How to Get Better Sleep?
– Tricks & Tips Included!
It is well known that sleep quality is crucial for the welfare of our bodies. Then, how long does it take to fall asleep? How many hours should a person sleep every day? How to fall asleep faster? In the fast-paced urban life, people are getting increasingly busy, many people achieved work and wealth at the expense of sleeping time. As we all know, insufficient sleeping may endanger people’s health and weaken their immunity. By contrast, enough sleep is good for health, which lays a solid foundation for our everyday life and work. Today, we are going to share some knowledge with you about sleep as below.
Different Stages of Sleep
According to the analysis of World Association of Sleep Medicine (WASM), there are four stages of sleep, each being a little deeper than the one before.
Stage 1：The Early Stage. As you sleep, your muscles relax little by little. Your heart beats at a slowly rate, and your brain slows down. However, you are easily to be awakened by surroundings.
Stage 2: The Light Sleep. Your mind continues to slow down, your muscles become more relaxed and breathing becomes regular. You are not easily to be awakened by the noises come from outside.
Stage 3 and Stage 4：The Deep Sleep. Your muscles are fully relaxed, sensory stimuli are reduced, from time to time you will dream. During this time, the body recovers from the activities of the day before.
Then, how many hours should a person sleep every day? How long does it take to fall asleep?
Are there any ways to help people fall asleep faster?
How Many Hours Should a Person Sleep Every Day?
How long should people sleep in a day? The survey of research institutions in the United States shows that sleep time varies widely based on age groups.
| Age | Recommended Sleep Time(Every Day) | Explanation |
| New born babies and kids aged 1-3 | 13 hours per day | Infants need the right amount of sleep in order to grow, be healthy, and not be cranky the next day. |
| Children aged 4-12 | 10-12 hours per day | Growing kids need sleep. It is advisable that children shall go to bed at 8p.m. and parents may read short bedtime stories for them. |
| teenagers and young people aged 13-29 | 8 hours per day | Sleep is necessary for good health, especially for teenagers. During this time, the body recovers from the activities of the day before. |
| Adults aged 30-60 | 7 hours per day | After a busy day of working, the body needs to rest. 7 hours of sleep enables your body to prepare itself for the next day. |
| Elders aged over 60 | 5.5-7 hours per day | 5.5 hours of sleep is enough to help old people staying healthy, as long as they go to bed before 12p.m. |
Above all, no matter what your age is, you take time out to rest in order to keep safe and healthy. Now let’s move to an essential point: how long does it take to fall asleep.
How Long Does It Take to Fall Asleep?
Want to find out whether your sleep latency remains in a healthy zone?
Sleep latency is the amount of time it takes people to fall asleep, and it varies from person to person. Some only take a couple of minutes, and others sometimes up to more than one hour or more. Just think, how long does it take you to fall asleep on average every night?
If：
It takes you only 15 to 30 minutes?
Congratulations! Taking 15 to 30 minutes to fall asleep from a wide-awake state is a sign of being healthy. It means that your body has set up a robust biological clock, an invisible “clock” inside the human body which adjusts the internal rhythm of life activities, reminding you to fall asleep at the right time and get up at the right time. Most importantly, a good sleep latency puts your body into Deep Sleep Mode, allowing an effective cytothesis (the repair of injury in a cell) to occur in your body. After a night of full recovery, the physical function being recuperated, your body is able to maintain health and vitality.
How to keep it?
Keeping track of your sleep, using a sleep recording APP, or taking notes is recommended. Check your sleep regularly through periodic observation to see whether it is in good condition. In this way, once anything untoward happens, it can be noticed in time.
Besides, work out a scientific schedule, which gradually regulates the right time for you to go to sleep and the right time for you to get up, and keep it for sound health as well as a sound sleeping mode.
It takes you 30 minutes or longer?
Pressures from daily life may cause insomnia. If you find that you need an hour or a longer time to fall asleep, you are likely to have somnipathy or sleep disorders, characterized by having persistent difficulty getting to sleep. The problem may occur two or three times a week. It may even last as long as half a year or longer. Insomnia like this has bad effects on your health.
How to fix it?
First, we must figure out what has caused the problem.
If it has been caused by psychological factors such as anxieties and depressions, it is advisable to consult a psychiatrist and to have your mental state adjusted by doing some bedtime activities like, for example, reading a relaxing story, listening to some soothing music, taking a bath or a massage to fully relax, or practicing meditation.
If it has been caused by some destructive lifestyle—frequently working overtime, overeating at dinner, or drinking too much alcohol or coffee in the evening, then you must change your lifestyle, limiting your food and drinks, doing physical exercise;
If it has been caused by some diseases, you need to consult a medical specialist for medication-assisted therapy if need be.
It takes you less than 3 to 5 minutes?
Falling asleep too fast (for less than 3-5 minutes) is not a sign of being healthy.
It normally takes 15 to 30 minutes from going to bed to falling asleep—costing either too short or too long a time is abnormal. Falling asleep too fast may be a harbinger of some imminent disease: according to the latest study by Emory University, a considerable number of people who fall asleep too fast often suffer from sleep disorders, such as “sleep apnea”—the phenomenon of stopping breathing during sleep—which is caused by an obstruction of the respiratory system and sometimes maybe a warning sign of nervous disorders, increasing the risk of cardiac diseases in the long term.
How to fix it? Take some special physical checkups:
-Keep track of your sleep to see whether there is a “sleep apnea”;
-Do some cardiovascular examination and check your blood pressure and heart rate to see whether you are suffering from cardiovascular diseases;
-Check your nervous system to see whether it is disordered.
Ways to Help You Sleep Fast
A set of scientific sleeping skills are helpful to our health.
1. An advisable Bedtime Diet
There are three kinds of food that can improve our sleep: milk, wholemeal bread, and oatmeal. In detail, Milk contains tryptophan that has a calming effect on people’s brains. Wholemeal bread helps the body release insulin that would relax people’s muscles. Oatmeal is a bedtime food that produces melatonin, just a small bowl of which can bring you a better sleep.
2. A cozy sleeping environment
It is of high importance to keep the bedroom quiet and the light congenial. First, you need a lamplet with warm light. Then, try to dim the light and, simultaneously, limit the noises to the minimum level. For instance, if there is a clock ticking ceaselessly that interferes with your sleep, it should be replaced by a silencing one.
3. Another Method: Naked Sleep
According to the National Sleep Foundation, cool environments induce sleepiness. Therefore, completely undressing tends to reduce your body temperature, and you are more easily relaxed and hypnotized with direct contact between your naked skin and the smooth bedclothes.
Today, we talked about questions like how long does it take to fall asleep? How many hours should a person sleep every day? And methods to fall asleep faster. I conclusion, sleep is an ordinary and yet extremely important matter in our daily life. We can enjoy neither good health, nor a happy life, nor an efficient professional career without ample sleep. We hope that our communication today will help improve the quality of our sleep, allowing us to have proper physical relaxation and to be filled with inexhaustible vigor amid the hustle and bustle of modern life.