Sleep - Sweet and Necessary

A topic that has become relevant to me lately, as I have been stuck in a phase where I come home from work in the evenings around 20:00, potter around with household tasks or dig through what remains of the evening on the internet until about midnight or 1:00, then fall down and sleep like a log, drag myself up at 7:00 in the morning, and constantly vow to myself that this evening it will all be different - home early, to bed early, and up bright-eyed in the morning - but... It helps that my husband is the same kind of maniac - wherever you leave him, that is where you will find him, i.e. at the computer; otherwise things would really not add up at all. Only when calculating the total hours spent asleep per day, I come to 6–7, and he comes to 9–10. Well, the average across the two of us - or the doctor-recommended 8 hours of sleep per day - works out.

Reading specialists' articles on this topic online, the worst thing turns out to be that a sleep deficit practically cannot be caught up on - you can only scramble all your rhythms even further. Hmm, a big lie-in on Saturday or Sunday doesn't do the trick. Since I am a typical example of an unhealthy life rhythm, the following description will be aimed both at visitors to www.iinuu.lv and at self-discipline.

Specialists claim that a person spends a third of their life sleeping. Madness, how much time is wasted, is it not?! Yet sleep is a source of energy, joy, and alertness. Normally, a person's drive towards it is as strong as the need to breathe. It has been calculated that a person cannot survive for more than two weeks without sleep.

Sleep deprivation is said to be a typical feature of our century. Researchers have found that, compared with the 19th century, people today spend 20% less time asleep. This is explained by the accelerating pace of life, stress, and the effects of environmental pollution and modified food products on the body.

Of course, the other extreme - lying in bed waiting for sleep to arrive - is almost the same as spending the night in a quiet hell. Time has stopped, every sound in the surrounding environment gradually becomes louder and more irritating, you get sore sides, the blanket is too short, and all sorts of other complaints. It is therefore better to get up, do something, and then, feeling tired, go back to sleep.

Research shows that sleep has various phases, during which many parameters change: electromagnetic brain activity, muscle tone, wakefulness, and eye movements. These phases replace one another. Two types of sleep are characteristic of humans. During dream sleep, or the REM (rapid eye movement) phase, heart rate and breathing speed up while muscle tone decreases. During this time the brain "recalls" the experiences of the day, which is why the sleeper dreams. Sleep is lighter, especially towards morning. The sleeper more easily hears sounds during this phase. The REM phase is important, as a person cannot do without it. If a sleeper is woken during this phase, they feel noticeably worse than usual.

In contrast, during deep sleep, or the non-REM phase, heart rate and breathing slow down, muscles relax, and blood pressure drops. During deep sleep the body's restoration processes take place and the person recovers their strength. Sleep is at its deepest and the sleeper is difficult to wake. It should be noted that the body's "life" does not stop during sleep - hormones are produced, complex biochemical processes occur, and biologically active substances are formed.

Scientists have also studied the relationship between character, intellect, lifestyle, and sleep characteristics. Self-confident people sleep calmly, almost without moving, and their sleep is deep and therefore not long-lasting. People who are unsure of themselves, who are tormented by doubts about everything, sleep restlessly, frequently move in their sleep, and wake up during the night.

In any case, good and sufficient sleep enhances a person's work productivity. One can also, of course, debate about the so-called "larks" and "owls" - for the latter, an early rise is agony, while staying up past midnight is their most active period.

Sleep can be affected by EVERYTHING - a person's emotional state, stress, healthy or unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity or conversely exhaustion to the point of collapse, the sleeping spot, bedroom furnishings, and so on.

One thing I have always found amusing, especially among older people - "Never mind, you'll sleep it off in the grave!" But what if you shuffle off this mortal coil, reincarnate, and are back in the grind all over again? Better to subscribe to the old and trusted saying - sleep is sweeter than honey.