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Bach flowers mix 87

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What are the dangers of not getting enough sleep?

what are the dangers of not getting enough sleep

You may think that eight hours of sleep seems like a monumental waste of time, given how busy we all are. In the twenty-first century, we live hectic lives, combining demanding work and home schedules, while simultaneously struggling to find space and time for friends, family, and leisure pursuits. It is therefore no wonder that many people work late into the night, or are up at the crack of dawn to visit the gym, at a time when you might reasonably expect to find the world asleep.

Sleeping makes us vulnerable too. You’ll know how deeply unconscious we can become if you’ve ever slept through a storm or the alarm. In the prehistoric era, this would have placed our ancestors at risk, and yet, we are evolutionarily programmed to sleep for between 6 and 11 hours at a time.

The advent of technology has led to a disruption of our sleeping habits. Before electricity, people tended to ease down as it became dark, and work during the daylight hours. The lightbulb means we can work late into the night, and electronic devices can fool our brains into thinking it is still daytime. This disrupts our natural rhythms, but also leads to poorer quality sleep. Professor Charles Czeisler of Harvard Medical School has found that those who read electronic books before they go to bed take longer to get to sleep, have reduced levels of melatonin (the hormone that regulates the body's internal body clock), and are less alert in the morning.

Shift workers face the most disruption. The US Centre for Disease Control claim that nearly half of all US shift workers sleep for fewer than six hours a night.

The importance of sleep

While scientists don't fully comprehend sleep, and its importance, it is largely understood to be an anabolic, or building, process, which restores the body’s energy supplies and repairs physical and emotional fatigue that have been exhausted during the day.

Don’t assume that when we sleep, the mind and body shuts down. This is far from the case. When we sleep the mind and body are extraordinarily active. We do a huge amount of important processing, restoration, and strengthening occurs. It is not known exactly how this happens or why we have to sleep for such a long period of time, but scientists know sleep is needed for optimal health and wellbeing.

What are the dangers of not getting enough sleep?

1. Memory

Sleep helps us to solidify and consolidate memories. All the information that we take in during the day are processed while we sleep. Many memories are transferred from the short-term memory to the long-term memory, consolidating them so that they are easily remembered in the future. In addition, the brain clears itself of waste, or the things it thinks it doesn’t need to know. This is rather like cleaning the cache on your computer.

2. Physical fitness

The body needs long periods of sleep in order to restore and rejuvenate, to grow muscle, repair tissue, and synthesize hormones.

Sleep restores our mental energy. Having spent all day thinking, worrying and creating, we use up our energy stores, and they need to be restored.

Sleep deprivation affects our coordination. We become clumsier and make more mistakes. We lose our ability to do things with agility. If we get enough sleep, muscle tone and skin appearance improves. Without it we are sallow complexioned. With adequate sleep athletes run better, swim better and are able to lift more weight. Our immune system responds much better depending on how well we sleep.

3. Increased risk of disease or illness

What are the dangers of not getting enough sleepA lack of sleep alters the way in which genes in the body's cells behave, according to researchers at Surrey University in Guildford, UK. They found that genes involved in inflammation increase their activity if we’re not getting enough sleep, and they behave as though the body is under stress. This seems to be part of the fight and flight mechanism we display when we’re stressed. It’s a primordial reaction. The resulting inflammation helps to cushion the effects of potential attacks by wild animals or human enemies. The body is therefore ‘on alert’ even though no attack happens and this activates the immune system even though it isn’t needed. Scientists fear this explains the link between sleep deprivation and negative health outcomes such as heart disease and stroke.

4. Problems thinking

Research has shown that as we become more sleep-deprived, parts of the brain become inactive while we are awake. This explains why we feel ‘half-asleep’ sometimes, or perhaps, slightly dim-witted.

5. You lose your coping mechanisms

A lack of sleep affects our personalities. We lose our sense of humour. We may become irritable and less tolerant. We snap at members of our family, we’re grumpy with colleagues. Things that might generally amuse us seem annoying.

What prevents you sleeping?

  • Mobile phones in the bedroom disturb sleep for one in eight of us.
  • An uncomfortable or noisy environment
  • An irregular routine - going to bed late or waking up early prevents the likelihood of restorative deep sleep
  • Daylight – or too much artificial light
  • Stimulants - coffee, alcohol, food
  • Foods containing a chemical called tyramine (such as bacon, cheese, nuts and red wine) can keep us awake. Tyramine causes the release of noradrenaline, a brain stimulant. Carbohydrates have the opposite effect and release serotonin, which makes us sleepy.
  • The wrong body temperature
  • A busy mind
  • Stress is the enemy of sleep. In bed, our mind is left free to wander, and feeling anxious about

How much sleep is needed?

