30 Days to Better Sleep: Pay Off Your Sleep Debt

In these economic times, we are perhaps overly familiar with financial matters, including debts. As we put our collective financial house in order, it similarly may be appropriate to focus on improving our sleep by paying off our sleep debt. What is a sleep debt and what can be done about it? The concept of sleep debt is meant to highlight that there are consequences to failing to meet your individual sleep needs and that, to a limited extent, you can correct this sleep deficit. As previously discussed, everyone has a specific sleep requirement in order to feel rested. Although it may average close to 8 hours, there is some variability, with some people requiring more or less. When you fail to get enough sleep to meet your requirement, you will begin to accumulate a sleep debt. The most important consequences of inadequate total sleep time relate to sleep deprivation. There are specific symptoms that occur, from sleepiness to poor concentration to mood changes. There may be physical effects, including weight gain and decreased pain tolerance. Some people will experience hallucinations in extreme sleep deprivation. It may even increase your risk of death. Many people will attempt to recuperate lost sleep by varying their sleep schedules. If you have to get up early to go to work on weekdays, you may not get an adequate amount of sleep. By the weekend, when you have more control of when you wake up, you may sleep in to catch up on the lost sleep. In a sense, you are running ...
Source: About Sleep Disorders - Category: Sleep Medicine Source Type: news