Sleep, opposite from its literal meaning, is the component that energizes you and keeps you active. You might be tempted to cut a few hours of sleep from your schedule in order to prioritize other things. However, this may interfere with your ability to function normally. Sleep deficiency can reduce everything from brain functions to the natural healing of blood vessels in your body. Getting the recommended amount of sleep is crucial for your brain to function normally because:

1.An area in the brain, the hippocampus, is responsible for storing new memories and information and its ability to function properly is compromised when you don't get enough sleep.

2.If you don't get enough sleep, it starts to manifest itself through impaired mental faculty and then, if prolonged, even physical damage to your body.

The recommended hours of sleep

How much sleep we need decreases progressively with age, which is due to the fact that physiological changes take place in your body as you grow.

• Newborns (up to 3 months): need maximum sleep of 14 to 17 hours per day.
  
  
• Infants ( 4 to 11 months): need 12 to 15 hours of sleep every day.
  
  
• Toddlers (1-2 years): need 11 to 14 hours of sleep.
  
  
• Preschoolers (3-5 years): need 10 to 13 hours.
  
  
• School goers (6 -13 years): need 9 to 11 hours.
  
  
• Teenagers (14-17 years): need 8 to 10 hours of sleep a day.
  
  
• Young adults and adults (18 to 64 years): can cut it to 7 to 9 hours per day.
  
  
• Elders (>64 years): are ok with only 7 hours of sleep daily.

Don't Let the Following Factors Interfere with your Sleep

However, it is not just the hours that matter, but the quality of sleep is also of considerable importance. Listed are some factors that can generally interfere:

1. Genetic Makeup

Genes can change the amount of sleep required for your body. Some people inherently need more sleep and some are ok with a comparatively lesser amount of sleep. A Smith family 9 years old might be ok with 9 hours of sleep, while a Patrick family 9 years old might need 12 hours daily. How much sleep do I need is a genetic component as well.

2. Erratic Hours

Erratic sleep hours disturb your body clock and deteriorate the quality of your sleep. Jet lag is a good example to understand this. It confuses our brain as our body clock gives one signal while our visual sense gives a different signal. This normally results in an erratic sleep pattern for a few days, and you know the quality of that sleep!

3. Oversleeping

Although optimal sleeping is good, oversleeping can prove negative. It can affect the quality of your sleep. Sleep paralysis, a condition when your mind wakes up but muscles continue to sleep, is a common side effect of oversleeping. So sleep for only how many hours of sleep you need, no more and no less.

4. Sleep Environment

This is of prime importance. A silent, peaceful, comfortable and cozy environment with dark or dim lighting can help you fall asleep quickly and more peacefully than a disturbed surrounding.

5. Social Component

There are many components of the new age, including night shifts, jet lags, and late night parties, that do nothing but prove detrimental to getting a good night's sleep.

6. Electronic Gadgets

Research shows that the use of electronic gadgets before bedtime interferes with sleep. They keep your mind focused and concentrated on them, and your brain forgets that it is time to sleep. You could start thinking about how much sleep do I really need when you get addicted to these and cut short your sleeping times, but that would be wrong and unhealthy. Therefore, it would be great if you could switch off these gadgets at least 30-40 minutes before you plan to sleep.

7. Alcohol

Alcohol is sometimes used to induce sleep in case of insomnia, but it can cause sleep apnea which reduces the quality of sleep. Sleep apnea is a condition when you stop breathing for a short period while asleep, thus cutting the oxygen supply to the brain and other functions of the body during that time.

Tips which are useful to get a good sleep

1. Sleep

Sleep is more peaceful and beneficial for the body if our mind is at rest. So try to meditate daily and live a stress-free life. This will also give you pleasant dreams instead of nightmares and you will be in a good mood when you wake up.

2. Medication

If you are suffering from any temporary or permanent medical condition, your body or mind might be in pain, which will definitely hamper your sleep. Opt for some medication (like Quazepam, salicylates, diazepam) in these cases, as unsound sleep may further aggravate a medical condition and cause a cycle of pain leading to poor sleep leading to more pain.

3. Avoid Improper Food

Avoid foods like caffeine, chocolates, sugars and too much alcohol because these block the adenosine receptors in the body. Adenosine receptors are responsible for making you feel sleepy. Also, avoid protein-rich food, because these are higher in fibre content. Such foods take longer to digest and while the brain and body are occupied with this activity, they forget to focus on sleep.

4. Bedtime Ritual

If you want to train your brain when to sleep, make your surroundings also function according to that same schedule. You can have a regular bedtime ritual, a practice mostly done with kids, immediately before sleeping, so that the brain knows that now is the time to rest. Bedtime rituals can be anything from reading 2 pages of your favorite book or relaxing with some soothing sound and light effects and then going to sleep.

Go To Sleep

Conclusively, it would be right to say that not only must you not lose sleep whenever you find something else more urgent to do, but you must also not compromise on the quality of the sleep you take. If you don't sleep well, you will lose attentiveness and work efficiency until you find that some simple one hour task begins to look like a 5-hour challenge. So it is advisable to sleep properly and then work efficiently afterward. This is also advisable for your physical well being as body and brain both need time and rest for recovery, which can happen only while you sleep. Sleep deprivation can leave you dull and lost!