Am I getting enough sleep?
As a follow-up to our previous sleep blog, we are now going to look at whether you are getting enough sleep. An occasional night of bad sleep can happen and isn’t that bad. But when you have chronic poor sleep, it can have a major impact on your quality of life. That’s why at YOU. The Gym see good sleep as the foundation. When you haven’t had a good night’s sleep, you already start the day 1-0 behind, with a half-full bucket. As a result, you have less energy. Less energy for everything! But how do you know for yourself if you sleep enough? Therefore in this blog a little test to find out if you don’t sleep enough and information on what could be the reason for your sleep deprivation.
How can I find out if I am getting enough sleep?
It would be easy if we knew exactly how much sleep a person needs. On average, a sleep duration of 7 to 8 hours per night does seem adequate, but individual differences are significant. Whereas one person feels fine after 6-hour nights, another walks through the day like a zombie after 9-hour nights. So it is much more important to investigate whether you may be suffering from symptoms related to sleep deprivation and thus find out if you are getting enough sleep. To find out, we have a simple little test for you.
| What is your situation? | |||
| Yes
(0 points) |
?
(1 point) |
No
(2 points) |
|
| I never snooze | |||
| I am always sharp | |||
| I feel energetic | |||
| I suffer little from dips | |||
| I feel like moving | |||
For each question where you answered a question mark you score 1 point, and for each “No” answer you score 2 points. Then add up the total number of points. At a total score of 4 points or less, there is nothing wrong. At 5 or 6 points, you might want to pay some attention to your sleeping habits, but if you score 7 points or more, sleeping better might pay you a lot of dividends!
Little sleep or poor sleep?
Sleep deprivation can be the result of sleeping too little or sleeping poorly. It is important to figure out which is the issue with you. Sleeping too little is often a choice, and thus a little easier to solve. Once you know what time you have to get up in the morning and have figured out how many hours of sleep works best for you, it is a matter of going to bed on time. Then arrange your evening so that you can. Make sure you eat on time, don’t plan too much in the evenings and set an alarm on your phone that goes off when you have another hour before you need to be in your nap. If you don’t sleep too little but badly and therefore have a sleep deficit, then you are among the quarter of the Dutch population that has trouble falling asleep, has trouble sleeping through or wakes up too early. Think for yourself which of these three reasons is the case with you. Of those people who have sleep problems, 40 percent say they sleep so badly that it interferes with their daily functioning. They suffer from concentration problems, forgetfulness or a bad mood, for example. Especially if you belong to the latter group, it is important to improve the quality of your sleep. The best way to do this is to learn a fixed evening ritual in which you prepare your body in several steps for a good night’s sleep. We will cover this in a future blog.
