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What Is Sleep?
Sleep is equally important as eating, drinking, or even breathing, and no one is an exception. But how crucial can it be for our daily life? For people with hectic schedules, sleep is often the missing link to a healthier life.
We often think of sleep as the time when our bodies and brain shut down. Science tells us otherwise. Sleep is when your body is engrossed in work - repairing cells, restoring your energy, and releasing hormones. Sleep is a biological process characterized by reduced responsiveness to external stimulation. Every person needs sleep before facing the next day. So why do we sleep, anyway?
Why Do We Sleep?
No one can function productively for 24 hours. At some point, there has to be a hibernation mode to help the body rest, restore, and rejuvenate.
Sleep is vital for your emotional health and mental well-being, in addition to the physiological benefits. When you sleep, the neurons in your brain have the time to reorganize. It contributes to your memory function by converting important information from short-term to long-term memory. As you rest, brain activity increases for areas that regulate emotion and brain function, aiding in emotional stability.
Importance of Sleep to Brain Health
Your daily sleeping routine is crucial in building a better and healthier brain. Sleep plays a vital role in alertness, memory retention, and improved creativity. Lack of sleep can prevent you from thinking actively and maintaining pathways in your brain. These pathways connect neurons and signals from one area of your brain to another. When the brain's pathways aren't fully regenerated, it's harder for you to concentrate and respond quickly.
The Role of Neurotransmitters
Human sleep patterns have chemical and electrical signals in the brain, called neurotransmitters.
Neurotransmitters help your body rest and recharge while you sleep. They can help you remember things you have seen, learned, or heard while awake. Abnormalities with some neurotransmitters may trigger sleep disorders such as restless legs syndrome.
Getting ample time for sleep is essential. It can help you feel awake during the entire day. Even losing an hour of sleep over a few days can affect a person’s alertness, productivity, and well-being.
Consequences of Poor Sleep
If left with no intervention, the detrimental effects of lack of sleep can creep up on you. This sleep deprivation will take a massive toll on your mental, emotional, and physical health.
- Energy changes: Without sufficient rest, you may find yourself facing a lack of motivation in your work, school, and other responsibilities. You may also crave sugar, caffeine, or naps to compensate for the lost hours at night.
- Mental health risks: Not getting enough sleep is a sufficient cause of moodiness and irritability and may even increase your risk for depression. Poor sleep may also affect your capacity to cope with stress or manage difficult emotions. In the most extreme cases, sleep deprivation can cause hallucinations and delirium.
- Weakened immune system: Your body needs time to repair its torn cells and tissues. If you're not consistently having a night of quality sleep and providing your body with the time it needs to restore, you may be more prone to common colds and other illnesses.
- Impaired brain activity: Lack of sleep can lead to struggles with learning and concentration. Sleep deprivation can impair your motor skills just as much as being intoxicated, increasing your risk for accidents. Lack of sleep can affect your judgment as well.
- Relationship problems: Intensified moodiness, lack of patience, and inability to manage emotions can result from insufficient sleep. Lack of sleep can lead to less energy to be present and engaged in your relationships.
- Increased risk of severe health problems: Consistently experiencing disrupted sleeping patterns and insufficient quality and quantity of sleep, may lead to an increased risk of stroke, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, and certain cancers.
How to Manage Sleep
If you experience difficulty in falling asleep, here are some ways you can consider to manage your sleeping patterns.
- Develop sleep rituals or routines: To develop a habit, you must do the same things regularly before going to bed. Create a regimen to follow every night. This approach cues your body to slow down and relax.
- Be physically active: Strenuous exercise can promote more restful sleep. This routine will let you release unwanted toxins, and it stimulates the need for rest after an exhausting activity.To improve sleep quality, one must aim for at least 30 minutes having moderate-intensity aerobic activity during the day or evening.
- Cut down on alcohol: Alcohol is a sedative and might help you fall asleep, but it often results in shallow and disturbed sleep. Alcohol triggers fragmented and abnormal dream periods and frequent early morning awakening.
Getting More Efficient Sleep
Bryte is the restorative sleep technology platform powering the future of sleep.
Founded in 2016 by Silicon Valley veteran John Tompane, Ely Tsern and Jonathan Farringdon, Bryte is the leading Restorative Sleep Technology™ platform backed by sleep science and powered by AI. Bryte's turn-key hardware, software and services platform is available for consumers, licensing to select mattress manufacturing, and hospitality partners.
Bryte’s Restorative Sleep Technology is purpose-designed to actively nurture natural, more restorative sleep. Bryte RebalancingTM sensor monitor for pressure imbalances as you shift throughout the night and relieve any pressure points to eliminate wake events and foster more restorative, unbroken sleep. An embedded sensory network within the mattress detects biometrics such as heart rate and breathing patterns to identify when a sleeper enters the first stage of sleep. Bryte’s climate system then triggers cooling features to lower the body's core temperature and gently guide sleepers through an optimal balance of sleep stages.
The Restorative Bed™ uses science-backed technology to help you achieve restorative sleep by helping you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and wake feeling more restored. Bryte’s purpose-built software can help you analyze your sleep quality as well. Check out our mattresses and get the sleep you deserve every night. For more information, visit Bryte.com.
