Is 6 hours of sleep enough?

1. Throughout your life, good sleep is essential to staying healthy and functioning well. Sleeping at the right time and in the right amount can greatly benefit your mental and physical health, quality of life, and even safety. Undoubtedly, during waking hours, how you feel is influenced by what happens during sleep. You should always be aware of how effectively you sleep, so getting a sleep tracker can be a worthwhile investment.

2. In fact, your energy levels aren't the only benefits of sleeping Having a nutritious diet, exercising regularly, and getting enough sleep are pillars of good health. Specifically, a good night of sleep plays a vital role in maintaining good health, for example, during sleep, our bodies repair themselves. Also, a good night's sleep helps you with your productivity level throughout the day.

3. Many are wondering: is 6 hours of sleep enough? The answer is no! We all need roughly 8 hours of good-quality sleep a night for proper functioning and health - but some of us require more and some less. Above all, it is important that you determine how much sleep you need and then try to get that amount. Sleep tracker bullet journal is an amazing tool and you should try it out! Sleep deprivation can occur in many ways, but one of the most common signs is waking up tired and wishing you could take a nap.

4. Almost everyone has experienced fatigue, a short temper, and a lack of concentration after a poor night's sleep. Waking up with headaches or randomly getting a headache is uncomfortable and it can ruin your day. Even though a bad night's sleep or sleeping less than a full eight hours once in a while makes you feel tired and irritable the next day, it is not harmful to your health. However, the effects are more pronounced after repeated sleepless nights. For instance, you could experience brain fog that hinders your ability to focus and make wise decisions, feel drowsy, and even fall asleep through the day. Therefore, if those processes fail to work properly, they can make it more difficult for you to perform well at work or school, and they can even cause you to have accidents while driving.

5. Scientifically speaking, not getting enough sleep can leave you suffering from several unpleasant cognitive characteristics, including irritability, daytime sleepiness, slowed reaction times, reduced concentration and focus, among many others. These effects are the "mildest" possible repercussions and they negatively impact your mood.

6. However, if you continue to lack sleep, it could affect your health and contribute to serious medical conditions. Health problems like heart attacks, asthma, and depression can affect people who sleep less than seven hours every night. Other health problems that are associated with a lack of sleep include hypertension, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.

7. In other words, your blood pressure lowers during sleep. A sleep disorder means your blood pressure remains high for a prolonged period. Moreover, high blood pressure is a major cause of the majority of heart disease and stroke. Additionally, chronic sleep loss may cause higher levels of inflammation-related chemicals, putting extra stress on the circulatory system.

Does lack of sleep causes excess weight?

8. In addition, insufficient sleep can contribute to the accumulation of excess weight. Research reveals that those who sleep fewer than seven hours per night gain weight more quickly and are more likely to become obese than people who sleep seven hours per night. Particularly, but not exclusively, this problem is more frequent and critical for children and adolescents, as they require more sleep. According to those theories, sleep-deprived people have lower levels of leptin (a hormone related to satiety) and higher levels of ghrelin (a hormone that stimulates hunger).

9. If last night you were up until the early hours of the morning, you most likely feel it today. “Sleep is important because being awake is important,” says Dr. Gurevich (Samuel Gurevich, MD at Cleveland Clinic Florida). “And one or two nights of bad sleep can impair your ability to function well the next day.”

10. Obviously, sleep is much more than a leisure activity. When you sleep, your body performs many important functions. You receive important benefits from a good night's rest, such as brain processing and tissue repair.

11. Specifically, sleeping is particularly beneficial for storing memories, because during sleep the memories are locked in your brain. If you're sleep-deprived, you don't recall what you learned during the day. Additionally, sleep is essential for regulating your emotions. Because of that, you are likely to feel agitated and moody after a bad night of sleep.

12. Moreover, your body is actively recuperating itself while you sleep. It's doing that by producing proteins and hormones that assist in recovering injured tissues, such as muscles. Consequently, sleep deprivation slows your body's recovery. 

