Don't Stay up Sid!

 

Waking up with red eyes, headache and a desperate urge to go back to bed, that’s how we feel after drinking too much, but also this is how the day starts for many young adults. That is not because of a couple of extra shots but because of the sporadic sleep cycle. Today almost every youngster is dealing with lack of sleep, particularly those who are in schools and colleges. This is a major issue because it affects the productivity and learning ability of the students. Even while looking at the bigger picture of a country, for example, India, people are sleep deprived.

Wait a minute! Why are we considering sleep deprivation a big issue?

According to statistics, 93% of Indian people are sleep deprived. It means that 93% of people in this country sleep less than 8 hours, though for every individual the amount of adequate sleep is different statistics say that 87% of people think that lack of sleep affects their health. So, this means most of the people have not yet figured out their optimum rest time, that is why almost 11% per cent of people fall asleep at work.

The reason why lack of sleep is a big concern because it hinders the physical and mental development of people. The primary problem the comes with sleep deprivation is that your concentration and creative the thinking goes down, not getting enough rest means that your brain is tired, which will adversely affect our cognitive analysis. Lack of sleep makes our immunity weak, i.e. we will be more prone to general diseases like the common cold, flu etc. Another reason why sleep should be of utmost importance especially for teenagers because when they in deep sleep our body produces growth hormone, which is very important for developing children as they are in the growing years and this is the time when their bodies will mature and for that to happen they should sleep for at least 8 hours every day. 

Another interesting problem that comes up with a lack of sleep is weight gain. Weight gain and sleep deprivation have a strong connection, when we don’t sleep well, the balance between the stress hormone “cortisol” and the happy hormone “dopamine” gets disturbed. Because we are not able to sleep, the levels of dopamine in our body reduces and due to which the cortisol levels increase. Increase in the cortisol level results in the increase in appetite, now this increase makes us more ravenous, so we eat more, resulting in weight gain. With increasing weight, a person might develop an issue known as OSA (Obstructive sleep apnoea), it is a condition when a person chocks their windpipe while sleeping. Because of which they sometimes wake in the middle of the night, which disturbs their sleep cycle. Sleep apnoea is quite common in India with almost 1 million cases every year. 

What can we do to fix this problem of sleep deprivation? The obvious answer is to sleep more, here are a few steps that you can take for improving the quality of your sleep:

•        Before going to bed try to read something, meditation can also help. The focus here is to power down the mind and get yourself ready to sleep,
•        Avoid watching television or mobile phones for at least 20 mins before the time you go to sleep,
•        Set up a bedtime, setting up a fixed to sleep can help your body to get itself ready for sleeping every day,
•         Avoid taking caffeine 6 hours before the time you go to bed, drinking too much caffeine can also hinder the process of sleep,
•        Exercise daily, working out daily will tire your body and will help you to sleep better at night.

 Quality sleep can do wonders for our physical and mental health, and we need to prioritise our rest properly in our daily schedule. Staying sleep deprived will not only affect our lives but will also have a huge impact on our loved one’s life.

Sleep well and stay healthy.