Not being able to sleep is frustrating. But going to sleep takes more than just laying down in bed, sometimes. There are daily behaviors that can improve your sleep, along with tips and tricks to help you drift into a slumber if you are struggling. Continue reading to learn more about healthy behaviors that are great for helping adults sleep.
A “sleep debt” is a common term that refers to the amount of sleep you get that is less than the amount of sleep you need. The way we generally understand it is that over time, a “debt” forms where you need to “catch up” on sleep to be healthy again.
To put it a different way:
Sleep debts are extremely important to correctly understand, because there are common misconception about what a sleep debt is and how you “repay” it. Most people are under the false assumption that they can “repay” their sleep debt much like you repay any monetary debt: in large sums. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work this way.
Imagine this scenario: you stay up late during the week, engrossed in reading, watching TV, working, or browsing on your computer. The next morning, you drag yourself out of bed, having only managed about five hours of sleep. But don't worry, you think, you can always catch up on sleep over the weekend.
On the weekends, you indulge in a bit of extra sleep, thinking it's the perfect solution to make up for those lost hours of rest. This practice is quite common among many individuals, especially considering that Americans typically clock in 6.8 hours of sleep on weekdays and 7.4 hours on weekends.
The concept of binge sleeping revolves around the notion of a "sleep debt," a fundamental concept crucial in understanding the effects of sleep deprivation and binge sleeping patterns.
When your child isn’t sleeping enough, they will likely show signs such as being defiant, hyperactive, and/or crabby. If children don't get enough sleep, there may be an increase in behavioral issues. Signs your child isn’t sleeping enough include:
In fact, there is an increasing body of evidence from studies that children with chronic sleep problems can be misdiagnosed with ADHD (Shur-Fen Gau 2006). Another important thing is to try and establish a baseline of behavior and performance for your child so it's easier to decipher what is normal and what is uncharacteristic.
If your child’s behavior/performance is erratic from day to day, or if they are uncharacteristically defiant/crabby/sleepy, look at their sleep schedule.
Sleep myths are popular on social media, in memes, and in advice from parents and friends. Unlike many myths, which can be harmless, sleep myths may actually change your sleep behaviors in ways that negatively impact it.
While there are certainly more than six myths about sleep, here are six common myths, some (or all) of which you may have heard.
Let’s look at these 6 sleep myths in more detail.
Children need more sleep than adults. The younger the child, the more sleep they need. Below is a guideline for the amount of 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, hence there is a recommended number listed, and outside of that a minimum and maximum amount of sleep are listed as well:
It's important to try and establish what amount of sleep allows your child to perform best. When children don’t get enough sleep, they will experience sleep deprivation.
Sleep myths are false statements that are regularly disseminated online, at home, among friends, etc. 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 the following aspects of your life:
Below are the common sleep myths and the truth about them.
Clinical depression is a mood disorder that causes you to feel helpless, apathetic to your life and outcomes, hopeless, numb, or sad, among other things. It can make it hard to get out bed in the morning, feel excited about things that are happening in your life, or cause you to distance yourself from friends and loved ones.
While feeling sad is a normal part of being a human, the feelings associated with clinical depression are chronic and intense enough to interfere with relationships, personal habits, personality, jobs, and so on.
Do you work hours outside of the “typical” 8-5 business day? Do you work days on and then days off? If so, then you are like millions of Americans who are considered shift workers. Especially in Alaska, the summer season often means a large influx of shift work.
Shift workers include:Do any of these look familiar? While shift work comes with certain perks, such as better pay for similar jobs and the ability to get stretches of time with no work, shift workers are also at a disadvantage when it comes to long-term health and sleep outcomes.
A risk factor is something that increases your likelihood of developing a disease or condition. Insomnia, like other sleep disorders, has a number of different potential causes and factors that can put you at risk for developing insomnia.
Complicating matters is the fact there are two types of insomnia:
Adding to this is that there are two modes of insomnia as well, which concerns how long insomnia lasts: