Getting 6 hours of sleep is really bad for you

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I can remember when staying up past my bedtime was an exciting and cool thing to do. As kids our parents set bedtimes for us to ensure we have plenty of sleep or to ensure that we have structure and that we're ready for school the next day. I'm sure we all can think back to that first time we got to stay up late past our bedtimes; maybe it New Year's Eve or maybe it over the summer to the Fourth of July fireworks. As we grow into those teenage years we start hearing of our friends who pulled an all-nighter to cram for the calculus test. This pattern continues into college. College is a huge time for funny sleep patterns and staying up all night . As we continue into this time in our lives when we're in our twenties thirties and move on we start to feel the repercussions of not getting enough sleep or not having a proper sleep schedule. And sometimes at this point in our mid-twenties we may not even know what a normal sleep schedule is. We may have been so accustomed to staying up all night or waking up very early to be the first one in the office that we've grown accustomed to getting less than 8 hours of sleep.

Well for those of you that are getting 8 hours or more Bravo! For those of you that are getting 6 hours or less, you are in trouble. According to the recent sleep deprivation study, people who were allowed only 6 hours of sleep per night for two weeks eventually function as poorly as those who were forced to stay awake for 2 days straight. Meanwhile, the groups that slept 0 to 4 hours a night show the lowest functionality and intellectual performance. The 6 hour group were surprisingly unaware of how sleep-deprived they were, showing a continued decrease in intellectual performance as the study continued. This information is shocking! According to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, as reported by the CDC, more than 35% of Americans sleep less than 7 hours in a typical day.

Besides walking around exhausted and having your cognitive performance jeopardized here are some additional reasons to get more ZZZzzz’s. When you hit the pillow your body grows and repairs cells, your brain forms new pathways for learning, sleep helps you process and comprehend new information, and for the the most obvious is rest gives you energy to take on the next day.

Now that you are aware how important sleep is give yourself permission to hit the hay and get your 8 hours a night.

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