13. Our immune systemis also affected very strongly by sleep, and that is one of the most important features of our bodies. The time you go to bed may have something to do with whether or not you catch any colds or flus. Thus, when you lack sleep for too long, you make your immune system less effective, so you're more likely to get sick. While we sleep, our bodies produce cytokines - which stimulate immune cells to attack inflammation throughout the body. Additionally, research shows that the body produces more white blood cells when you are sleep deprived, the same happens when your body is stressed.

How should we monitor our sleep?

14. Due to the importance of sleep, you should be mindful of how long and how efficiently you sleep. A great way to achieve this is a smartwatch offering this feature, such as Deep Rio Vidaa. You can use this smartwatch as an all-in-one health wearable to incorporate health data into your everyday life. So, you can get the most out of your day, and you can gain a deeper understanding of your health. Through Vidaa, you will be able to see your sleep stages recorded and track, receiving tips tailored specifically to help you have a better sleep.

15. Typically, a sleep cycle has several stages. In the beginning, your sleep is light, and waking up is easy, but it only lasts a few minutes. The second stage of sleep is characterized by slowing brain waves, at which time light sleep continues. As you move into the third and fourth stages of sleep, it becomes more difficult to wake up. Namely, it is during this time when your body is growing, repairing itself, and strengthening your immune system. And lastly, we have REM (rapid eye movement). The brain is more active during this stage of sleep, and dreams become more frequent. Most importantly, in this stage, your brain is consolidating information and doing long-term memory storage. The normal duration is 90 minutes sleeping cycle, and as cycles repeat continuously, the REM periods grow longer.

16. Generally, sleep trackers can provide a great deal of information about your sleeping habits. In order to gain valuable insight and learn more about your sleep, key elements such as sleep duration, sleep quality, and sleep phases are important to be monitored, and Vidaa provides all these. Although this smartwatch is so affordable, it offers almost every feature you could possibly want.

17. Feel lifeless after sleeping from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., but more energized after sleeping from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.? Are you more likely to sleep better on days when the bedroom is colder or when you exercise? Can after lunch caffeine disrupt your sleep? “The tracker will give you something to reflect on,” says Alan Schwartz, M.D. (director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center).

18. Tracking and recording your sleep stages is a good idea to get a more complete picture of your sleep quality. Although recording, tracking, and delivering personalized sleep tips are significant features of the Deep Rio Vidaa smartwatch, they are not the only interesting features of the device. Vidaa also offers features such as an oxygen monitor and a heart rate monitor. In addition to those features, the smartwatch features a Scandinavian design, a clear and vivid screen, a reminder to drink water, sports tracker modes, and many more.

Are you still confused about sleep's effects on your health? Let's simplify things and talk about some of the most important benefits of sleeping! Sleep can help with:

• Stress reduction
• Improvements in your mood
• Keeping a healthy weight
• Boosts in your immune system
• Increases your focus and productivity
• Memory enhancement
• Lowers the chances of various heart diseases and diabetes 

In light of the problems that lack of sleep can cause, isn't it a good idea to keep track of your sleep? We already shared our recommendation, but here are some other ways you can improve your sleep: If you don't get enough good quality sleep, the only way to compensate is to get more sleep and to make it efficient. An early night won't do the trick! In the case of months of sleep deprivation, you will have accumulated a significant amount of sleep debt, making recovery weeks, if not months away.

Here are some more tips: you can pay attention to various aspects of sleep and enhance its quality. Try to keep a regular sleep schedule, and make sure you sleep in a cool, quiet, dark environment. Make your bedtime and your wake-up time the same every day, including weekends. In addition, you can try letting in more natural light, particularly earlier in the day. If possible, go for a quick walk in the morning or after lunchtime. Additionally, you can try to exercise more and use a blue light filter before going to bed in order to keep your eyes from being irritated.

Written by Adela