The following will either help you rest peacefully or keep you up at night.
Sleep can be confusing for many reasons.
For instance, how many hours of sleep am I supposed to get each day? I was always told that we need at least eight hours, but now there's word that seven hours of sleep is perfectly fine.
Do those numbers apply to sleepwalkers, too? I feel like I get a portion of my slumber taken away because I'm unknowingly strutting around the bedroom in my socks and underwear.
Scientists and researchers all over the world are still learning more and more about sleep every day, and every once in a while we hear something new about the slumbering topic.
Here are a few facts about sleep that I find interesting.
1. Different species require more rest than others
2. Humans spend 1/3 of their life sleeping
This is obviously just an average and the numbers differ depending on the age of the human, but quite a lot of sleeping if you really think about it.
3. 12% of people dream entirely in black and white
Older people dream in black and white more often than younger people.
One of the reasons why is because the older crowd didn't have color televisions when they were growing up.
4. Those born blind experience dreams involving things such as emotion, sound, and smell rather than sight
This one is really interesting and it's something that I've never even thought of before. One neat fact about it is that the timing of the blindness in a person’s life impacts what that person dreams about.
5. Within five minutes of waking up, 50% of your dream is already forgotten
Five minutes after you've opened your eyeballs, 50% of recollection is gone. Within 10 minutes, you have now lost about 90% of it.
Actually, Sigmund Freud believed this happens because dreams deliver our repressed thoughts, and so our brain wants to get rid of them as fast as it can.
Although, it’s much more likely because our brain is being used much more as soon as we’re awake thus forgetting much of what we’ve dreamed about.
6. Sleep deprivation will kill you faster than food deprivation
Personally, I wouldn't want to die experiencing either, but there's a reason why you die faster from not sleeping. After several days, you’d be just about completely unable to function, and sleep deprivation was actually used as a form of torture.
7. The record for the longest period of time a human went without sleep is 11 days
By the look of that photo, he's not enjoying it one bit. That's Randy Gardner and he set the record in 1964. Randy survived his extreme sleep deprivation, but others have died staying awake for so long.
8. The sensation of falling when half asleep or jerking yourself awake is called Hypnic Jerks
Now, I've been called a jerk before, but never a Hypnic Jerk. If so, it would be because I've been increasing my amounts of anxiety, caffeine, or physical activity.
In other words, that's what causes this sensational feeling of falling while you're sleeping. They’re more frequent in young people and decrease as we get older, so that's something to look forward to.
9. 15% of the human population are sleepwalkers
If you want to argue with this percentage, take it up with the National Sleep Foundation.
Also, did you know it's a myth that you shouldn’t wake someone who is sleepwalking? In fact, it can be quite dangerous not to wake a sleepwalker.
So, go ahead but wake them up gently.
10. Experts have found a direct link between people’s favorite sleeping positions and their personalities
That statement is according to Professor Idzikowski, and he suggests that those who sleep in the fetal position “may appear tough but are actually sensitive souls right to their core.”
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