Given that we all spend a third of our lives sleeping or trying to do so, Dr. Cortney wants to share the importance of sleep, what are the benefits of great slumber, how much is needed, and more.
The Many Benefits of Great Sleep
Catching enough Zzzzs a night can yield the following:
- Positive mood
- Improved memory
- Better decision-making & judgment
- An improved ability to learn new things
- Quicker reflexes
On the other hand, lack of or poor quality slumber can also have a negative impact on our health. People who don’t get sufficient quality sleep are at higher risk for the following: heart attack, obesity, stroke, diabetes, depression, and immune system damage.
Quantity or Quality?
We’ve all heard that 7-8 hours of sleep is the minimum for most adults. Some need more, while others may need less. In fact, researchers have shown that 10 hours of interrupted or “fragmented sleep” is less effective than seven hours of restorative snooze. And these same researchers found that even five hours of sleep could be more impactful to one’s long-term health if it’s restful, restorative and uninterrupted.
The National Sleep Foundation listed the following questions to gauge the quality of your slumber.
Ask yourself these questions:
1. Do I fall asleep in 30 minutes or less?
2. Am I asleep longer while in bed (a minimum of 85% of the total time)?
3. Am I awake again for 20 or fewer minutes after falling asleep initially?
4. Do I wake up more than once each night?
How much quality sleep do you think you get each night? The more you improve on the above questions, the better your sleep quality.
Dr. Cortney’s Hilarious Dream
Now that you’ve read this far, check out a dream Dr. Cortney had recently while getting some great quality sleep!
In my dream, Kim and I are a team like at SIH, except I, Dr. C, work for Kim. She is a top secret agent of specialty coffees, and she only delivers to the Who’s Who of the world. She drives a flying car! It’s a sweet whip. For those Gen Xers and beyond, a whip is a car. It’s all black leather inside, black on the outside with these special machines on the front of the car that send the coffee ordered straight down to their office via a tube—like at the bank drive-thru.
The car is like Uber or Lyft. Kim has her cell phone mounted on her dashboard, and when an order comes through, she either accepts or rejects the order. If she accepts, I crawl behind her seat, make the coffee like the good barista employee I am, put the lid on it, send it down the tube, and we move on to the next order.
During the entire dream, I kept saying to Kim, “nice whip.” Also, Kim and I help homeless moms and kids in this dream. With the sweet whip, we help these moms locate secret showers in malls, where they can go inside and shower and come out with clean clothes. And at the end of the day, we go home to live with some of our patients (who will remain anonymous) and eat Cantonese.
“Feel free to send us your funniest, most outrageous, or strangest dreams. And by all means, analyze my dream and send me your thoughts,” said Dr. Cortney.
Until the next sleep blog—sleep well!