10 Facts About Sleep

10 Facts About Sleep

1. The record for the longest period without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours 40 minutes during a rocking chair marathon. The record holder reported hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory and concentration lapses.
2. Its impossible to tell if someone is really awake without close medical supervision, people can take cat naps with their eyes open without even being aware of it.
3. Anything less than five minutes to fall asleep at night means you’re sleep deprived. The ideal is between 10 and 15 minutes, meaning your’e still tired enough to sleep deeply, but not so exhausted you feel sleepy by day.
4. A new baby typically results in 400-750 hours lost sleep for parents in the first year
5. No-one knows for sure if other species dream but some do have sleep cycles similar to humans
6. Elephants sleep standing up during non-REM sleep, but lie down for REM sleep
7. Snoring occurs only in non-REM sleep
8. The “natural alarm clock” which enables some people to wake up more or less when they want to is caused by a burst of the the stress hormone adrenocortitropin. Researchers say this reflects an unconscious anticipation of the stress of waking up.
9. Experts say one of the most alluring sleep distractions is the 24-hour accessibility of the internet.
10. Feeling tired can feel normal after a short time. Those deliberately deprived of sleep for research initially noticed the effects on their alertness mood and physical performance, but the awareness dropped off after the first few days.