GoodSleepAdvice

What is good quality sleep?

Until now the health focus has always been on getting ENOUGH sleep each night but it’s actually the QUALITY of sleep that’s important to your body and mind’s ability to renew and refresh. If your sleep is regularly disturbed then take action to control these factors.

So are you running on empty? Relying on poor quality junk sleep will affect your body to the point where you will suffer the same negative mental, emotional and physical effects as that experienced by a low grade depressive.

So what is quality sleep? Quality sleep is that of sufficient duration and depth that results in one feeling awake and refreshed throughout the day.

Junk sleep is time spent asleep with limited health, beauty and well-being value that does not let your body and mind renew, recharge and repair effectively. On average, people experiencing junk sleep may undergo an average of 80-90 awakenings or near awakenings every hour.

Here are 5 points to look out for which indicate junk sleep:

• Your sleep has been frequently disturbed in the night
• You still feel tired in the morning or feel very sleepy in the afternoon
• Your bed clothes are tumbled and twisted when you wake up
• You wake up feeling tense or sore or you may suffer headaches during the day
• You find yourself falling asleep at inappropriate times of the day e.g. in a meeting at work or travelling

So how much sleep should you be aiming for? The answer is that it varies from person to person as everyone’s needs are different. Research shows that two thirds of us would LOVE to get more sleep, and most of us are aware that too much sleep isn’t good for us either.

The general rules are as follows:

These are general guidelines and it is important to get to know what your body needs. In reality only 21% of us are getting this recommended 8 hours - and almost a fifth of us don’t even manage more than five hours’ rest a night!

Overall, the message is simple - if you wake up tired then you need to take action to improve your sleep.