The Importance of Sleep
Are you well-rested and ready to begin today’s episode?
Sleep is a vital part of human health and I explore this a bit in today’s episode. I talk about the importance of sleep and how it related to learning and the mind. I explore the idea of comparing sleep to study time. Is it better to study more or sleep more?
I share my thoughts and provide some statistics in today’s episode, and as always, I’d love to hear your thoughts too! Leave your comments below.
A Sleep Study
Here’s a study to highlight why sleep is vital for our health.
A 2010 study published in the journal Sleep found that individuals who reported consistently sleeping less than six hours per night had a 12% higher risk of mortality over a 14-year follow-up period compared to those who reported sleeping between six and eight hours per night. The increased risk was particularly pronounced for cardiovascular disease and stroke.
How would you rate your sleep? Do you need to work on it?
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Hi Michael Lavers!
Here are my ideas on “the importance of sleep”.
Having worked doggedly all day, at night we feel too exhausted to push on any further and then we cannot help drifting off. Many people may view sleep time as a routine activity, but for many others, including myself, it is a means of revitalising both the body and the mind. As we rub sleep from our eyes at or prior to daybreak, we experience the restorative nature of sleep; in fact, it is a tremendous blessing, and one of the greatest gifts of life we often take for granted.
On occasions, we stay awake late into the night due to exams or other pressing business we have to attend to, causing our minds to whirl. In such moments, we are unable to concentrate on work at hand and exhibit signs of irritability. Then nothing seems valuable to us than the prospect of a good rest.
To maintain a healthy body and achieve optimal academic performance, a full night’s sleep is an essential prerequisite. Before immersing themselves in their studies, it is crucial for students to rest well and recharge, especially in the lead up to exams. Many students, despite burning midnight oil, underperform in the examination hall because their minds are overwhelmed and disoriented.
A healthy lifestyle necessitates ample sleep and rest. If you continuously engage in learning and physical exertion without allowing yourself adequate rest, it may have adverse effects on both the body and the mind. Moreover, sleep removes all toxins from the brain. How can you absorb new information with a fatigued, irritable mind?
When you sleep, your brain forms connections and consolidates all the information you gathered while you were awake. The majority of people require approximately 8 hours of sleep at night to experience its rejuvenating effects the following morning. Insufficient sleep may lead to mood disturbances. While my understanding of the science of sleep is limited, I have personally observed individuals who get around 5 hours of sleep each night and manage to be really productive throughout the day. Therefore, I believe that while the guideline of 8 hours of sleep applies to most people, there may be exceptions for some individuals.
Muhammad Hanif (from Pakistan)
Hello Michael, hope you’re doing well, I’m Faraz ( /færʌz/ )from Iran. I’m 14. I enjoy your podcasts and listen to them in my free time and it really helped in my English and British accent. I’m an Upper- intermediate student and To be honest I’m stuck at the intermediate level and I can’t improve. Can you help me with my problem? I think others might have this problem too.
If I could have gotten your membership I would have been very happy but you are not able to use Dollars in Iran and literally everything is restricted in my country even VPNs!
Hi Faraz! Nice to meet you! I love how you included the IPA for your name – very helpful for someone like me who is always bad with name pronunciations 😅
I’ve done a couple episodes on this topic (109 + 195). Have you heard them before? I summriased my advice there.
https://www.levelupenglish.school/podcast109/
https://www.levelupenglish.school/podcast195/
Let me know if you have any more questions about these topics or episodes. And sorry about the troubles in your country with international payments. I’ve heard a lot about it and it must be tough! The good news is that I’ll always be making free content too!