Most people think that the only consequence of not getting enough sleep is feeling weak, tired and irritable, but medical researches have proven that there are actually some health-related issues to not getting adequate sleep some of which include heart diseases, gaining of weight loss of memory and also diabetes.
Ordinarily the older we become, the more responsibility we face, and adults have an outrageously busy life and schedules, from raising a family with kids to provide for the family through full-time jobs or part-time jobs, and a lot of activities that occur in-between.
All of these takes a substantial amount of our time, and in reality, there aren’t enough hours in a day to be able to complete their activities.
So adults tend to borrow a lot of time from the night when they should be sleeping, from an obviously tiring day. But instead, they will try to finish up some of the activities of the day.
Looking at this from another perspective, it may seem to be very productive, but it is health detrimental as well and can lead to what is termed sleep debt.
What Exactly is Sleep Debt?
Sleep debt simply implies that someone is continuously losing sleep doing to activities that keep them up at night, or make them, wake up very early in the morning.
A big cause of sleep debt could also be the medical condition Insomnia. But in general, if you are not able to get about 6 to 10 hours of sleep in a day over some time, it leads to sleep debt.
Although it is a fact, that the amount of sleep needed for each individual varies, and this could be related to a number of factors like health situation, age, amount of work out session and being in a pregnant state.
Furthermore, intake of food can also disturb sleep pattern and lead to sleep debt. Drinks that contain caffeine or alcohol could impair sleeping. Some other ridiculous factor could be the light from a TV set or the light from mobile phones.
How to Determine How Much Sleep You Need
So how do you determine that you are adequately rested? Firstly, you make sure that when you go to bed at your usual bedtime, you calculate the hours until your wake up time in the morning.
This will let you know how long you have slept for. If you realize that you are not getting adequate sleep time, the next thing to do is make sure that you go to bet minutes earlier than you normally do. Continue doing this until you are able to get at least 7 hours of sleep every night.
When you sleep for 7 hours at night and realize that when you wake up you still feel a bit weak, or it is still difficult for the alarm to wake you up when it goes off, then it is time for you to increase you’re your sleeping time by another few minutes. You continue doing this until you get enough sleep. You can tell if you are getting enough sleep by how you feel when you wake up in the morning.
Is Sleep Debt Repayable?
Of course, you can get enough rest later on by improving your sleep pattern so that you feel very well rested again. However, it may take a long time for you to repay all of your sleep debt fully and there are some things that you must do to make this possible.
- Having A Comfortable Sleeping Place
Sleeping just can’t be done anywhere, on the work desk, inside the car, no. For you to adequately repay your sleep debt, you will need to have a comfortable sleeping place or sleeping sanctuary, more like your bedroom where you can completely lie and relax all your body muscles.
- Daily Exercises
When you exercise and work out regularly, you tend to sleep better at night. Exercises also have special benefits like helping to lose weight that must have been gained over the course of your sleep debt.
- Take Regular Naps
When necessary, take as much nap as you can as this will make you feel rested and remain alert for other activities. However do not nap at hours close to your bedtime, as this could mess with your sleeping pattern.
- Diet Control
For a good sleeping pattern watch what you eat and drink, and make sure that they do not have side effects on your sleeping condition.
