Sweet Dreams

*yawn* 
Good morning gymnasts of the vast and wide Internet!

Today I'm going to be discussing something VERY important.... SLEEP.
Did you know that most people are asleep for one third of their life? Along with that, the record for the longest period without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes? The record holder reported hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, and memory lapses. Pretty weird. You see, we are just beginning to go into the depths of learning that sleep is a very key part of our existence. We've only been studying it for the past 20 years or so. One thing we know for sure is that we need to sleep. No options. Sleep deprivation is a serious health issue, and if you get deprived enough, a fatal one. 

So what does sleep do for you? Well first of all, it gets rid of that horrible drowsy/depressed feeling that you get when you are tired, but it does have other key parts too. There are many theories for why we sleep, all being backed up by great amounts of research, but we as humans are not yet fully sure the main reason why we sleep. 

Some of the theories that scientists have made so far are:

The Inactivity Theory: One of the earliest theories of sleep suggests that inactivity at night is an adaptation that served an advantage by keeping us out of harm’s way at times when we would be particularly vulnerable. Animals that were able to stay still and quiet during these periods of vulnerability had an advantage over other animals that remained active.

The Energy Conservation Theory: The energy conservation theory suggests that sleep is used because you can reduce your energy demand during part of the day or night, especially at times when it is harder to obtain food. 

The Restorative Theories: Another explanation for why we sleep is that sleep provides an opportunity for the body to repair and rejuvenate itself. Studies have shown that animals deprived entirely of sleep lose all immune function and die in just a matter of weeks. This is also supported by findings that functions in the body like muscle growth, tissue repair, protein synthesis, and growth hormone release occur mostly, or in some cases only, during sleep. 

The Brain Plasticity Theory: One of the most recent ideas for why we sleep is based on findings that sleep is works directly with changes in the structure and organization of your brain. This is called brain plasticity. Though not fully understood, we can conclude that its connection to sleep is critical. Though most of the connections were found for infants, links for adults were seen too. These were found in the effect that sleep has on people's ability to learn and preform many different tasks.

Though none of these theories were totally proven, it's still evident that sleep has a pretty big impact on a large part of our lives. 

So, how much sleep do you need?
A while ago I went to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle and they had a quiz to tell  you how much sleep you needed based on factors like age and lifestyle. I couldn't quite remember what it was, and I haven't found anything like it online, so here's a chart of how much sleep you might need:

These times vary among people and may change based on different factors

Though this chart suggests 7-9 hours for adults, most Olympians sleep for at least 10 hours per night. This means that if you were to get up for school at 7am, you would have to go to bed at 8:30pm. I know with my gym schedule, that's when I usually get home. This may be a large factor in the fact that most adults don't even get near the 7 hour minimum for sleep.

Did you know that there are also calculations allowing you to get up at the perfect time in your sleep cycle in order to be less drowsy? I went onto http://sleepyti.me/ and found out that if you need to wake up at 6:45am (like me), it would be optimal to go to bed at 9:45 PM or 11:15 PM? This is of course, not bringing in the 10 hours of total sleep factor. 

So, what is your sleep schedule going to be like tonight?

Snore on my exhausted Internet gymnasts.

~Joanna




p.s. I got my facts on sleep from http://www.abc.net.au/science/sleep/facts.htm, http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/benefits-of-sleep/why-do-we-sleep, http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/features/sleep-like-an-olympian?page=3, and http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/how-sleep-works/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need

Make sure to check out http://sleepyti.me/ too!