Healthy Sleep

The Importance of Sleep

  • We spend about 1/3 of our lives asleep.
  • As we age, our sleep becomes more fragile and disruption in our sleep has daytime consequence.
  • Light, temperature, noise and an uncomfortable/non-supportive bed can diminish sleep quality.
  • Everyone has different requirements for sleep. However, the vast majority of people need 7.5 - 8.5 hours of quality sleep each night to work at peak performance every day.
  • If you have had the proper quantity and quality of sleep you should not feel tired during the day.
  • Healthy sleep is defined as the quantity and quality of sleep required to maintain optimal alertness during desired waking hours.
  • Even losing one hour of sleep can increase a persons chance of having a car accident by 7 - 8%.
  • Losing only 15 minutes of quality sleep can result in as much as a 15% loss of efficiency.
  • An insufficient amount of quality sleep can cause memory loss, irritability, slower reaction time, and an increase in stress.

Four stage of sleep

  • Transition from wakefulness to drowsiness and then to falling asleep
  • Light sleep
  • Deep slow wave sleep (or Delta) this is where the HGH hormones flow when the body repairs itself. This stage is important to slowing down the ageing process.

What is sleep debt?

Sleep debt builds up as we lose the amount of sleep that our bodies need to be fully alert. It is cumulative and can build up over long periods of time.

As you get older your needs for a bed change:

Circulation decreases with age, and the nerve ending and little capillary blood vessels become closer to the skins surface pressure points on the body become more sensitive to a firm sleep surface.

  • Spinal discs become more compacted with age, making proper spinal alignment and support more important.
  • Bones become less flexible and more brittle with age, making additional cushioning desirable.
  • Joints become less lubricated and more painful. Even simple movements of the joints may be more difficult in the morning
  • Muscle tone decreases with age which pre-disposed lower back pain.