Sleep—Luxury or Necessity?

TO SOME PEOPLE, sleep is a waste of time. Preferring a very busy daily schedule of business
and social engagements, they only surrender to sleep when extremely tired. In contrast,
others, enduring night after night of tossing and turning until the early hours of the morning,
would give anything for a good night’s sleep.

Why do some find it so hard to sleep, while others are desperate to stay awake? Should we
view sleep as a luxury or a necessity?

As we get older, our sleeping habits change. A newborn sleeps for frequent short periods that
total about 18 hours a day. According to sleep specialists, although some adults appear to
need only three hours of sleep a day, others need up to ten hours.

During deep sleep, our blood pressure and heart rate reach lower ranges, providing rest for
the circulatory system and helping to ward off cardiovascular disease. In addition, the
production of growth hormone peaks during non-REM sleep, with some teenagers producing
as much as 50 times more growth hormone at night than during the day.

How to Improve Your Sleep

Tossing and turning for hours, with your eyes wide open, while everyone else is sleeping
peacefully is a most undesirable experience. Still, sporadic insomnia lasting a few days is not
uncommon, and it is generally related to stress and the ups and downs of life. When insomnia
becomes chronic, however, emotional or clinical disorders may be involved, and it is important
to seek medical help.

Effective sleep hygiene amounts to a way of life. It includes getting regular exercise at the right
time of the day. Exercise during the morning or afternoon can help one to be drowsy at
bedtime. But working out close to bedtime can interfere with sleep.

Experts say that you can teach your brain to associate bed with sleep by lying down only when
you really mean to sleep. People who eat, study, work, watch TV, or play video games in bed
may find it harder to fall asleep.

Preparing the body for restful sleep also involves watching your diet. While alcoholic drinks
make a person feel drowsy, they can actually impair sleep quality. Coffee, tea, cocoa,
chocolate, and cola-based drinks should be avoided at night because they are stimulants.

Así como es importante lo que hacemos antes de dormir, también lo es el ambiente en el que
dormimos. Una temperatura agradable, una habitación oscura y sin ruidos, al igual que un
colchón y una almohada cómodos, invitan a dormir bien.