We often don't have enough time for regular healthy sleep. This is fraught with many health problems: heart disease, obesity, hormonal imbalance And so on. In addition, this negatively affects a person’s well-being while awake. Let's take a closer look at what lack of sleep leads to.

How much sleep do we need?

It depends on the individual characteristics person and age indicators:

• children – on average 10 hours/day;
• teenagers – on average 9 hours/day;
• adults – 7-8 hours/day.

In fact, up to 30% of adults report getting 6 hours of sleep or less, and about 30% of schoolchildren only get 8 hours of sleep.

What are the dangers of constant lack of sleep?

According to the Centers for Disease Control, lack of sleep is literally a “public health problem.”

Interesting fact: Sleeping is even more important for survival than eating! It takes an average of 14 days to die from starvation, but only 10 days to die from sleep deprivation.

Let's look at how lack of sleep affects the body when you sleep less than normal.

Appearance

If you want to look good, then take care of. The study assessed a group of people aged 30 to 50 based on their sleep habits and the condition of their skin. The results showed that those who slept less had more wrinkles, uneven color and noticeable “weakness” of the skin.

Immunity

Researchers have discovered a relationship between sleep and work immune system. With a lack of sleep, the body loses its ability to fully protect itself from viruses and bacterial infections. That is why good dream especially important during illness.

Regenerative functions

During sleep, the recovery of damaged or worn-out tissues accelerates. blood vessels, muscles and tissues. Without sufficient time to sleep, this will not fully occur.

Heart problems

According to a study published in the European Heart Journal, lack of sleep (less than 5 hours per night) and long sleep duration (9 or more hours per night) have negative impact on heart health. In particular, your chances of developing coronary disease or the occurrence of stroke increases significantly with disrupted sleep patterns.

Maybe you shouldn't spend a lot of time on your smartphone while in bed

Risk of developing cancer

The American organization AASM also studies the effects of sleep on human health. They concluded that reduced sleep threatens increased likelihood of developing many types of cancer. This is due to a decrease in the level of the hormone melatonin, which has an antitumor effect.

Hormonal balance

When we sleep, our bodies release important hormones that help regulate our appetite, metabolism, and energy distribution. Therefore, when we do not get enough sleep at night, our body's normal hormonal balance is disrupted.

Cortisol (stress hormone) and insulin levels increase, which can lead to weight gain and diabetes. There is likely a decrease in leptin (a hormone that signals excess weight to our brain) and an increase in ghrelin (a hormone that evoking feeling hunger). Therefore, lack of sleep may increase food cravings and leave you feeling too tired to burn extra calories.

Increased risk of accidents

According to the National Sleep Foundation, getting 6 hours or less of sleep each night increases your likelihood of being in a car accident by 3 times. The most vulnerable are shift workers, drivers and business travelers.

Think twice before driving if you haven't gotten enough sleep!

Emotional condition

Poor sleep makes you nervous, irritable, impulsive and unrestrained. In addition, lack of sleep one of the factors causing depression.

This is explained by the fact that the brain under such conditions is simply not able to fully control emotions.

Thought processes

Taking exams after a sleepless night is a mistake many students make. During sleep, the brain carries out “cleaning”, systematizing information from the previous day, and prepares for wakefulness. If there is not enough time for this, then memory, attention, speed of decision-making, reasoning, reaction and other mental functions will work noticeably worse.

The conclusion suggests itself

The less you sleep, the more your body suffers. Immunity deteriorates, hormonal balance is disrupted, and the risk increases dangerous diseases and the brain does not work at 100. Therefore, a healthy lifestyle is impossible without good regular sleep.

Grade

Sleep and dreams are the guardians of our physical body. These processes help a person to completely relax: the muscles and spine rest from a busy day, the heartbeat and breathing slow down, and internal organs are being restored.

During sleep, a person does not age, but the brain analyzes, sorts and “digests” latest events that happened in our lives. It is thanks to this activity of his that we see dreams and can find in them answers to the questions that tormented us. Creative people often shared that the plots of their future books, poems, images of paintings, technical designs came to them in a dream. Everyone knows the example of how D. Mendeleev dreamed periodic table elements.