Children need more sleep than adults because they are learning at a higher rate. Adults need 7-9 hours of sleep per night, one-year-olds need approximately 11 to 14 hours, school age children between 9 and 11, and teenagers between 8 and 10.

If you are sleep deprived, you cannot simply make up for it at weekends. It is best to develop a sleep habit that is consistent, regardless of your age, to meet your sleep needs every night. This will enable you to keep on top of life's challenges on a day-by-day basis.

The factors that influence our sleep patterns are thought to include our physical size, muscle mass, brain size and our ability to think.

Created by Tom Vermeersch

Tom Vermeersch

Tom Vermeersch is a certified Psychologist and Bach flower expert with more than 30 years of experience.

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What are the dangers of not getting enough sleep?

What are the dangers of not getting enough sleep?
what are the dangers of not getting enough sleep

You may think that eight hours of sleep seems like a monumental waste of time, given how busy we all are. In the twenty-first century, we live hectic lives, combining demanding work and home schedules, while simultaneously struggling to find space and time for friends, family, and leisure pursuits. It is therefore no wonder that many people work late into the night, or are up at the crack of dawn to visit the gym, at a time when you might reasonably expect to find the world asleep.

Sleeping makes us vulnerable too. You’ll know how deeply unconscious we can become if you’ve ever slept through a storm or the alarm. In the prehistoric era, this would have placed our ancestors at risk, and yet, we are evolutionarily programmed to sleep for between 6 and 11 hours at a time.

The advent of technology has led to a disruption of our sleeping habits. Before electricity, people tended to ease down as it became dark, and work during the daylight hours. The lightbulb means we can work late into the night, and electronic devices can fool our brains into thinking it is still daytime. This disrupts our natural rhythms, but also leads to poorer quality sleep. Professor Charles Czeisler of Harvard Medical School has found that those who read electronic books before they go to bed take longer to get to sleep, have reduced levels of melatonin (the hormone that regulates the body's internal body clock), and are less alert in the morning.

Shift workers face the most disruption. The US Centre for Disease Control claim that nearly half of all US shift workers sleep for fewer than six hours a night.

The importance of sleep

While scientists don't fully comprehend sleep, and its importance, it is largely understood to be an anabolic, or building, process, which restores the body’s energy supplies and repairs physical and emotional fatigue that have been exhausted during the day.

Don’t assume that when we sleep, the mind and body shuts down. This is far from the case. When we sleep the mind and body are extraordinarily active. We do a huge amount of important processing, restoration, and strengthening occurs. It is not known exactly how this happens or why we have to sleep for such a long period of time, but scientists know sleep is needed for optimal health and wellbeing.

What are the dangers of not getting enough sleep?

1. Memory

Sleep helps us to solidify and consolidate memories. All the information that we take in during the day are processed while we sleep. Many memories are transferred from the short-term memory to the long-term memory, consolidating them so that they are easily remembered in the future. In addition, the brain clears itself of waste, or the things it thinks it doesn’t need to know. This is rather like cleaning the cache on your computer.

2. Physical fitness

The body needs long periods of sleep in order to restore and rejuvenate, to grow muscle, repair tissue, and synthesize hormones.

Sleep restores our mental energy. Having spent all day thinking, worrying and creating, we use up our energy stores, and they need to be restored.

Sleep deprivation affects our coordination. We become clumsier and make more mistakes. We lose our ability to do things with agility. If we get enough sleep, muscle tone and skin appearance improves. Without it we are sallow complexioned. With adequate sleep athletes run better, swim better and are able to lift more weight. Our immune system responds much better depending on how well we sleep.

3. Increased risk of disease or illness

What are the dangers of not getting enough sleepA lack of sleep alters the way in which genes in the body's cells behave, according to researchers at Surrey University in Guildford, UK. They found that genes involved in inflammation increase their activity if we’re not getting enough sleep, and they behave as though the body is under stress. This seems to be part of the fight and flight mechanism we display when we’re stressed. It’s a primordial reaction. The resulting inflammation helps to cushion the effects of potential attacks by wild animals or human enemies. The body is therefore ‘on alert’ even though no attack happens and this activates the immune system even though it isn’t needed. Scientists fear this explains the link between sleep deprivation and negative health outcomes such as heart disease and stroke.

4. Problems thinking

Research has shown that as we become more sleep-deprived, parts of the brain become inactive while we are awake. This explains why we feel ‘half-asleep’ sometimes, or perhaps, slightly dim-witted.

