After a long day of school are bodies are exhausted from all the work we have done, but have you ever stopped and ask yourself why we need sleep?
Everyone assumes that sleeping is a time for your body to shut down but that is not the actual reason why we sleep. Sleeping is a time when processing, restoration and strengthening occurs. Exactly how this happens and why our bodies are programmed for such a long period of slumber is still somewhat of a mystery. But scientists do understand some of sleep’s critical functions, and the reasons we need it for optimal health and wellbeing.
Scientists have explored the question of why we sleep from many different angles. They have examined, for example, what happens when humans are deprived of sleep. In other studies, they have looked at sleep patterns in a variety of organisms to see if similarities or differences among species might reveal something about sleep’s functions. Yet, years of research and many discoveries about other aspects of sleep, the question of why we sleep yet to be determined.
The amount of sleep you need depends on your age. Adults need 7-9 hours of sleep per night, 1 year olds need roughly 11 to 14 hours, children between 9 and 11 years old, and teenagers need between 8 and 10 hours of sleep a night.
Scientist understand that we need sleep they just haven’t figured out exactly why. We know after we sleep we feel more alert, more energetic, happier, and better able to function. But there is no science exactly prove why or how we feel this way. It’s interesting to understand because maybe “sleep” is just one way our bodies feel fresh and energized. We’ll never know until scientist can prove the reason we sleep.
I feel everyone is different when it comes to how much sleep you need. Age and activity level will only determine your sleep requirements to an extent; everyone’s body is hardwired to meet certain individual sleep needs. This article states that the best way to go about finding how much sleep you need is to listen to your own body. If you still feel tired when your alarm goes off, you probably aren’t getting enough sleep. Those first few moments of wakefulness, before you get about and moving, are the most accurate indicator of how your body will perform throughout the rest of the day.
I think we can all agree that sleeping is essential in feeling refreshed and it can completely change an attitude for the morning! It is also interesting to me that sleeping for too long will often leave me feeling like straight crap, so I looked more into it! According to this excessive oversleeping can occasionally be related to more serious side effects in one’s health. Too much of a good thing really does exist, unfortunately.