Importance of sleeping in daily life

                      Importance of sleeping in daily life  

Why Is Sleep Important?

    Sleep plays a vital role in good health and well-being throughout your life. Getting enough quality sleep at the right times can help protect your mental health, physical health, quality of life, and safety.
The way you feel while you're awake depends in part on what happens while you're sleeping. During sleep, your body is working to support healthy brain function and maintain your physical health. In children and teens, sleep also helps support growth and development.
The damage from sleep deficiency can occur in an instant (such as a car crash), or it can harm you over time. For example, ongoing sleep deficiency can raise your risk for some chronic health problems. It also can affect how well you think, react, work, learn, and get along with others.


 The recommended number of hours of sleep a day is:

• 14 to 17 for newborns
• 11 to 14 for toddlers
• 10 to 13 for pre-schoolers
• 9 to 11 for school-aged children
• 8 to 10 for teens
• 7 to 9 for adults
• 7 to 8 for seniors

 

      Sleep, as every parent knows, is central to kids' well being. There are three main sleep in children : falling asleep, staying asleep and being too sleepy during the daytime. Every parent experiences at least one of them at some point or the other. Perhaps because of this and because sleepless nights have to be regarded as normal, we fail to appreciate just how important sleep is for our children's health. In fact, sleep has a major impact on their physical development and growth. Research has shown that children who do not sleep as much as they should are smaller than they ought to be. But the impact of sleep is just not physical.

  

   Sleep also has a profound influence on children's behaviour emotions and ability to learn. As a result children's sleep disorders are not often recognized as such and they may be referred to hospitals for treatment of behavioural problems. And what is completely counter-intuitive is that many those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) also experience daytime sleepinees as revealed by something called a multiple sleep latency test. Another common problem is obstructive sleep apnoea. Children with this respiratory condition will be awake up to 12 hours a day making themselves severely sleep deprived. 

Daytime Performance and Safety

    Getting enough quality sleep at the right times helps you function well throughout the day. People who are sleep deficient are less productive at work and school. They take longer to finish tasks, have a slower reaction time, and make more mistakes.
After several nights of losing sleep—even a loss of just 1–2 hours per night—your ability to function suffers as if you haven't slept at all for a day or two.
Lack of sleep also may lead to microsleep. Microsleep refers to brief moments of sleep that occur when you're normally awake.
You can't control microsleep, and you might not be aware of it. For example, have you ever driven somewhere and then not remembered part of the trip? If so, you may have experienced microsleep.
Even if you're not driving, microsleep can affect how you function. If you're listening to a lecture, for example, you might miss some of the information or feel like you don't understand the point. In reality, though, you may have slept through part of the lecture and not been aware of it.
Some people aren't aware of the risks of sleep deficiency. In fact, they may not even realize that they're sleep deficient. Even with limited or poor-quality sleep, they may still think that they can function well.
For example, drowsy drivers may feel capable of driving. Yet, studies show that sleep deficiency harms your driving ability as much as, or more than, being drunk. It's estimated that driver sleepiness is a factor in about 100,000 car accidents each year, resulting in about 1,500 deaths.
Drivers aren't the only ones affected by sleep deficiency. It can affect people in all lines of work, including health care workers, pilots, students, lawyers, mechanics, and assembly line workers.
As a result, sleep deficiency is not only harmful on a personal level, but it also can cause large-scale damage. For example, sleep deficiency has played a role in human errors linked to tragic accidents, such as nuclear reactor meltdowns, grounding of large ships, and aviation accidents.

The recommended number of hours of sleep a day is:

• 14 to 17 for newborns
• 11 to 14 for toddlers
• 10 to 13 for pre-schoolers
• 9 to 11 for school-aged children
• 8 to 10 for teens
• 7 to 9 for adults
• 7 to 8 for seniors