Last week’s blog was about being prepared for exams. One of the things mentioned was that you need to get enough sleep.
Often sleep is underrated and people tend to think that they can get by with fewer hours. Actually, this isn’t such a smart thing to do.
Between the ages of seven and twelve years old, it is recommended that one gets ten or eleven hours sleep a night. This is not just to stop kids from becoming cranky either—this is why you need enough sleep
- Muscles repair themselves during the night. Not only arm and leg muscles, this includes the heart muscle too.
- Sleep controls the signals that indicate when one is hungry or full – and this allows a person to maintain a good weight.
- Whilst slumbering at night, brains store up all the stuff learnt during the day – so that it can be recalled later, when needed.
- If one doesn’t sleep properly at night, it’s harder to pay attention at school during the day. Mistakes are made more easily if you’re tired.
If you don’t get enough sleep at night scientists recommend having a little nap during the day to make up the sleep time. Don’t take that nap during school time though—you’d been looking for trouble!
Apparently—it should take about fifteen to twenty minutes to fall asleep from when your head hits the pillow.
Most kids don’t have a problem falling asleep, but if you do there are a couple of things that can help – like having a warm glass of milk before bedtime, or having a bath. Reading a book before you go to sleep is also better than watching television. It’s important not to be too hot or too cold in bed—that can also disturb your sleep patterns.
Of course teenagers can get away with a little less sleep – like eight to nine hours a night. Although often they don’t get anywhere near this amount of sleep and so they really do need to sleep in over the weekends.
Seems like the older you get the less sleep you need. Most people need around eight hours a night to function properly though scientists recently found out that there are some people who have a rare mutated gene condition that allow them to sleep only six hours without any negative effects.
Sleep tight and sweet dreams.
Sibo
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