Three Sleep Facts You May Not Have Known

Sleep is crucial for our overall health, helping to support brain function, emotional regulation, a healthy immune system and more. Here are three tips to help you get the most from your sleep.

1. Don't rely on "catch-up" sleep: When you fall short of the amount of sleep your body needs, you accrue sleep debt. And tacking on several hours one night or over a weekend will not make up for it. Sleeping in may make you feel better temporarily, but altering your sleep and wake times significantly can lead to increased fatigue, Kimberly Fenn, a professor of cognition and cognitive neuroscience at Michigan State University, told The Washington Post. Instead, keep a consistent sleep schedule and, if you've lost some sleep, try waking up an hour or so later in the morning or take a 20-minute power nap in the afternoon.
2. Find your sleep “sweet spot”: New research suggests that people who hit a sleep “sweet spot” between 6.4 and 7.8 hours of sleep each night experience better brain, heart and immune system function. The Optimist reporter Maggie Penman spoke with Mark Lachs, co-chief of the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, who said both too little sleep and too much sleep can be bad for your health. "It is a Goldilocks kind of phenomenon," he said.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.