Sweet Dreams Are Made of This...

Righto! After a short seista, I'm back.... My apologies that it's been so long in between blogs....

If you have been following, I know that I promised that I'd touch on what is the optimal amount of sleep one needs... so here it is:

The short answer is, while not everybody requires the same amount of sleep, it's suggested that we aim for at least 8 hours of sleep per night.

8 hours!!! I can hear you thinking "Wow! That's a bit of a luxury!"

In today's busy society, many people have even more demands from work, family and friends and we are also bombarded with so many forms of available entertainment, that it's not surprising that many people function on less than 6 hours of sleep per night.

Did you know though, that the difference between the actual amount of sleep one needs vs that which one gets during a night can accumulate into what's called a "sleep debt".

As time goes on, the bigger the debt, the more we need to catch up on it.

Needing a good old sleep-in on the weekend can be a sign that you're slowly paying off your week's debt, but if you don't pay it all off, beware: the debt can grow like a snowball and your body will start to suffer.

So how do I know if I have a sleep debt?

Try this simple experiment: for a week or two, go to bed at the same time every night and allow yourself to sleep as long as you need to, without an alarm clock to wake you up the next day.

Eventually, you might find that you're waking up at the same time everyday and this is the approximate amount of time that your body needs to sleep.

Hint: Why not keep a sleep diary on the time that you went to bed and when you wake up, the total hours of sleep and how you felt each day following. This will help to give you a good idea of what your body needs.

Once you discover your natural sleep needs, make sure that you make sleeping a priority and go to bed early enough so that you can get the right amount of sleep you require to make each and everyday the best day of your life.

TRY THIS: as you already know, lack of sleep can affect one's judgement, co-ordination and performance. The 'Sheep Dash' is a fun and interactive test from the BBC which will test just how quick your reaction time is!

Sweet dreams until next time!