By Quinelle Ming
The late English dramatist Thomas Dekker describes sleep as the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together and Shakespeare eloquently describes it as nature’s soft nurse. But do we really know what sleep is? Do we fathom all of what happen when we lay our heads to rest?
So the questions still remain, what is it and why do we do it. There is no definitive definition for this action but what we do know is that it is an incredibly important part of our biology. I would want to believe that Shakespeare’s definition was influenced by the many benefits we are granted in that unconscious state. Some benefits of a good night’s sleep include restoration or repair, contribution to the function of the cardio vascular system/heart function, it improves our memory and concentration and reduces the level of stress and high blood pressure and also our ability to come up with the solutions to complex problems is enhanced by a night of sleep.
However the harsh reality is that much of our society is extremely sleep deprived. Good data revels that in the 1950’s most persons were getting at least 8 hours of sleep a night but now we sleep 1½ to 2 hours less every night. Teenagers/students are reduced to taking 5-6 hours because of studies. Shift workers also are sleep deprived because of their working hours and what many people do not know is that the body clock or the natural way of the body knowing when to be awake or when to sleep does not coincide with the demand of working at night or staying up late to study or for entertainment. So when you try to sleep during the day for the night the body is simply saying to wake up because that is the time to be awake.
In conclusion take sleep seriously because it is very important for good health. If you have good sleep it increases concentration, attention, decision making, creativity and decreases stress, mood changes and levels of anger.
“Sleep is an investment in the energy you need to be effective tomorrow”.
