People are running to achieve their goals, but in this busy schedule they don’t find the time to get proper sleep and follow a regular sleep cycle.

Like your laptop and mobile phone, continuous functioning without rest could damage your biological system as well. Whether it is a computer system or biological system, everything needs adequate rest to refresh them-selves and for efficient functioning.

Sleep is an important part of your daily routine, you spend about one-third of your time doing it. Quality sleep and getting enough of it at the right times is as essential to survival as food and water. Researchers are saying that having 7-8 hours of sleep a day is necessary for adults. Sleeping is not just a state of rest, sleep is an active period in which a lot of important processing, restoration, and strengthening occurs. Without sleep, you can’t form or maintain the pathways in your brain that let you learn and create new memories. Sleep deprivation also reduces concentration and motor skills.

During sleep your brain release hormones that helps
✔ Reduce the risk of adverse health conditions
✔ Manage your hunger level
✔ Maintain immune system
✔ Retain memory and stimulate brain speed

It is also believed that people who don’t get proper sleep are more prone to heart disease and cardiac arrests. Improper sleep also disturbs the nervous functioning and creates mental disorders. Hence a proper sleeping period is vital. It is crucial to maintain a proper sleep cycle at night. This sleep cycle can’t be split between day and night. That means you can’t sleep for 4 hours at night and 4 hours at day. 
Moreover, sleeping during the day can make your body function poorly and it leads to increased weight gain.

To know how much sleep you should be getting, follow the prescribed sleep chart for different age groups given below:

Age Prescribed hours of sleep per day
– Infants – 16-18
– Children of 4-8 age 11-12
– Children of 9-12 age At least 10 hours
– Teen agers 9-10
– Adults 7-8

Some important steps to gain a good sleeping habit are
1) Follow a proper schedule:
Practice an organized bed time and wake up time. This good sleep-wake cycle will help you to get good and complete sleep.
2) Avoid sleep suppressors:
Avoid taking sleep suppressors such as caffeine, chocolate, nicotine and steroids before going to bed.
3) Get a comfortable bed:
Getting a comfortable bed, pillow, bed sheet, night wear, and night lamps will help you get a pleasant sleep.
4) Exercise regularly:
Following a regular exercise schedule will help in the proper functioning of the body.
5) Stress relief practices:
Doing some stress relief techniques such as reading, yoga, meditation, walking before sleep will help you get some much needed uninterrupted sleep.
6) Use apps and gadgets to track your sleep:
Some of the digital apps and gadgets will help you to track your sleep cycle
and offers a progressive alarm clock to prevent unbalanced sleep