10 Interesting Facts about Sleep;
- Sleeping on your front can help digestion - Your hands should apparently be positioned above the pillow so you’re in a free fall position, and laying on your side can apparently help reduce heartburn.
- Humans are the only mammals that willingly delay their sleep - Think about it, it must be so nice to go to sleep when and wherever. Oh we can dream!
- You spend 1/3 of your life sleeping - On average, a human spends about 1/3 of their lives sleeping. This depends on age but even so it’s still quite a lot if you equate it to years over a life time.
- Ideally, it should take you 10-15 minutes to fall asleep at night - If it takes you less than 5, it is likely a sign of sleep deprivation.
- 50% of your dream is forgotten within 5 minutes of waking up - And after a further 5 minutes, 90% of your recollection is gone. This is likely because our brains are being used much more as soon as we wake up and we forget much of what we’ve dreamt about.
- It’s believed that 15% of the population are sleep walkers - And it’s also a myth that you shouldn’t wake up someone who is sleepwalking.
- The record of the longest time period without sleep is 11 days - A Californian student named Randy Gardner in 1964 set this record. This is 100% not recommended, as Randy experienced extreme sleep deprivation over this period.
- Dysania is the state of finding it hard to get out of bed in a morning - We all no doubt sometimes find it hard to get out of bed every so often, but for those who suffer from Dysania, find it particularly difficult and it is most likely to be a form of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
- A giraffe only needs 1.9 hours of sleep per day, whereas a brown bat needs 19.9 hours per day - Studies from The University of Washington show that a giraffe needs the minimum daily sleep of just 1.9 hours, yet a brown bat needs the most daily sleep of 19.9 hours. Countless other animals were shown in between including a tiger at 15.8 hours, a dog at 10.6 hours, a cow at 3.9 hours and a horse at just 2.9 hours. Interesting enough, a pig is closely matched to a human at around 7.8 hours.
- 12% of humans dream entirely in black and white - This has reduced in recent years since the introduction of colour television where only 15% of humans dreamt in colour.