The influence of sleep on human life

The duration of sleep is individual for each person. For some, a couple of hours a day is enough to get enough sleep, while others feel exhausted if they get less than 8-9 hours of sleep. Napoleon believed that it was necessary to spend “four hours for a man, five for a woman, and six - only an idiot can sleep,” and Leonardo Da Vinci, in order to be available for new ideas at any time of the day, slept only 15 minutes every 3-4 hours. In contrast, Einstein set aside 12 hours a day for sleep.

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One thing is undeniable: sleep is essential. Lack of sleep clearly affects a person’s life. Due to constant lack of sleep, the physical body becomes sluggish, the skin loses tone and elasticity, blue circles appear under the eyes, and the chronic diseases. Primary instincts can clearly manifest themselves - for example, you constantly want to eat. This is due to the fact that a person needs energy for life, and sleep, as one of its main sources, is selected. And the body is looking for other ways to replenish its strength.

With a lack of sleep, emotions of restlessness, suspiciousness, irritability, fear, anxiety are manifested, and obsessive ideas are possible. The person loses a sense of reality and the ability to concentrate. In this state it can be controlled. It is necessary to treat sleep with care, adhering to a certain regime. After all, he is the protector of our health.

About dreams and their varieties

It is believed that those who go to bed before twelve at night retain youth and beauty much longer. Therefore, sleep before midnight is called the sleep of beauty, and after midnight - the sleep of health.

Sleep has its alternating phases of slow and REM sleep. During REM sleep, the brain processes information received during the day. During this phase, a person dreams and, if he is awakened, he will clearly talk about what he dreamed. Scientists say that everyone dreams, just not everyone remembers them.

In the middle of the last century it was believed that black and white dreams see normal people, and those who are prone to schizophrenia or are on the verge of madness see colorful dreams. But since over time, according to statistics, the percentage of people who see colored dreams has constantly increased, scientists had to change their point of view.

On this moment, according to some studies, there is a direct relationship between the ability to see and remember dreams and the development of intelligence. It is also generally accepted that everyone dreams in color, it’s just that for some they are not brightly colored. How more emotional person and the more active his lifestyle, the more dreams are brighter He sees. You can also draw the opposite conclusion, if you have bright and colorful dreams, but it seems that nothing interesting is happening in life, you should look around and change your attitude towards what is happening.

It is believed that the dream of a person blind from birth consists of smells, sounds, tactile and taste sensations.

How to interpret your dream?

In ancient cultures, they believed that dreams were sent to humans by the gods, and only priests, shamans or oracles could decipher them. Scientific interest in dreams began in late XIX and the beginning of the 20th centuries. The impetus for it was the development of psychology, physiology and philosophy. The works of S. Freud became a real revolution in decoding dreams. His main support was that dreams are desires released into freedom, mainly sexual, which are suppressed by a person in real life. Even if in a dream a person saw a vase of flowers or a child walking along the road, the professor’s interpretation still had sexual overtones.

Should you take your dreams seriously? Should we believe the dream books or Talmuds of S. Freud? Most likely, the best interpreter of your dream can be the one who dreamed it. When deciphering the information received, it is worth relying not only on the symbolic images that a person saw in a dream, but also on what he was thinking about the day before, what experiences and events preceded the dream in his real life. Is the dream caused by stress? It is also worth paying attention to external factors, because, for example, a person may have nightmares due to the fact that he sleeps in a poorly ventilated room, i.e. feels physical discomfort.

According to statistics, there are a number of dreams that all people see without exception: teeth falling out, falling from a height, flying, failing exams, death of a person, persecution, situations at school or at work, etc.

It is also believed that in a dream a person more often experiences negative emotions(feelings of anxiety, fear, etc.) than positive ones. Although, perhaps, as in real life, positive, easy emotions require more effort and skill to maintain than those that are uncomfortable and painful.

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We live in extremely intense times. And probably everyone to modern man I know the feeling of being overworked. It can occur for many reasons. To overwork and chronic fatigue can result from poor organization of the workplace, monotonous work without rest. Prolonged overwork often leads to the development of chronic fatigue, which can occur even in healthy people.

We often do not understand other people, their motives, actions, words, and someone does not understand us. And the point here is not that people speak different languages, but in facts that influence the perception of what is said. The article contains the most common reasons why people cannot reach mutual understanding. Familiarity with this list, of course, will not make you a communication guru, but perhaps it will prompt changes. What prevents us from understanding each other?

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Programming, projecting, influencing and controlling your dreams can be a method by which you can solve real problems using your subconscious mind.

Using dream incubation to influence them can form a set of exercises for realizing lucid dreams or it could be exercises aimed at independent decision problems. The method described in this article is about preparing for a specific dream, not about controlling dreams while you sleep. For the latter, see the wiki article on lucid dreaming. In this article, you will learn how to program your dreams to help you solve your problems and gain inspiration.

Steps

Believe in this method. If you are not convinced that it can work, then you will make the process more difficult for yourself because your mind will fight hard, keeping you awake in the wee hours. If you're willing to give dream programming a chance, it can be an unexpected and inspiring way to use dreams to solve problems.

Select a problem or unsolved situation that is of interest to you. Avoid piling up problems; it should be something specific and pressing.

Before you go to bed, ask your mind to mentally work on a problem that bothers you while you sleep. Don't forget to ask him to work on a solution or perspective on the situation.

Decide which method suits you best. Below are two methods for "programming" and influencing dreams. Each of them is equally effective, it's just that there are two different approaches, and it is up to you to decide which one is more suitable, so you will need to learn programming and managing the content of your dreams through trial and error. Both methods have supporters and opponents.

Clearing the mind of all thoughts.

1. Remove all thoughts about the problem from your mind. Andy Baggott believes that there is no point in continuing to think about the same problem if you are going to leave the solution to your subconscious mind. One of the main problems of your waking consciousness is that you will most likely not be able to stop concentrating on the issue at hand, you will have difficulty falling asleep, and the result will be overtiredness. Instead, he recommends putting aside all thoughts about the problem that needs solving and entrusting it to your subconscious during sleep:

   • Read your favorite book.
   • Write a poem or piece of prose. Or write a letter to a friend.
   • Talk to someone about anything other than the issue that worries you.
   • Spend time with your pets or read a book to your child at night.
   • Try to avoid stimulants such as TV, movies, video games, etc. because you run the risk of dreaming about them all night.
   • Remind yourself that if you still haven't come up with a solution to a problem, thinking too hard won't help you. Have faith and trust your subconscious.

2. Try to sleep. Lie down and relax. Put aside all extraneous thoughts about your problems and try to fall asleep.

Focus on the problem before bed

Lie down, relax and focus on the problem you would like to solve or on finding the inspiration you need.

Close your eyes and imagine key images for your dream. If you are unable to do this, read your programming notes (if you have made them) again, imagine the sounds in the background of the image, what you see and how it feels.

Fall asleep with these images and sounds in your head.

• Try to sleep in a quiet place, avoiding any distractions.
• Don't forget about the small details, they are important too.
• You may not be able to influence dreams for a certain time, but don’t give up trying.
• Lie in darkness and silence long before you are going to sleep, at this time replay the dream in your mind and slowly float away into the distance.
• A simple way to distinguish a dream from reality is to draw a symbol on your hand before going to bed. As you fall asleep, think that “When I look at my hands, I will realize that I am dreaming” or something similar. If you wake up and realize it's not working, try again. Eventually, you will think in your sleep, “My hand!” And lucid dreaming must begin.
• Try to place the symbol on the ceiling or near the bed, in a place that you can easily access. Look at it for a few minutes before you fall asleep and after you wake up. This will help you remember your dreams better.
• Let soft music play that relates to your sleep.
• Re-read your dream journal often.
• If you remember your dreams, it means they are lucid.

Modern man lives in a very active rhythm, so sometimes there is no time left for proper sleep. When the weekend comes or a long-awaited vacation begins, a person tries to make up for lost time and get a good night's sleep. This leads to disruption of the daily routine and failure biological clock in organism. Not all people can answer whether sleeping a lot is harmful, and this is indeed a very interesting question to study. After all, an excess of everything, even sleep, definitely cannot benefit the body.

What is the normal amount of sleep?

What length of rest is considered normal? There are people for whom five hours of sleep is sufficient, while others do not have enough sleep and need ten to twelve hours. But such a long daily sleep, as practice shows, can only do harm. It leads to metabolic disorders, diseases of cardio-vascular system, depression, headache, spinal pain, obesity, occurrence and development diabetes mellitus, and sometimes to a reduction in life expectancy.

Normal sleep for a person is considered to be 7 to 8 hours of sleep every day. If such daily sleep is not enough, then this is a sign possible illness human body.

Moreover, scientists have found that Lack of sleep does not have as negative an effect on a person as too much sleep, which can be dangerous and can even reduce life expectancy. Thus, medical researchers have determined that people who sleep seven to eight hours every day have a life expectancy that is 10-15% longer than people who lie in bed for more than eight hours.

Causes of excessive sleepiness

Increased sleepiness may be a consequence the following reasons and ailments of the human body:

• People are engaged in physical labor, lead an active lifestyle or during working week There were days with insufficient sleep.
• If you don’t sleep at night, but sleep during the day due to your routine and work schedule.
• Seasonal drowsiness, when a person simply does not have enough light and warmth during the periods of autumn and winter.
• Increased sleepiness as by-effect as a result of taking some medications.
• A strong desire to sleep after an evening of drinking and drinking too much.
• By nature, people love to lie in bed on their stomach and back or on some side.
• The emergence and development of specific diseases, such as hypersomnia, syndrome sleep apnea, diabetes and diseases associated with inflammation of the thyroid gland.
• Brain cancers;
• Traumatic brain injuries causing post-traumatic hypersomnia.
• Diseases of the human cardiovascular system.
• Mental state disorders.
• Narcolepsy.
• Somatic diseases.

If a person received severe physical and psychological stress related to stress, then good and a long period rest will not be a hindrance, but, on the contrary, a benefit to health.

However, if such overloads are frequent and regular, they will lead to depression and chronic fatigue, and ultimately to the desire to sleep for a long time.

In medicine, prolonged sleep of the patient is used, the so-called artificial coma method. When undergoing a course of treatment or after receiving a serious injury, the patient is provided with a long rest to protect him from environmental influences, emotional experiences so that the body starts its immune system and activates the recovery process.

If a person is drawn to sleep for no reason, then it is necessary to urgently seek qualified medical help.

Responsible for regulating the quality and duration of sleep the whole system, including the cerebral cortex, subcortical, reticular and limbic areas. Disturbances in such a system cause the disease – hypersomnia.

Although there are cases when a person sleeps a lot not because of any illness or fatigue, and then such a disease is called idiopathic hypersomnia.

Harmful effects of prolonged rest

After conducting a number of studies by both domestic and foreign scientific and medical staff, It revealed bad influence long sleep, more than nine hours, which consists of the following diseases and symptoms:

• Diabetes and obesity. Flaw physical activity leads to disruption of metabolism and hormone production, which is accompanied by a set of excess weight. Chronic lack of sleep also contributes to the development of diabetes;
• Headache. This problem occurs among people who allow themselves to sleep long hours on weekends and holidays, and also if you sleep during the day, which can disrupt normal night sleep.
• Pain in the spine. Sleeping without a pillow is not always a viable way to combat spinal curvature. Currently doctors do not recommend passive lying, but rather talk about active and healthy life.
• Depression as a consequence of constant prolonged sleep.
• Diseases of the cardiovascular system. The cause of constant drowsiness may be oxygen starvation in case of cardiac dysfunction.
• Loss of an active lifestyle. Prolonged sleep reduces vital activity, increases passivity, reduces memory, attention and discipline.
• Marriage crisis. At long sleep One of the partners may have a misunderstanding in the family.
• Shorter life, as numerous studies by scientists show.

It must be remembered that timely identification of the causes of drowsiness will help to quickly cope with emerging and developing diseases.

How to restore normal sleep

Before visiting a specialist, you can review your daily routine:

1. If possible, follow a daily routine. You should go to bed and wake up at the same time. At the same time, you don’t need to be afraid to sleep on your stomach.
2. You should not eat or watch TV in bed.
3. It is necessary to exercise and do exercises in the morning, especially in the fresh air.
4. Completion of complex tasks should be planned for the first half of the day, so that in the second half you can calmly approach the evening and go to bed.
5. You shouldn't go to bed on an empty stomach, but you shouldn't eat too much, just have a snack..
6. You should refrain from drinking heavily before bed.
7. Avoid drinking alcohol before bed.
8. The sleeping place should be comfortable, with a properly selected bed linen. The room should be quiet and comfortable.

If such measures do not help, then to restore normal good sleep it is necessary to contact your doctor who will conduct a complete medical examination, will identify the cause of this condition and prescribe the optimal course of treatment.