 months: 12–15 hours.</li><li>Ages 1–2 years: 11–14 hours.</li><li>Ages 3–5 years: 10–13 hours.</li><li>Ages 6–13 years: 9–11 hours.</li><li>Ages 14–17 years: 8–10 hours.</li><li>Ages 18–25 years: 7–9 hours.</li><li>Ages 26–64 years: 7–9 hours.</li><li>Ages 65+: 7–8 hours.</li></ul>

Sleep Required per Day

<ul><li>Minimize the light in your room. Light reduces melatonin production, which helps promote sleep.</li><li>Avoid gadgets before sleep. Blue light also reduces melatonin production.</li><li>Set the temperature to 60–66 degrees Fahrenheit. Your body temperature gradually reduces at night and returns to normal as you approach morning.</li><li>Do sports. Engaging in regular physical activities.</li><li>Watch what you eat and drink. Going between caffeine and sugar all day hinders a healthy sleep diet because we end up tired but wired at night.</li></ul>

How to Improve Sleep

Sleep is a critical element of our well-being. Though it's the simplest thing to do, many are suffering from getting a good amount of sleep.

Co-founder and editor in chief of The Huffington Post Arianna Huffington shows how our cultural dismissal of sleep as time wasted compromises our health and our decision-making and undermines our work lives, our personal lives--and even our sex lives in this New York Times bestseller. We are in the midst of a sleep deprivation crisis, with profound consequences to our health, our job performance, our relationships and our happiness. What we need is nothing short of a sleep revolution: only by renewing our relationship with sleep can we take back control of our lives. In The Sleep Revolution, Arianna explores all the latest science on what exactly is going on while we sleep and dream. She takes on the sleeping pill industry, and all the ways our addiction to technology disrupts our sleep. She also offers a range of recommendations and tips from leading scientists on how we can get better and more restorative sleep, and harness its incredible power. The result is a sweeping, scientifically rigorous, and deeply personal exploration of sleep from all angles, from the history of sleep, to the role of dreams in our lives, to the consequences of sleep deprivation, and the new golden age of sleep science that reveals the vital role sleep plays in our every waking moment and every aspect of our health--from weight gain, diabetes, and heart disease to cancer and Alzheimer’s.   In today's fast-paced, always-connected, perpetually-harried and sleep-deprived world, our need for a good night’s sleep is more important--and elusive--than ever. The Sleep Revolution both sounds the alarm on our worldwide sleep crisis and provides a detailed road map to the great sleep awakening that can help transform our lives, our communities, and our world.

4 Stages of Sleep

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