*Start Getting the Right Amount of Sleep and Watch Your Life Change is a guest post. If you are interested in having your writing hosted on A Modern Mom’s Life, please visit my Guest Posting page.*
Waking up feeling well-rested and ready to face the day is one of the best feelings in the world. Getting a good night’s sleep can start your day off on the right foot and also lead to an overall improved quality of life.
The amount of sleep you need can vary depending on your age and overall health:
- newborns need as much as 14-17 hours of sleep a night
- school children (up to 13) need around 9-11 hours of sleep
- teenagers should have 8-10 hours of sleep
- adults aged 18-64 need a recommended 7-9 hours of sleep
Our need for sleep varies so much as we get older because the needs of our bodies change. Adult bodies are no longer growing and developing the way children are.
So how can your life change for the better if you start getting the right amount of sleep?
Getting enough sleep at night can increase your productivity throughout the day.
If employees are sleep deprived, their brain is not functioning at full capacity. This can make it harder to process things, forcing you to work slower or maybe even cause injuries depending on your type of work.
On a lighter note, getting the right amount of sleep at night can help to make you look younger.
Our bodies heals while we sleep. Sleep helps strengthen and repair any damage your body has gone through during the day from things like working out.
Proper sleep may also help you lose weight to further make you look younger. Your body burns calories while you sleep, so you don’t even have to do anything! Feeling well rested will also help encourage you to workout. Going to the gym is hard enough normally, going while sleep deprived is almost impossible.
Sleeping properly can also boost your immunity.
Studies have shown that people who sleep less than the recommended 7 hours a night are 3 times more likely to get sick compared to those who get 8 or 9 hours of sleep. This is because when we sleep, our body releases a type of protein called cytokine. This is the protein that helps the body regulate immunity and fight off any infections.
Getting the right amount of sleep will improve your relationships, especially with your children or other family members.
You spend most, if not all, your time with your family and children at home. They will see you at your best and your worst, but getting enough sleep can help make sure you’re always at your best.
Studies have shown that not getting enough sleep can make you a lax parent. When parents were irritable from not getting enough sleep, they were more dismissive of their children and let them get away with things that they wouldn’t be allowed to do if their parent got enough sleep.
This is a problem because not only children, but adolescents until at least 18 years old still need parental involvement to develop socially, emotionally and behaviorally. Getting a good night’s sleep will help you play a more active role in your children’s life.
Don’t forget to also help your children get enough sleep.
If adults have a hard time functioning and managing their emotions with little to no sleep, imagine how children feel. Children, up to at least 17 years old, do need more sleep than adults. Your teenagers are not being lazy by sleeping in, their body needs the time to rest and repair.
If you have children of different ages, setting a time you want them to be in bed can be beneficial. Younger children will need to go to sleep earlier in order to get the right amount of sleep and so on. Making sure your children are getting the right amount of sleep can change your life because like you, they will be able to function better.
If you have trouble sleeping, it could be because your mattress needs to be replaced. Mattresses start to lose their shape over time, which can lead to a restless night. This is extremely preventable since it is so easy to buy a mattress online. No need to visit a store due to the current environment we are in.
Sleep may not seem like such a big deal since it is fairly easy to do, but it really can change your life for the better. Getting the right amount of sleep for your age every night can help you look and feel younger, but also make you your best, productive self!
Michelle is a mother, part-time freelancer, and writer for the Canadian blog Sustainable Planet. She spends her free time skiing, canoeing, and volunteering at local food banks.
Has your sleep, or the sleep of your children been impacted by this pandemic? I was sleeping terribly at the beginning of this uncertainty – even after buying a new mattress! What helped me the most was talking more about my feelings and worries (of which there were a lot!) and recognizing that I don’t have control over what is going on right now.
Read about how I’m coping these days: Three months in and the future is still uncertain
Jess
