Sleep is a very important factor in anyone’s life, especially students. Lack of sleep is stressful, it ages a person and interferes with their daily life. Almost every student is familiar with the situation where they stay up late into the night to do homework, prepare for exams or just watch interesting movies.
The time needed for quality sleep, which varies throughout life, differs between men and women. It also depends on the intensity of work during the day, and there are individual characteristics depending on a person’s lifestyle.
When we were first born, the need for sleep reached 20 hours a day, then gradually decreased and remains at the level between seven and nine hours a day for an adult.
Sleep physiologically represents a decrease in contact with the outside world, neuropsychiatric and motor activity and activation of internal processes necessary for the recovery of the brain. If we don’t prioritize this activity of our brain, we lose clarity of thought, get fat, age and lose our ability to work. The last part is essential for the lifestyle of students.
There are several conditions required to get good sleep.
• It is advisable that there are no lamps or any other sources that emit blue light in the room in which you sleep.
• Try to finish studying, working, or socializing at least an hour before 11 p.m. to allow your body to transition into a restful state.
• The room should be dark and cool, and the temperature should not exceed 65-74 degrees Fahrenheit. Blackout curtains and white noise machines can be helpful.
• The mattress should not be soft, but also not too hard, so that the spine can assume a natural position along the physiological curves.
• While everyone has their preferred sleeping position, sleeping on your back may help prevent facial wrinkles and reduce strain on the neck and spine.
Why should we sleep well and enough? There are many reasons why sleep is a necessity.
The growth hormone, somatotropin, is produced only when we sleep, and at a special stage of sleep, helping us to recover and keep fit. This is why somatotropin is considered one of the puberty hormones.
Lack of sleep ages a person very quickly because it deprives him of the “window” when somatotropin is produced and has its regenerating effect.
Melatonin, also sometimes called the hormone of youth, is produced only in the dark or with tightly closed eyes, and its maximum concentration is observed closer to midnight.
Melatonin deficiency leads to high levels of emotional tension, increasing the level of stress hormones, so the body pressure and temperature cannot reach the values necessary for proper sleep.
Inadequate sleep provokes a decrease in the level of the hormone leptin by about 15 percent. This hormone informs us about the onset of satiety, the feeling of fullness, and acts in conjunction with dopamine. At the same time, the level of the hormone that tells us about hunger, ghrelin, increases by the same 15 percent. It is ghrelin that prompts us to make a path to the refrigerator at night.
The body perceives lack of sleep as a stressor and a threat to its existence. Therefore, it reacts with an increase in the level of the hormone cortisol, which leads to fat deposition.
Prioritizing sleep is not a luxury—it’s a necessity. A good night’s sleep improves cognitive performance, emotional well-being and overall health. As students, we often underestimate its importance, but making small adjustments to our bedtime habits can have a profound impact on our daily lives.
So tonight, put down your phone, dim the lights and give your body the rest it deserves. Your future self will thank you.