Sleepy Me

It has been an interesting week, but the thing that has gotten me the most, is my sleepiness.  I am so tired, and that is so unusual.  I 'try' to get a good night's rest, but I'm in college, and that doesn't always happen.  So I decided to look up some interesting facts and such about sleep (possibly to put me to sleep).... but I digress.

Here are some wonderfully interesting facts about sleep that I discovered from the National Sleep Foundation:

1. Man is the only mammal that willingly delays sleep.
2. The higher the altitude, the greater the sleep disruption. 
3. In general, exercising regularly makes it easier to fall asleep and contributes to sounder sleep. 
4. Divorced, widowed and separated people report more insomnia.
5. More than eight in ten survey respondents think that people often or sometimes misuse prescription sleep aids.
6. Caffeine has been called the most popular drug in the world. 
7. In general, most healthy adults need seven to nine hours of sleep a night. However, some individuals are able to function without sleepiness or drowsiness after as little as six hours of sleep. Others can’t perform at their peak unless they’ve slept ten hours.
8. We naturally feel tired at two different times of the day: about 2:00 AM and 2:00 PM. 
9. Sleep is just as important as diet and exercise.
10. Newborns sleep a total of 10.5 to 18 hours a day on an irregular schedule with periods of one to three hours spent awake.
11. When infants are put to bed drowsy but not asleep, they are more likely to become "self- soothers," which enables them to fall asleep independently at bedtime and put themselves back to sleep during the night.
12. Eighty-two percent of healthcare professionals believe that it is the responsibility of both the patient and the healthcare professional to bring up symptoms of insomnia during an appointment.
13. There are individual differences in the need to nap. Some adults and children need to nap. However, the majority of teenagers probably nap in the afternoon because they are not sleeping enough at night.
14. Snoring is the primary cause of sleep disruption for approximately 90 million American adults; 37 million on a regular basis.
15. Scientists still don't know — and probably never will — if animals dream during REM sleep, as humans do.
16. Some studies show promise for the use of melatonin in shortening the time it takes to fall asleep and reducing the number of awakenings, but not necessarily total sleep time. 
17. One of the primary causes of excessive sleepiness among Americans is self-imposed sleep deprivation.
18. According to the results of NSF's 2008 Sleep in America poll, 36 percent of American drive drowsy or fall asleep while driving.
19. People who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to have bigger appetites due to the fact that their leptin levels (leptin is an appetite-regulating hormone) fall, promoting appetite increase.
20. Rates of insomnia increase as a function of age, but most often the sleep disturbance is attributable to some other medical condition.
21. And did you know seasonal affective disorder is believed to be influenced by the changing patterns of light and darkness that occur with the approach of winter?

Well I hope you are all getting enough sleep!

Love Ya!

Alexandra