Fascinating Facts about Sleep

Fascinating Facts about SleepToday marks the beginning of Sleep Awareness Week so we’re kick-starting this health cause by sharing fascinating facts about sleep. You probably already know you need seven to nine hours of it and sleep is connected to many aspects of your mental, physical and emotional health, but do you know these fascinating facts about sleep…

  • Sleep is as important to your health as diet and exercise. Make it a priority!
  • There are two peek times of drowsiness, 2 a.m. and 2 p.m.
  • We can only dream about faces we’ve already seen, whether we remember them consciously or not.
  • Going without sleep makes you hungrier due to a drop in leptin, your appetite-regulating hormone.
  • The optimal amount of time it should take you to fall asleep is 10-15 minutes. If you fall asleep faster than that, it’s likely you are sleep deprived.
  • Humans are the only mammals who are willing to delay sleep.
  • Dreaming is normal and the absence of dreams usually means someone has a personality disorder.
  • Your body temperature drops in order to fall asleep so you may have trouble sleeping if your room is too warm.
  • People generally sleep better during a new moon than a full moon.
  • The world record for longest continual sleep was 11 days set by a teenager in 1964.
  • With the invention of color television, most people started dreaming in color.
  • You forget at least half of your dreams within 5 minutes of waking and 90% within 10 minutes of being awake.
  • Blind people often dream in smells, sounds and emotions and deaf people often sign in their sleep.
  • Twenty-five percent of married couples sleep in separate beds.
  • Men dream about other men 70% of the time but women dream about the sexes equally.
  • Regular exercise contributes to more restorative sleep.
  • Being awake for 16 or more hours decreases your alertness to the point that it is equivalent to having a blood alcohol level of .05%.
  • It takes longer to die of food deprivation than sleep deprivation.
  • Parents typically lose between 400 and 750 hours of sleep in the first year of each of their children’s lives.
  • There is a link between your favorite sleep position and your personality.

We hope you enjoyed these fascinating facts about sleep. Happy Sleep Awareness Week. We hope you get lots of zzz’s!

Sources: National Sleep Foundation, Valley Sleep Center, Cleveland Clinic, Dreams and LifeHack

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