Most of us live by the belief that we need a good eight hours of shut eye time each night to stay healthy and alert. Most of us, however, do not practice the art of restful sleep, waking feeling rested and ready for the day. How much sleep do we really need, and how do we get more restoration out of our rest?
When we look more closely at time and the concept of sleep we will see a broad range. There are some people, often those geniuses who have given us so many great inventions, who slept a minimal time, oftentimes less than 5 hours a night. Some practiced what is called polyphasic sleep, which spreads sleep out into short nap times throughout the day, with 15-30 minute durations, and a short “core” sleeping time at night.
Do we need sleep? Children need plenty of sleep, for that is the time when they grow. Stage 4 sleep, that deep sleep, is when human growth hormone (HGH) is secreted in the body. Adults use HGH to heal muscles, and if you have issues like fibromyalgia you’ve found that you often awaken with painful, tight muscles, mainly due to the simple fact that your sleep cycle is broken, and you rarely touch that stage 4 healing sleep.
What else happens when we sleep? Our brainwaves change during our sleeping phase, dropping from the fast-paced beta, the wakeful brain, passing through the more relaxed, meditative alpha, and into the theta waves of first stage sleep. As we delve more deeply into the sleep cycle we pass from theta into delta in stage 3 and 4 sleep. Beside the 4 stages of sleep we also have REM, the time of rapid eye movement, dreaming, and a state of muscular change when we are effectively paralyzed.
How do we get more rest out of our sleep time? There are many ways to promote more restful sleep. Eating right and detoxifying the body works wonders, though it takes time to rid the body of years of accumulation. There are rem-encouraging sound machines that help lull you into sleep and relax. Binaural recordings can help you train your brain to move more quickly into the restful, healing stages of sleep. Last but not least you could always medicate, though looking at the lives of many of our entertainment greats, like Elvis, we can see the damaging effects of knocking ourselves out forcefully and then medicating to awaken again. A less dramatic way of promoting restful sleep is through foods and herbal blends that promote better sleep.
Sleep: what purpose does it serve, and how much sleep do we really need? There are many ideas to ponder on before coming to any conclusion. Why don’t we just “sleep on it”, and explore the possibilities.
Ava Saadi writes articles about a variety of spiritual and wellness topics. Learn more about wellness, energy through pure foods at chilloutrelax.info
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