How important is sleep for you?

A lot of work and less sleep can bring sleeping disorders in an individual. Scientifically, women are twice as likely as men to have difficulty in falling asleep. The following is guide to its reasons and precautions:

Sleeping is as important to a human body as nutrition is. For both men and women, sleeping helps rejuvenate the entire body and makes them more energetic during the day. As the old saying goes “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise,” sleep induces the very key elements of making a person healthy and excelling them at all performances.

The modern day has made the sleeping hours decease especially for women. They try to achieve more in less time, making their days stressful and tense. Thus, women end up becoming prone to a number of sleeping disorders which negatively affect their health. It is the younger women, particularly mothers and working women, who fall victims to such sleeping problems. Sleeping disorders makes them stop looking fresh and young, and pushes back her job performance, concentration, social interaction, and her general sense of well-being is disturbed.

The most common sleep problem women begin facing is insomnia, which means she has troubles in falling asleep, and hence waking up early. Some other less known problems include sleep-disordered breathing, restless leg syndrome, narcolepsy, and periodic limb movement.

Certain factors exist which effect a woman’s sleep and cause disturbances:

Hormonal changes

Hormonal fluctuations related to menstrual cycles also affect sleep patterns in a woman. Women going through a menopause are the strongest targets for it. Lower levels of oestrogen make menopausal women sleep less, and the physical symptoms linked t it such as night sweats and hot flashes can disrupt sleep. Daytime drowsiness, difficulty falling and staying asleep, and difficulty waking up are some of the sleep disorder symptoms associated with menstruating women.

Stress

Stress is the leading cause of sleep disorders. Both physical and emotional stress can cause anxiety which triggers sleeplessness, problems staying asleep, and nightmares. Young women tend to forcibly reduce sleep to cope up with work and their roles as wives and mothers. The management of home and office makes them ignore their fatigue and sleep. Almost 30% of employed women as=re reported to have sleep disorders.

Pregnancy

When a woman becomes pregnant, her sleep needs and schedule begins changing dramatically so as to accommodate with the physical and hormonal changes taking place in her body. During the first trimester, a woman needs significantly more sleep than she usually does. Daytime drowsiness begins, and it is good to take naps and sleep as much as they desire in this period. During the second trimester, a woman’s sleep normalizes. Her sleeping needs do not stay demanding. But in the third trimester, the opposite of the first trimester begins: she begins sleeping less due to the hormonal changes and the anticipation of the birth process. Pregnant woman also may begin snoring, seeing nightmares and gain sleep apnoea.

Age

As a woman grows older, restless sleep begin due to a variety of reasons, such as hormonal changes physical changes, illnesses, etc. women tend to wake up more often during the night and frequent snoring may occur as well. Pain, grief, worry, and medication may be a reason too.

It has been medically proven that sleep helps prevent heart diseases, cancer and a lot other diseases. Women who sleep less than 7 hours a day have an increased risk of obesity, according to tests. Sleep deprivation also lowers the level of leptin (a protein that suppresses appetite) and raises grehlin (which elicits hunger). Another problem of lack of sleep is diabetes, caused by impairing the metabolism and disrupting the body’s ability to process glucose.

Most of the body’ healing takes place while the individual sleeps. Sleeping is the time when your body performs the major cleaning, take care of wastes that have accumulated during the day, and repairing cellular damage. It clears your skin and makes you fresher and younger. So don’t deprive yourself from it!

Avoid caffeine before going to bed, avoid spicey food and try not to fall asleep while watching television. Also, avoid eating two hours before sleeping and eat fruits if you get hingry at night. Keep your bedroom cool, dark and quiet to have a peaceful sleep. Exercising can help put you to sleep at night. A 30-minute walk after dinner ensures a good night’s sleep. Avoid stressful mental activities before going to bed and spend time in relaxation by either reading a good book, having a soft conversation, listening to soothing music, or by praying and meditation.