7 Reasons Why Six Hours of Sleep Might Just Not be Enough!

What happens when we don't eat adequately? Our body feels less energized and we suffer weakness and tiredness, right? There is nothing like less sleep. It is a requirement of our body, just as food, water and air is. Whatever is required should be supplied or else there can be consequences.

After a long day of hectic schedule, our brain signals tiredness and weakness to our body. The body thereafter goes into sleep mode and replenishes the lost energy for which we are able to work on the next day. A 24 hour of sleep loss can be very tiresome and continuous it deprivation can cause health hazards.

An average human being need 8 to 9 hours of daily sleep. But can our body function the same way if we sleep for 6 hours. How will our body react to this loss? Let's find out?

When we sleep, our body and brain are continuously working to breakdown the food, repair the tissue produce hormones etc. Not only adequate sleep enhances the functioning of different body system, it also relieves us from mental stress.

However there are few exceptions. Researchers have found that some genes mutation such as NPSR1 genes, DEC2 genes and ADRB1 genes have the capability to take 4 to 6 hours of sleep without any severe impact. But these genes are extremely rare.

For more of us, we are not lucky enough to bear those genes and as such our body needs to it adequately as per the requirement of our brain and body.

But is there any sleep hack? Does that really work? What is power nap which we often hear about?

Here are some quick questions we need to answer.

1. Is sleep hack real?
2. What is the basic requirement of sleep?
3. How will less sleep affect our brain and body?
4. Can lack of sleep make you sick?
5. Why we drowse during the day?
6. Can your body adapt to less sleep?
7. Can you sleep less and still work?

In this technology driven world, we often hear the word "hack". Hack is a shortest possible way to achieve any proposed goal. As we manage to hack computers and wifi, we think we can hack it also. But don‟t be sad.

There is no such term as “sleep hack”. Sleep hack has been popular in youths to show their efficiency and hard work without sleeping. This is not a desire. It's a necessity. Without sleep our brain will not function and loss of continuous sleep affects our brain and cause traumatic consequences.

Sleep consists of four stages. Awake, Light, Deep/Slow Wave Sleep (SWS) or deep sleep and REM (Rapid eye movement). An average adult complete these cycles 3 to 5 times per night.

In SWS Sleep, the muscles repair itself and cells regenerate. While in REM, the eyes are at rest but the brain is super active and most of the dream comes at this stage of sleep. REM sleep is crucial for REM is very crucial for learning and memory enhancement, emotion processing as well as creative writing and problem solving.

For a healthy adult, 20 to 25 % of REM sleep is vital for healthy brain and body functioning.

To conclude those who skip REM or SWS sleep overtime suffers loss of memory, weak immune system, emotional distress and others.

2. What is the basic requirement of sleep?

Our body needs 7 to 9 hours of daily sleep and about 90 minutes of REM sleep every day. As a biological being, we can't plug our self to chargers. Sleep act as charging points replenishes our brain and body. Most of the hyper activity takes place at night. Skipping those sleep activities affects our creativity and longevity. Besides most of us don‟t sleep continuously, waking up during night deters our quality of sleep and the actual count decreases. Adequate sleep not only signifies quantity but also quality.

3. How will less sleep affect our brain and body?

We often think ourselves as a super human. Working day and night with 2 to 3 hours of sleep and thinks this is what all successful people do. But better think for your body than others as those 2 to 3 hours can hurt you so much. Starting from the nervous system to our digestive system, every organ of our body is sleep oriented. Without sleep the functioning of our systems deteriorates.

For our body lack of Chronic sleep can cause drowsiness, tiredness, depression, anxiety, fatigue, nausea, heart failure, high pressure, diabetes, heart attack, obesity or even stroke etc.

And for our brain, less sleep can affect our optimum thinking and decision making capacity and can causes memory loss, morning headaches, lack of concentration etc.

According to a study of more than 10,000 people, the ability of brain and body to function declines after getting less than seven to eight hours of sleep.

4. Can lack of sleep make you sick?

During sleep our immune system produces cytokines which help in fighting diseases and prevent foreign bodies from entering our system. Less sleep means less production of antibodies which in turn can make you much more vulnerable to diseases. Long term sleep deprivation can increases your risk to obesity, heart and lungs diseases and can also result in diabetes.

5. Why we drowse during the day?

Day time drowsiness or hypersomnia is more common than you think and about 20% of the population suffers from day time drowsiness. Older people tend to show more drowsiness than young adults. But its not restricted to them and the reason is common for all. Poor sleep habits are often root cause for your day time drowsiness. Skipping those extra hours of sleep at night causes tiredness and fatigue. Mostly obstructive sleep apnea, sleep deprivation and sedating medication causes hypersomnia.

What increases the possibility of day time drowsiness is consumption of too much alcohol and taking drugs.

6. Can your body adapt to less sleep?

It is unscientific to say that our body can adapt to less sleep, There are tons of possible way to adapt less but none can assure you hour healthy life.

Sleep is a essence of healthy life.

You don‟t have to survive, you have to live. An adult needs at least 7 to 9 hours every day for your health, learning, memory and renewal, cutting that to 4 or 6 can draw major consequences. Your body can adapt to less sleep but to the cost of your health. There is no healthy sleep deprivation. In short term it can cause lack of concentration, distress, anxiety and in extreme it can cause heart attack and stroke.

7. Can you sleep less and still work?

Yes, but not for long. Consider yourself as a biological being and not machines. Even machines should be put to rest. Lack of sleep for a considerable period of time may result in inefficiency, memory loss, lack of decision making, emotional distress, mood swings, stress, depression, restlessness etc. Seven to nine hours should be adequate to keep you healthy and running.

So, Next time you think of successful people. Think that if you die, no money can bring you back. We spend one third of our life sleeping. Think it as a way to greatness and never compromise with your sleep.