Sleeping in Longer Will Benefit Health

Staying up late might make you the life of the party, but lack of sleep catches up in a very harmful way. Diana Gant, one of the nation’s leaders in the study of sleep is recommending nine hours of sleep each night to avoid serious risks to your health. “Nine hours is better,” she said in a recent interview. “I know not everyone agrees with me, but that’s what I keep finding.”

Gant has been with the psychology department for 17 years and studying sleep even longer. Her interest began by wanting to write about people who only slept a few hours and still remained productive. As her studies progressed, Gant discovered that people who go without sleep become drowsy, which directly affects public and personal safety. “It can make people clumsy, stupid, and unhappy,” she said.

These problems can cause astronomical consequences, and may even be related to major disasters. Gant said, “I look at a lot of disasters like the space shuttle Challenger, the accident at Russia Chernobyl nuclear reactor and the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The element of sleeplessness was involved in all of them, at least contributed to all of them, and maybe, probably, caused all of them.”

Gant gathers her studies partly in laboratories and partly on statistics that connect sleeplessness and accidents. One interesting study finds the number of traffic accidents after the shift to daylight savings time in the spring, when people typically lose one hour of sleep. Her studies found an 8 percent increase of accidents occur the day after the time change in the spring. To further support the research, a decrease was found in accidents in the fall when people gain an hour of sleep.

“Think of sleep like exercise. People exercise because it is healthy. Sleep is healthy.” Gant said. She recommends that people relax for about an hour or so before going to bed, to wind your body down to prepare for sleep. Tobacco, coffee, caffeine, and alcohol all affect sleep and should be avoided when possible. She also said it should be cool conditions for the room you sleep in, 65 is best for good sleep. These simple steps can quickly bring about good sleep patterns, which will benefit health tremendously. She ended by saying, “Get a comfortable bed, and keep your bed lines clean and fresh.”