Not only you, but also scientists and sleep researchers agree that sleep is vital to our existence. But what we don’t know is why it happens at all.
Get ready for a little shock: from an evolutionary perspective, sleep doesn’t make much sense. It takes up 1/3 of a person’s life, during which they do practically nothing for around 8 hours. Throughout this time, from an evolutionary standpoint, people were exposed to the danger of animal attacks and had less time for hunting.
Another theory is that sleep is a memory-organization process: it strengthens moments considered important while erasing others that are not. Since this “arrangement” is difficult while we are awake and actively thinking about something, rest comes to the rescue. Scientists have provided plenty of supporting arguments for this theory, but the specific mechanisms behind it are still unclear.
And while “why we sleep” is a question with different answers, it is clear that at least 7 hours of rest is essential. Here are 3 interesting, scientific facts about sleep.
1. You can’t train your brain and body to sleep less
Not without compromising your health. All institutions agree on this point: adults between 18 and 64 need 7 to 9 hours of sleep. Those over 65 can manage with 7 to 8 hours, while children may need up to 17 hours, with around 10–12 hours being optimal.
Keep in mind that even if you sleep for 12 hours, if you lack deep sleep or your sleep is interrupted, you won’t feel as though you have slept at all. Whether or not you consistently try to sleep for only 5–6 hours, this will affect your concentration and energy during the day.
2. Your brain can be just as active while you sleep as when you are awake.
The graph shows a hypnogram that illustrates the sleep cycle. If you have always thought that your brain practically switches off while you sleep, that’s not exactly the case. Sleep is a very active period. It begins with REM (rapid eye movement)—the most active phase, when you are not yet fully asleep but are already dreaming. The next two phases are very light, and if this is the only sleep you get during the night, you will not feel rested. Phases three and four are deep sleep, which restores your body and gives you energy for the following day.
3. You can’t fully catch up on sleep during the weekends
Many people sleep less during the week—often because of work schedules and other commitments—and try to catch up on weekends. Why doesn’t this work as a strategy? The brain follows habits and routines, with the optimal routine being 7 hours of sleep for 7 nights a week.
Studies at Penn State University indicate that catching up on sleep during weekends—often by going to bed late and waking up around noon—contributes to the deficits caused by insufficient sleep during the workweek, as confirmed by test results measuring focus, concentration, and physical energy.
So if you see yourself among those who catch up on sleep during weekends, the solution is not more sleep on those two days, but fixing the problem through a consistent schedule and the same times for going to sleep and waking up.
Helpful tip
Looking at the sleep phases above, you will notice several periods of wakefulness. We usually don’t remember these awakenings, and they are brief, but if you feel discomfort, unease, and frequent tossing and turning, it is quite possible that your quality of sleep is being disrupted.
Often, the solution is a memory foam mattress. The material is a NASA invention, created after the agency was tasked with developing a safety solution for pilots and passengers. Today, memory foam can be found in a number of industries, including, as you might have guessed, the mattress industry. Since your body conforms to the mattress through its individual curves, you fall asleep much faster and do not toss and turn during sleep. You can find all mattresses with memory foam here.
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