I love to sleep, but it’s admittedly a very odd thing we all have to do. Also, it can be rather scary from time to time as we all pass through the sleep phases from lack of sleep to too much sleep and then, of course, there are those nightmares that take place when we are awake!
Although it doesn’t happen to us all, some people even wake up in the middle of the night, unable to move! I mean, just imagine it. You’ve gone to bed, then a few hours later your eyes are suddenly open and you can’t move. But you can still feel, hear, and see everything around you!
You feel that your mind is awake, but you can’t move, you panic and suddenly realize you’re awake in a nightmare. It sounds like something straight out of a Stephen King novel, but it’s a common problem. Several things happen to us while we’re asleep and it’s both incredible as well as strange! Seriously, who would have thought that sleeping would be so complicated?
1. Lack Of Sleep Could Shorten Your Life And Make You Fat
Getting less than six hours of sleep regularly can drastically shorten your lifespan. Just a small period of sleep deprivation of one week can cause you to gain two pounds! Lack of sleep also causes food cravings, especially for sugary or salty foods, and for large portions.
2. Babies Affect Parent Sleep Schedules
The Newborn sleep schedule is around 14 to 17 hours per day. However, what is more interesting is the fact as to how it affects the sleep schedule of parents. A new study has revealed that the parents of a newborn baby lost their 400-750 hours of sleep in the first year alone.
Meaning, new parents will miss out on roughly six months of sleep in the first two years of their child’s life. Upbringing a child is not a child’s play - so true!
3. Sleep Is A Wonderful Memory Aid
It has been proven time and time again that sleeping right after you learn something new can drastically improve your ability to remember it! So, do all of your learning at night and them dream about being smarter by morning and chances are, you will be!
4. Falling Half-Asleep Is Real
For humans, it’s merely an expression, but for whales and dolphins, it’s a survival skill. Both whales and dolphins literally fall half-asleep so they can continue surfacing to breathe. Even so, that doesn’t seem very restful to us.
5. Professional Early Risers Were Hired Before The Alarm Clock
Before the alarm clock was invented, people were actually hired as personal alarm clocks to wake people up. They were called “knocker-ups” and they woke people up by knocking on your window with a long stick. Nowadays, you might get yourself hurt pretty bad if you tried that!
6. Nineteen Days Awake Is A World Record
The longest duration ever recorded without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes (almost 19 days) which was set during a rocking chair marathon! The record holder, unfortunately, experienced blurred vision, slurred speech, hallucinations, and lapses in his memory.
7. Cats Love Sleep
Most people spend one-third of their lives asleep, but cats spend a whopping 70% of their lives sleeping. Of course, we are all aware that cats are fond of sleep but I had no idea that it was this much!
8. Different Food Can Affect Your Sleep
Caffeine isn’t the only thing that will keep you up at night. Protein can keep you awake and alert while carbs will make you sleepy. That’s because your body is busy trying to digest, and it’s keeping you awake in the process.
9. You’ll Never Dream About Someone You Haven’t Seen Before
We’re only able to dream about faces we’ve already seen, either from a picture, on TV, or from a crowd of people, regardless if we remember them or not. This seems hard to believe because you hardly recognize anyone that you dream about but apparently, it’s true.
10. Dreams Fade Insanely Fast
Within five minutes of waking from sleep, we forget 50% of a dream, and within 10 minutes the 90% of it is forgotten. So, if you want to remember a fun or weird dream, write it down as soon as you can! Also, don’t make a lot of sudden movements when you wake up. It’s best to stay still while you recall the details of your dream.
11. Nightmares May Be A Symptom Of Health Issues
The occurrence of nightmares could be a result of heart conditions, migraines, or even sleep deprivation! This means that you can easily turn your nightmares into beautiful dreams why adhering to a good health regime. Therefore, if you suffer from nightmare, be sure to take good care of yourself during your waking hours and they will soon be gone.
12. Humans Can Delay Sleeping
Humans are the only able species who are known to willingly and consciously put off going to sleep. This is an ability that is as helpful as it is detrimental. So, try not to push yourself too hard and be sure to get plenty of sleep! You will live better when you do.
13. Getting More Sleep Will Help Your Sex Life
Sleep deprivation has been consistently linked with a low libido and less interest in sex. Therefore, this is the first thing that you should try instead of medication which can overstimulate you.
14. The Cure For Jetlag
During an experiment in 1998, they found that shining a bright light on the back of the knee can actually reset the brain’s sleep rhythm! Weird, but that’s what they say! So, I suppose it’s worth a try.
15. The Eyes Move During Dreaming
It is found that some eye movements noted during REM sleep actually match up with specific changes in dreams. This suggests that the dreaming process is much like watching a film. Your eyes will follow the action of your dreams.
16. Elephants Can Sleep Standing Up
Elephants tend to sleep standing up during non-REM sleep. But, when they’re experiencing REM sleep, they lie down! Good to know!
17. Light And Noise Disturb Sleep
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that light and sound are your worst nightmare when it comes to sleep. Even the smallest rays of light from your digital alarm clock can disrupt your sleep cycle, even if you don’t wake up fully because of it.
The sound in the room, even with a low frequency can have the same effect. So, if you have to, cover up that alarm clock with something at night to avoid the disturbance from ticking.
18. If You Are Feeling Drowsy, In All Probability You Are Sleep Deprived
Sleep Researchers have found that if you feel sleepy during the day amidst both boring and interesting activities, then you are not having enough sleep at night. Also, if you fall asleep within five minutes of lying down on the bed, then you are a case of severe sleep deprivation. Usually, it should take anywhere between 10-15 minutes to fall asleep.
