You Don't Need 8 Hours Of Sleep!

Few all stress about hours logged, but it turns out that how well you sleep matters  more than how much, new research reveals.  These habits will boost the quality of your Z’s  and health.

- Mirel Ketchief

For years, we’ve been told that it’s crucial to get seven to eight hours of sleep a night, and that if we don’t, we’re harming our health. Now, enlightening new research is challenging this notion. “There’s been a belief, even among experts, that our prehistoric ancestors slept eight or more hours a night,” says Jerry Siegel, the director of UCLA’s Center for Sleep Research. But his study found that people in hunter-gatherer societies, similar to our ancient predecessors, actually slept an average of 6½ hours – 30 minutes less than the amount recommended by the National Sleep Foundation in the US. What may be more important than the number of hours you snooze is how restful those Z’s are. “Good sleep quality is vital for your well-being,” explains Dr Charlene Gamaldo, the medical director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep at Howard County General Hospital in the US. “It improves your mood, memory and ability to focus. It can also boost your immune system and keep you from getting sick. More signifi cantly, it can reduce your risk for problems such as diabetes and obesity.”

People who don’t get quality sleep wake up exhausted every morning. They try to remedy the problem by heading to bed earlier or by sleeping later. “But if your sleep quality is poor, getting more of it won’t help,” says Bryce Mander, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab. Instead, you need to address the root of the problem. These strategies will help you go deeper and sounder, starting tonight.

Sweat often…