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Healthy Sleeping Habits

April 22, 2021
9:30 am

Sleep is a vital component of every person’s overall health and well-being. Sleep is important because it enables the body to rejuvenate and become ready for another day. Getting an adequate amount of sleep can also prevent several health-related issues. Sleeping each night is important, however, you may not be obtaining the right quantity or quality of sleep. So ask yourself, are you getting enough sleep?

Current recommendations

Ages 18-64 years: 7-9 hours of sleep/night.
Ages 65+ years: 7-8 hours of sleep/night.

Sleep quality

Unlike sleep quantity, sleep quality refers to how well you sleep throughout the night. Good sleep quality refers to how quickly you fall asleep at night with no more than one awakening. Whereas bad sleep quality is the kind that leaves you staring at the ceiling. This also includes, trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, restlessness, and constantly waking up throughout the night. Below are stats regarding sleep quality:

1 in 2 adults has trouble going to sleep or staying asleep.
1 in 5 adults DO NOT find their sleep refreshing.
1 in 3 adults has difficulty.

Factors related to insufficient sleep

Several factors can result in insufficient sleep. A high amount of sedentary time, chronic stress, poor mental health, and the use of drugs and alcohol are all related to insufficient sleep.

Adults who get insufficient sleep reported an average of 4.0 hours of sedentary time per day.
36.3% of adults who get insufficient sleep reported having chronic stress.
12.3 % of adults who get insufficient sleep reported having poor mental health.

How to improve your sleep quality

There are a variety of activities we can implement into our daily routines to vastly improve and promote our sleep quality. This includes:

Avoid alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine before bed.
Maintain a regular sleep schedule (i.e. Bedtime, wake-time).
Practice mindfulness stress reduction techniques (i.e. Meditation).
Reduce noise in the sleeping environment.
Restrict naps to 30 minutes per day.
Exercise on a regular basis.
Review medications with your physician/ pharmacist regularly.
Avoid the use of screen-time 1-2 hours before bed.

These are just a few tips and related statistics to provide awareness for healthy sleeping habits. Evaluating your current sleep quantity and quality will lead to a healthy lifestyle and promote functionality & productivity throughout your day. Our affiliate company, The Group Benefits Market, offers a wide range of life and health insurance products to meet your individual, family, and business needs, including the following: