Your Sleep Schedule Matters!

Your Sleep Schedule Matters!

Kristi Flora Karki

“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” a rhyme we all have come across in our childhood, but it’s not just a rhyme but a secret to a happy and healthy life.

This rhyme signifies the importance of health, specifically sleep and how it affects our overall life. This article dwells around the importance of sleep in one’s life and how not paying much attention to it can lead to serious issues.

 Sleep is necessary for all living beings, as it is vital for our body’s growth and development. Getting adequate sleep is must as it provides both mental and physical health benefits, starting from repairing of our body, improving our mood to our overall productivity.

A good sleep provides rest to the body, it repairs and conserve energy, reduces inflammation, prevents chronic diseases like heart diseases blood pressure, Diabetes etc. Sleep also helps with the mental well-being, as it lowers the stress levels and reduces anxiety and depression, it also enhances mood and helps with the proper cognitive functioning.

 Sleep is Vital for all age groups, the infants need around (14-16) hours of sleep with frequent naps for better growth and development, toddlers need around (11-14) hours of sleep, teenagers and adults need around (7-9) hours of sleep for better cognitive functioning, boosting memory and overall performance.

Eventually, by old age the sleeping patterns change to shorter durations with sudden awakening. Hence, a circadian rhythm is set for our bodies that needs to be maintained for good health and if not maintained, can lead to various serious issues, like sleeping problems, memory loss and weak overall performance.

          In recent years, an exponential growth has been seen in the cases of insomnia cases among people. Insomnia, a sleeping disorder, where a person is unable to fall asleep, is found to be common in older adults and females.

It is found that approximately 1 in 3 adults report not getting enough sleep regularly and over 50% of the population experience sleeping problems, according to the Cleveland Clinic and the New Indian Express. A 2024 study revealed that 61% of the individuals reported sleep fewer than six hours, which leads to dangerous health hazards. So, the question arises, what might be the reason for increasing sleeping problems among people?

The answer is a culmination of various factors. One of the most important reasons being the Covid-19 Pandemic, as it put the entire world into a stagnant state leading to fear, sadness, stress, eventually leading to anxiety among people which resulted in sleeping problems.

Also, the technological advancement has contributed massively in increasing sleeping problems among people, like, excessive use of smart phones and electronic devices. It is found that exposure to the blue light emitted by the electronic devices reduces melatonin production which directly affect our sleep.

Use of social media has completely cut out people from the real world and has created a tendency more like a “pressure” among people to be connected all the time and so to prevent missing out on trends people developed the habit of being on their phones 24×7 eventually ruining their sleep cycle.

This excessive use of electronic devices is not only seen among youngsters but elderly people as well! People have spent hours and hours on their phones for the entire locked down period, which has developed a habit among people to be on their phone. People have created a habit of doomscrolling, where they end up using social media for hours and without even realizing it.

Teenagers, adults and even elderly people atleast spend 3 hours scrolling before sleeping which has completely deteriorated everyone’s sleep cycle. This habit is leading people into insomnia, stress, anxiety and other serious health issues.

   In this fast world that never sleeps, people are expected to be productive and work restlessly to keep up with the ever-evolving world. But being productive does not mean to comprise on your health. In recent years, being productive has taken a negative turn as the work culture has become very toxic and unhealthy which has led to the rise in stress and health issues among people.

When employees are constantly overworked with tasks and face intense pressure to meet deadlines, it often leads to chronic stress, burnout and also decreases the work quality. Also, ambiguity in job responsibilities and expectations can lead to frustration, confusion and eventually affects the quality of one’s life in a negative way.

In severe cases, the despair and hopelessness associated with work environment can lead to suicidal thoughts and attempts. There has been an increase in deaths due to toxic work culture. Recently, a 26-year-old employee at EY (Ernst and Young) died, her mother claimed the reason being the “backbreaking workload” which sparked questions on the ongoing toxic work culture.

There have been several such cases of deaths due to work stress. Questions have been raised about the ongoing “Hustle-culture” where everyone is in a rat race trying to meet the deadlines, to get a promotion, to achieve success and money, which eventually comes at the cost of their health.

           “You can sleep forever once you’re dead” “If you have dreams then you’ve to sacrifice your sleep” statements like these are made by many in today’s world, signifying how unnecessary sleep is and how it is wastage of one’s time. But they have no idea that compromising on your sleep works like a slow poison which slowly brings one closer to death!

 “Health is wealth” it is the ultimate truth, as nothing matters if you are sick and have got health issues…there is a saying that “we have hundred problems until we have a health problem”.

So, it’s time we must start taking care of our sleep schedules for our overall wellbeing. We must remember that for better performance our body must get good amount of rest and nourishment otherwise it will start to fall apart.

People must realize one simple thing that we are not living to work, but working to live…so it is crucial to remember that real success can be enjoyed only with a healthy body and mind. So, yeah, your sleep schedule definitely matters!

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