Healthy Sleep: What Is It?
You should know by now that sleep is really important for your body, your brain, your health, both physically and mentally. Somewhere along the way someone has probably mentioned healthy sleep to you or you’ve read the words ‘healthy sleep’ somewhere. If you keep reading about healthy sleep or hearing your doctor talk about it, you might really wonder: What is ‘healthy sleep’? More importantly, “How do I get it?”
Some people can suffer from insomnia, but more so chronic sleep deprivation. The people most prone to sleep deprivation are shift workers, because they sleep during the day and often wake up well before reaching the minimum 7 hours sleep and never get up to 9 hours or rest in one sleep period.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, the bullet points below are signs of ‘healthy sleep’. “If you’re a shift worker and you don’t agree with many of these, it could mean that you need to make changes in your behaviors and routines to improve your sleep.
● You fall asleep within 15-20 minutes of lying down to sleep.
● You regularly sleep a total of seven to nine hours in a 24-hour period.
● While in your bed, your sleep is continuous—you don’t have long periods of lying awake when you wish to be sleeping.
● You wake up feeling refreshed, as if you’ve “filled the tank.”
● You feel alert and are able to be fully productive throughout the waking hours (note, it’s natural for people to feel a dip in alertness during waking hours, but with healthy sleep, alertness returns).
● Your partner or family members do not notice any disturbing or out of the ordinary behavior from you while you sleep, such as snoring , pauses in breathing, restlessness, or otherwise nighttime behaviors.”
So what can you do to get a more healthy, full night of sleep? Check out our top tips
here: 4 Ways To Sleep Better...Tonight!
If you’re a shift worker, you might like: Healthy Sleep On The Midnight Shift
- Romell Bhaala
