Over the weekend, I happened to be watching a national news segment on how sleep affects our health. I decided to do a little research and here is what I found.
How much sleep do we need? The National Institute of Health suggests that school age children need at least 10 hours of sleep daily. Teens need 9-10 hours and adults need 7-8 hours.
Numerous studies have found that insufficient sleep increases a person’s risk of developing serious medical conditions including obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Lack of sleep over a person’s lifetime can lead to premature death.
Scientists have just begun to identify the connections between not enough sleep and disease; most experts have concluded that getting enough high quality sleep may be as important to our health as diet and exercise.
Studies have linked obesity and weight gain to insufficient sleep. People who slept fewer than six hours per night on a regular basis were more likely to have excess body weight.
People who reported sleeping less than five hours per night were more likely to have a risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
There is growing evidence of sleep loss caused by sleep apnea and an increased risk of hypertension, stroke and coronary heart disease.
Scientists are beginning to understand the relation between sleep deprivation, medications and the possibility of decreased resistance to infection.
A recent study showed that people who averaged less than seven hours of sleep a night were about three times more likely to develop cold symptoms than those who get eight or more hours of sleep.
Scientists have also discovered that insufficient sleep may cause health problems by altering levels of the hormones involved in metabolism, appetite and stress.
The takeaway here is that ultimately getting enough sleep means living a healthier more productive life.
 |
| The quiet sleeper of the Cascadia creates a perfect place to get restorative rest. |
If you work in the trucking industry then you know getting the proper amount of sleep can be challenging at times. I think after learning about some of the health benefits to getting sufficient sleep that we can see the importance of making this a priority for our health. Below I’ve listed some tips for good sleeping habits that we can easily adopt into our daily lives.
- Go to bed at the same time each night and rise at the same time in the morning.
- Avoid eating large meals before bedtime.
- Avoid caffeine and alcohol before bedtime.
- Avoid nicotine.