Are you sleeping well? And by well, I’m not just talking about whether you are sleeping enough; but about the quality of sleep you’re having. By definition, sleep is a regulated, reversible, and recurring loss of consciousness. Reverse, means that sleep can be distinguished from other states of reduced consciousness, such as hibernation and coma.
It is a state that normally functioning human beings go into every night that has the critical functions of repairing our body cells, organization of memory, maintenance of immune function, energy conservation, and protective behavior. Despite this crucial role, and the fact that it should take 6 to 8 hours, or a good quarter of our living time, the importance of proper sleep is often overlooked and underestimated. In the short term, a lack of adequate sleep can affect judgment, mood, ability to learn and retain information, and may increase the risk of serious accidents and injury. In the long term, chronic sleep deprivation may lead to a host of health problems including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and even early mortality.
Lack of sleep exacts a toll on perception and judgment. In the workplace, its effects can be seen in reduced efficiency and productivity, errors, and accidents. Sometimes the effects can even be deadly, as in the case of drowsy driving fatalities.
If you spend a great deal of time lying awake in bed at night or frequently nod off during the day, you may have a sleep disorder. The most widely-known and the most common sleep disorder is insomnia which befalls a good number of us. Around 6 to 30% of the world’s population, to be exact, suffer from some kind of insomnia, from light, to chronic.
The more severe kind of sleeping disorder is actually a breathing disorder caused by sleep, called Obstructive Sleep Apnea, an extreme form of snoring in which an individual’s airway becomes partially or completely blocked many times during a night of sleep, leading to repetitive awakenings. As we sleep, muscles in the throat relax. In some people, this relaxation causes tissue at the back to the throat to block the airway. In someone with a severe form of OSA, this may occur hundreds of times per night, interrupting breathing for 30 seconds or more during each instance. When hearing people with OSA sleep, you will hear not only snoring, but also choking and gasping that could actually stop them breathing temporarily.
When untreated, this condition can result in performance decrements, excessive fatigue that will reduce cognitive functions including focusing, alertness, memory and mood, as well as cardiovascular dysfunctions.
Treating these conditions is best done with guidance from a medical professional who will recommend something as simple as an oral appliance, to surgery. But most importantly, try to remind yourself of how critical this one activity is for our well-being. Sleep better at night and build a healthy lifestyle that includes exercise, healthy eating habits, and a consistent sleep schedule. You’ll sleep like a baby!