5. You lose your coping mechanisms

A lack of sleep affects our personalities. We lose our sense of humour. We may become irritable and less tolerant. We snap at members of our family, we’re grumpy with colleagues. Things that might generally amuse us seem annoying.

What prevents you sleeping?

  • Mobile phones in the bedroom disturb sleep for one in eight of us.
  • An uncomfortable or noisy environment
  • An irregular routine - going to bed late or waking up early prevents the likelihood of restorative deep sleep
  • Daylight – or too much artificial light
  • Stimulants - coffee, alcohol, food
  • Foods containing a chemical called tyramine (such as bacon, cheese, nuts and red wine) can keep us awake. Tyramine causes the release of noradrenaline, a brain stimulant. Carbohydrates have the opposite effect and release serotonin, which makes us sleepy.
  • The wrong body temperature
  • A busy mind
  • Stress is the enemy of sleep. In bed, our mind is left free to wander, and feeling anxious about

How much sleep is needed?

Children need more sleep than adults because they are learning at a higher rate. Adults need 7-9 hours of sleep per night, one-year-olds need approximately 11 to 14 hours, school age children between 9 and 11, and teenagers between 8 and 10.

If you are sleep deprived, you cannot simply make up for it at weekends. It is best to develop a sleep habit that is consistent, regardless of your age, to meet your sleep needs every night. This will enable you to keep on top of life's challenges on a day-by-day basis.

The factors that influence our sleep patterns are thought to include our physical size, muscle mass, brain size and our ability to think.




Bach flowers mix 87: Sleep problems

Bach flowers mix  87 helps to:

  • Worry less and therefore sleep better
  • Become calm and have fewer tensions
  • Be less afraid
  • Respect your own boundaries and prevent over-tiredness
  • Have more confidence and be less worried about others
  • Sleep better and sleep soundly
Discover how Bach flowers mix 87 can help you
Marie Pure

Other articles


Live Forever the Habits of People Who Live a Long, Healthy Life

Live Forever: the Habits of People Who Live a Long, Healthy Life

Legends of immortality have been told and retold throughout history. From ancient Greek myths to modern movies and novels, the dream of eternal youth has been passed down from generation to generation.

Read the complete article

Dealing with British Summer Time

Dealing with British Summer Time

Some people are overly sensitive to the time change and it can take days, if not weeks, for them to feel right again, while others barely even notice. 

Read the complete article

Find out if you're suffering from imposter syndrome

Find out if you're suffering from imposter syndrome

Do you sometimes feel your achievements are not the result of your hard work and skill but are just luck? And do you fear that one day, someone will reveal you as an imposter or fraud? You might have imposter syndrome!

Read the complete article

Isn't depression just a fancy word for feeling a bit down

Isn't depression just a fancy word for feeling a bit down?

Mental health issues such as depression and anxiety affect around 1 in 6 people at some stage of their life. Despite it being such a common problem, many sufferers wait months or even years before seeking help.

Read the complete article

Are you resilient enough Take our quiz!

Are you resilient enough? Take our quiz!

Do you have enough resilience to face the world out there? Take our quiz to find out how resilient you are and find tips on how to build your mental resilience.

Read the complete article

5 tips to survive autumn healthily

5 tips to survive autumn healthily

We simply can’t avoid noticing the changes all around us. Autumn is here... Autumn is also called a transitional season. Slowly and steadily, it prepares us for the transition...

Read the complete article

Simple tips to not be afraid of the future

Simple tips to not be afraid of the future

No one knows what the future holds, so don't waste time and energy worrying about it. Read our tips and find out how to stop being afraid of what might never happen.

Read the complete article

Are you stuck in a rut

Are you stuck in a rut?

Sometimes it’s hard to notice when we've become trapped in familiar routines. Take our quiz to find out if you’re stuck in a rut and what you can do about it.

Read the complete article

Are you sleeping enough Test!

Are you sleeping enough? Test!

Are you sleeping enough? Test! Do you feel tired during the day? Are you struggling to stay asleep in the night? Do you drink gallons of coffee to give yourself more energy? You may well be showing signs of sleep deprivation. Take our test and see whether you are sleeping enough.

Read the complete article

How to stop everything going wrong

How to stop everything going wrong

Do you always feel that everything’s always going wrong? Find out how to stop this cycle of bad thoughts in its tracks. When you think positively, things will start to appear positive and you will eventually feel more positive and optimistic.

Read the complete article

Bach Flowers are not medicinal but harmless plant extracts which are used to support health.

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