Sleep is an absolute necessity for good health. Sleep helps your body renew and repair itself. And good sleep will help improve your mood and attitude towards life. Unfortunately, many people do not get the quality sleep they need. 

It has been estimated that about 30% of all adults suffer from some form of insomnia. They either have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. For about 10% of the population these problems are chronic and ongoing. It also seems that the older you are the more likely you are to have trouble sleeping. About 50% of seniors have sleeping problems. 

But, even people who don’t have insomnia may experience some form of sleep deprevation. The average adult needs a minimum of seven hours of sleep each night and could benefit from 8-9 hours. Younger people need even more sleep. Teenagers need about 8-10 hours and preteens need about 9-11 hours. 

In a gallop poll done in 2013 only 36% of the population got 8 hours of sleep or more. 25% got seven hours, and the remaining 39%, got less than seven hours. A more recent study, done in 2019, found that only half of all children and teens were getting enough sleep. This is not good.

Getting Enough Sleep Is Essential to Health

Getting less sleep than you need each night is associated with an increased risk for many health problems. These include serious problems like diabetes, heart disease and depression. Lack of sleep is also a hidden cause of obesity. If you don’t get enough sleep your body doesn’t produce enough leptin, the hormone that satiates hunger.

Inadequate sleep also reduces immunity, so you’re more likely to catch a cold or flu if you aren’t getting enough sleep. This is because lack of sleep increases cortisol levels, which increases feelings of stress and suppresses immune functions.

Lack of sleep affects both concentration and judgment which can lead to an increased risk of accidents. Lack of sleep also affects your mood. It can make you more stressed and irritable, which can put strain on your relationships.

In contrast, getting enough sleep helps you resist and fight off infection, lose weight, have more energy, experience a better mood and reduce the risk of accidents. Children need adequate sleep to perform well in school and adults need sufficient sleep to perform well at work.

Getting the Sleep You Need

Given these facts, it’s important to schedule time for adequate sleep. While it may seem like skipping sleep will help you get on top of the many things you need to do, it will actually be counterproductive when done continually. When you cheat yourself of sleep you become less efficient as you become increasingly fatigued and using coffee or energy drinks won’t solve the problem. 

So, start your path to better sleep by setting a regular bedtime and a regular time to wake up. Your body has circadian rhythms, which involve the natural fluctuations in various chemicals in your body. These fluctuations produce cycles that make certain times of the day better for certain tasks, such as sleeping, eating and exercising. These cycles work in harmony with the rhythms of nature. When you set a consistent time to go to bed and wake it helps your body’s circadian rhythms work more efficiently. 

You’ve probably heard the old adage of Benjamin Franklin, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” If you understand sleep patterns (as described in the sidebar below) you’ll discover there is truth to this. If you get to bed between 9:00 and 11:00 PM it allows you to enter the deep sleep cycles during the darkest time of the night, which optimizes the benefits you get from sleep.

The Circadian Code by Satchin Panda, Ph.D.

The Insomnia Answer by Paul Glovinsky, Ph.D. and Arhtur Spielman, Ph.D.