How much sleep did you get last night? Did you stay up long past when you felt tired enough to go to bed? Why? Were you trying to finish a project for work? Were you caught up in a good book and unable to put it down? If so, you may have fallen into the trap of believing sleep to be a nuisance – something that just gets in the way of having fun or being productive. And you’re not alone – more than 80 million American adults are chronically sleep deprived (Finkel, 2018, p. 66).
Since the invention of electric lights, it’s easier to avoid sleep in favor of other activities. We try to make up for it with caffeine and power naps, but those aren’t solutions. Science tells us that there are reasons for getting good sleep every night – benefits of getting enough and detriments of not.
When you get enough sleep, you have improved attention, behavior, learning, memory, emotional regulation, quality of life, and mental and physical health (Bocknek et al., 2018). Sleep is when our brains stop collecting information and take the time to consolidate and edit the new information from the day. Our brains decide which memories to keep and which to toss. Sleep has an incredible power to reinforce memory – something I would think you’d especially want the night before a big test, rather than pulling an all-nighter to cram. Sleep also allows our brains to make connections you might never have consciously formed – there’s a reason for the adage: “sleep on it”.
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When you’re sleeping, your body makes physical and mental housekeeping and repairs. It’s time for your body to make sure it will keep working for you the way that it is supposed to. That time helps you maintain a healthy immune system, body temperature, and blood pressure. Certain hormones are best produced when you’re asleep, like human growth hormone – it’s why children sleep more during growth spurts, and it’s what helps adults maintain a healthy weight.
If you regularly sleep less than 6 hours a night, you have a higher risk of depression, psychosis, stroke, and obesity. You have an increased risk for injuries and hypertension. You can’t regulate your moods well or recover as swiftly from injuries. You weaken your immune system so you’re more likely to get sick.
Beyond the individual, widespread sleep deprivation is linked to reduced productivity, increased work absences, industrial and road accidents, healthcare expenses, and medical errors, which combined can literally cost countries billions of dollars per year.
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Given all these reasons, why do we still deprive ourselves of sleep? Who even knows how much sleep they’re supposed to be getting to not suffer from sleep deprivation? That number changes as you age and can be found below:
4-12 months old need 12-16 hours (including naps)
1-2 years old need 11-14 hours (including naps)
3-5 years old need 10-13 hours (including naps)
6-12 years old need 9-12 hours
13-18 years old need 8-10 hours
18+ years old need 7 or more hours per night
Tips for Getting Enough Sleep
If you’re struggling to get enough sleep, there are changes you can make to your daily habits to help yourself:
No screens for 30 minutes before bed. The light from the screens interrupts your body’s natural efforts to get ready to sleep. If you’re using screens in the evening, see if your device has a Night Light feature: it shifts the screen colors to the warmer end of the light spectrum that have less of an impact on your body.
No electronics in the bedroom. It’s easier to avoid screens before bed if they’re in a different room. If you need to keep your phone nearby, use the Do Not Disturb feature so it’s not vibrating with every notification – especially in the middle of the night.
Develop a bedtime routine. Having a routine can help both children and adults. Doing the same thing in the same order every night before bed tells your body it’s time to go to sleep. You can customize your routine to whichever tasks you need: wash your face, brush your teeth, read a book, pick out your clothes for the next day, etc.
Be consistent. Similar to having a routine, it’s easier on your internal clock if you go to bed and get up at the same time every day. There are certainly going to be evenings where you stay up late for something and mornings where you sleep in, but don’t let those be the norm.
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And in the end, remember, sleep is not an interruption of life. It is a necessity. So stop fighting it. You’ll see the benefits.
References
American Academy of Pediatrics Supports Childhood Sleep Guidelines. (2016, June 13). Retrieved from https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/American-Academy-of-Pediatrics-Supports-Childhood-Sleep-Guidelines.aspx
Bocknek, E. L., Richardson, P. A., van den Heuvel, M. I., Qipo, T., & Brophy-Herb, H. E. (2018). Sleep moderates the association between routines and emotion regulation for toddlers in poverty. Journal of Family Psychology, 32(7), 966–974. https://doi-org.erl.lib.byu.edu/10.1037/fam0000433
Finkel, M. (2018, August). Want to Fall Asleep? Read This Story. National Geographic, 40-77.
Gruber, R. (2013). Making room for sleep: The relevance of sleep to psychology and the rationale for development of preventative sleep education programs for children and adolescents in the community. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 54(1), 62–71. https://doi-org.erl.lib.byu.edu/10.1037/a0030936
Mariah Ramage was born and raised in Bellevue, Washington with two older brothers. She graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Science in Family Life and Human Development, and she is currently living in the Seattle area. Mariah is currently experiencing the joys of being a nanny to three-year-old boy-girl twins while she prepares to pursue graduate work in Human Development and Family Studies. She is passionate about mental health, abuse recovery, purposeful parenting, and healthy media usage.
