Sleep Is Integral to Living a Good Life

It hardly needs to be said that living with chronic sleep deprivation can make everyday feel like a struggle. You’ve felt exhausted before – you may feel exhausted right now – and you know how hard it is to function well when you are feeling so tired. Feeling periodic exhaustion gives insight into what chronic sleep deprivation can be like.

It’s certainly a strong statement to say that chronic sleep deprivation "ruins your life”, but many will attest to the fact that feeling exhausted all the time does kill your ability to function. There are conditions cause chronic sleep deprivation, to name a few:

• Sleep apnea
• Insomnia
• Parasomnias
• Restless leg syndrome
• Circadian rhythm disorders

By chronic sleep deprivation, most studies tend to look at getting less than 6 hours of sleep per night on a continual basis. Let’s look at the critical ways chronic sleep deprivation can make your life feel like a perpetual struggle.

What is Narcolepsy?

Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder characterized by a frequent and sometimes uncontrollable desire for sleep. This can result into sudden lapses into sleep at any time, any place. The result is that normal patterns and rhythms of sleeping become abnormal. For example, someone suffering from narcolepsy may end up sleeping several times during the day and then having trouble sleeping at night.

Irregular sleeping patterns are not only inconvenient, they can have medical, emotional, and psychological consequences.

Why Sleep Environment Matters

If you are looking for ways to improve your sleep quality overall, one of the easiest ways to start is to begin by taking inventory of how your bed and bedding may be adding or subtracting to the overall experience.  Take a second to think about your bedding right now.  Does it make you feel like you want to climb right into bed?  Or is it lumpy, scratchy, or just downright too hot?

It was one said that there are two things in life not to skimp out on: comfortable shoes, and comfortable bedding.  The logic is that when you are not in one, you are in the other!

While this is not exactly true, the point remains that having comfortable bedding can support an overall quality of sleep, which can lead to an overall improved quality of life.  While there are a lot of ways to improve sleep quality, in this article you will see a few interesting and potentially new ideas.

Sleep is essential, and by extension, so is having a quality sleep environment. It can be an essential component of combatting insomnia. Continue reading to learn the ideal bedroom set up for improved sleep in the face of insomnia. 

How Many Hours of Sleep Do Children Need?

Children need more sleep than adults. The younger the child, the more sleep they need. Below is a guideline for the recommended minimum and maximum amount of sleep your child should be getting  based on their age [Sleep Foundation]. All children are different and have unique needs, but this general guideline can provide you with a baseline on which to customize. 

• Newborns 0-4 months
  • Recommended 14-17 hours per day
  • No less than 11 hours
  • No more than 19 hours
• Infants 4-12 months
  • Recommended 12-16 hours
  • No less than 10 hours
  • No more than 18 hours
• Toddlers 1-3 years
  • Recommended 11-14 hours
  • No less than 9 hours
  • No more than 16 hours
• Preschoolers 3-5 years
  • Recommended 10-13 hours
  • No less than 8 hours
  • No more than 14 hours
• Adolescents 6-13
  • Recommended 9-12 hours
  • No less than 7 hours
  • No more than 12 hours
• Teenagers 13-18 years
  • Recommended 8-10 hours
  • No less than 7 hours
  • No more than 11 hours

What’s important is to try and establish what amount of sleep allows your child to perform best. When children don’t get enough, they will suffer from sleep deprivation. Sometimes, sleep deprivation can mirror ADHD. Continue reading to learn more about the differences between the two, and how to tell them apart. 

False Beliefs About Sleep

Sleep myths are simply false information that are regularly disseminated online, at home, among friends, and so on. Unfortunately, sleep myths can also be damaging to your health if you develop sleep deprivation by adhering to them.

Sleep deprivation is an insidious condition that lowers performance and quality of life in four aspects of your life:

• Socially
• Physically
• Mentally
• Emotionally

Here are common sleep myths and the truth about them for better sleep!

Be comfortable with CPAP Therapy

CPAP is often scary for people who are concerned they have obstructive sleep apnea or have already been diagnosed with it. After all, it doesn’t exactly look comfortable. People who already use it sometimes struggle with ensuring that their CPAP is effective. Let’s look at the main ideas behind:

• What a CPAP is
• What CPAP therapy is used for
• How to keep your CPAP effective
• How to maintain your CPAP
• Additional CPAP Tips

Sleep and Wellbeing

“Wellbeing”, much like the word “happiness,” means so many different things to different people. That being said, we might all generally agree that “happiness” involves having a sense of satisfaction and healthfulness with our day to day lives. You could contrast this with feeling poorly, discouraged, and melancholic every day.

Anyone who has felt exhausted before, which includes everyone, knows how miserable it is. When we are exhausted, our best hope is usually to simply “get by.” Wellbeing cannot happen under such circumstances.

Wellbeing is a product of most of the following:

• Emotional health
• Mental performance
• Productivity
• Physical health
• Physical performance

Chronic sleep deprivation inhibits or cripples each of these core areas (depending on how bad the deprivation is) of wellbeing. Chronic sleep deprivation is most commonly caused by:

• Sleep apnea
• Insomnia (caused by stress, medical conditions, or unknown factors)
• Parasomnias
• Restless leg syndrome
• Circadian rhythm disorders

Let’s look at the critical ways sleep affects your sense of well being.

How much pain are we in?

Pain-related sleep loss is a real thorn in the side of most adults in America. The 2015 Sleep in AmericaTM Poll found that 21% of Americans experience chronic pain. It also found that 36% of people have experienced acute pain in the last week.

The bottom line? It indicates that more people were in pain than weren’t in pain within the last week. If you are reading this, you are likely in the majority (pain) category.

The question is why we are in so much pain. Some common factors crop up:

• Desk jobs (sitting all day) is not good for our health
• We are spending record amounts of time sitting in front of screens rather than being active
• We have an epidemic of obesity, and weight is a strong contributing factor to chronic pain
• Stress is a considerable factor in people’s lives and also is a strong contributor to pain
• Sports and high activity leads to injuries
• Finally, some of us are unlucky with genetics and inherit weak backs, necks, knees, etc.

The question is, beyond being a nuisance in your life, what else is wrong with pain?

The relationship between your immune system and sleep

Your immune system and sleep are intimately connected. Sleep loss impacts your immune response and, in turn, your immune system alters your sleep. If you are trying to avoid getting sick, consistent long and quality sleep will be one of your primary methods of preventing illness and ensuring optimal recovery.

Molecules called cytokines are signaling molecules in the immune system and the brain. Sleep deprivation decreases your body’s production of cytokines and inhibit your immune response to illness. Such as:

• Flu
• Colds
• Chronic illness

Specifically, lack of sleep prevents your immune system from building up its forces, meaning that your immune system will be overloaded by illness and will likely take longer to recover.

During illness, increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines correspond with increased fatigue, which is why you feel tired when you are sick. It’s your body’s way of telling you to sleep more and recover quicker from your illness.