No, 5 hours of sleep is not enough

Picture by Hernan Sanchez on Unsplash

There are plenty of people that sleep 5–6 hours a night and claim it is enough for them. Yes, it is a busy world we live in and it can be difficult to make time to sleep full 8 hours. But guess what? If you slept longer, chances are you would be more productive and therefore get more done anyway. You would also feel better.

Sleep is not a wasted time. When we sleep, plenty of things are happening to our bodies. There is a reason for this saying:

The morning is wiser than the evening

Our brain collects loads and loads of information during the day and sleep is when all of this information is consolidated and stored as memories. In fact, if you are trying to learn something new, it is a great idea to take a nap right after to help preserve the new information. While we sleep, brain also uses this time to clear out toxins. Knowing this, it is also easier to understand why we have scattered brain next day after not having a good night sleep.

But sleep is not only important for our brain. Cellular repair and renewal happens when we sleep. We replenish energy, repair tissues, muscle and cells. The glymphatic system clears out the waste and toxins from our bodies and it does all of this mainly when we sleep. Did you know that this can actually prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s disease?

Our heart health, insulin resistance, hormones, immune system, — all of this depends on our sleep patterns, quality and length. All of these processes are critical for our health and wellbeing. So next time you think “I’ll sleep when I die”, remember that NOT sleeping might actually speed up the process. Pun intended.

By the way, I found this information about our REM sleep phase and thought it was very interesting:

REM sleep first occurs about 90 minutes after falling asleep. Your eyes move rapidly from side to side behind closed eyelids. Mixed frequency brain wave activity becomes closer to that seen in wakefulness. Your breathing becomes faster and irregular, and your heart rate and blood pressure increase to near waking levels. Most of your dreaming occurs during REM sleep, although some can also occur in non-REM sleep. Your arm and leg muscles become temporarily paralyzed, which prevents you from acting out your dreams.

Sleep may not be as peaceful as one might think!