Michael Langston

Sleep is essential for proper mental functioning and learning, so why are so many schools starting so early and why are young doctors in training so often sleep deprived by having to work absurdly long shifts? It’s insane that all this is still happening.

Naps can improve alertness, learning, and memory, but they can also make it more difficult to fall asleep at night and to stay asleep if you are prone to insomnia. So taking a nap can have either a beneficial or detrimental effect depending on the person.

Giving yourself enough time in bed, having a regular bedtime and wake time, sleeping at night, getting morning sunlight, and reducing light exposure before bedtime are great sleep tips. Avoiding the harmful effects of alcohol and caffeine is crucial also.

Sleep is way more important to our health and well-being than most people think, but this shouldn’t be surprising given the devastating effect of a bad night’s sleep on how we feel the next day and the remarkably beneficial effect of a good night’s sleep.

You need 8 and a half hours in bed in order to provide an 8-hour sleep opportunity. If you have to be up by 8:00AM, for example, you should ideally be in bed by 11:30PM. You can’t exactly control the time that you sleep, but you can control your bedtime.

One of the functions of sleep, especially deep sleep, is to clear the brain of toxins, some of which have been implicated in Alzheimer’s. Insufficient sleep has been linked to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s. This is another great reason to prioritize sleep.

Diseases don’t just happen for no reason. Diet and lifestyle factors largely determine whether we’re sick or well, and perhaps the most important lifestyle factor of them all in determining the state of our health is the quantity and quality of our sleep.

If you’re being awakened from a sound sleep by an alarm clock each day and if you would sleep quite a bit longer without an alarm, that’s a pretty good sign that your brain and your body are not done with sleep at that point and you’re not getting enough.

If you’re getting 6 hours or less of sleep each night, that’s way less than the amount required for optimal brain and body health. Only a tiny fraction of the population can thrive on this amount without any impairment. Most need on average about 8 hours.