How well did you sleep last night? If we don’t sleep well one night, we cannot just make it up the next night. Sleep is integrally important not only for your body but for your brain and cognitive wellness, too. so make every effort to sleep-for your brain’s sake!
Brainwork While We Sleep
We understand sleep’s importance for our bodies, but it’s just as crucial if not even more important, for our brains. While we sleep, our brain goes to work, consolidating memories among other important brain functions. Quality sleep is just as important as the quantity of sleep. Interrupted sleep can be as detrimental as not getting enough sleep to your brain and memory. Children, teens and adults are getting less sleep and/or more interrupted sleep with the increase of activities at night and the never ending availability of phones, tablets and devices to keep us awake.
Chronic insomnia has been linked to depression, decreased decision making ability, poor attention span, decreased memory and logical reasoning and even poor dexterity. This info alone surely should point us to our pillows at a reasonable hour each night.
Sleep Tips
The National Sleep Foundation along with an expert multidisciplinary panel of experts has just issued new sleep recommendations. Lack of sleep has been coined a “national epidemic” in American society, so these new recommendations are highly anticipated.
Their recommendations adjusted the amounts we all need. Preschool and school age children’s amounts increased by an hour to 10-13 and 9-11 hours respectively. They widened the amount of sleep teens need to 8-10 hours with adults needing 7-9 hours each night. Older adults over 65 are recommended to get 7-8 hours nightly.
Here are a few tips we can all do daily to get enough sleep-for your brain’s sake:
- Avoid devices in the hours leading to sleep, put on sleep mode or better yet, out of your bedroom
- Keep a consistent sleep schedule
- Get adequate mental and physical exercise during earlier part of the day
MemoryMinders can provide strategies and tips on healthy sleep, especially as we age. Check out Brain Boosters products for more information on the importance of sleep and other factors contributing to mind and memory wellness. Sleep well, for your brain’s sake!