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Sleep

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Sleep is important. Sleep repairs our body after a long day, improves the immune system, reduces stress, solidifies memory for knowledge and motor skills, removes painful emotions, improves creativity and many more. In 2022, the American Heart Association added sleep duration as a metric for health checks, as important as diet, physical activities, weight, blood pressure, etc.

It is recommended to sleep 7-9 hours a day with a regular sleep schedule. Avoid exercising, caffeine, alcoholic drinks, and large meals before bed. Avoid napping after 3 p.m., relax before going to bed and avoid lying in bed awake. Having a dark, cool, quiet and gadget-free environment helps.

Resources​

  • Journey into Sleep | Reuters
    • A graphical illustration of how sleep affects different systems of our body, and why is it important
    • Beginner-friendly, very helpful graphics to visualize the process of sleep
  • Understanding Sleep | Northern Pain Centre
    • Understanding sleep, sleep problems, and how to sleep better
    • I find Part 1 quite good. An overview of different aspects of sleep, backed by evidence and journal articles
  • Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker
    • I find this book helpful in helping me understand sleep. For example, the function of sleep, the different phases of sleep and the problems of not having enough sleep.
    • However, I do feel like this book gives a "threatening" tone and is a bit exaggerated. It gives some sort of "sleep anxiety" that I feel pressured to sleep and in return, I sleep even worse. I also try to associate all problems with bad sleep.
    • Overall, I still think this book is worth a read because at that time I had no idea how sleep works. It explains concepts and terminologies better than an ordinary article. Understanding the terminologies is a good start, just don't get too anxious about sleep and the claims he made in the book. Don't outright trust the claims and do the research instead.

Sites​