Our society often emphasizes productivity so much that many people are not getting enough sleep. We often live on 6 hours of sleep if we’re lucky and wonder why we’re falling asleep at our desks by 3 p.m. Are you part of this crowd that isn’t sleeping enough? Sleep, or lack thereof, may be affecting your health more than you realize.

How Much Is Enough?

The first thing you need to do is determine how much sleep is enough for you. If you’re falling dead on your feet mid-afternoon, you’re not getting enough sleep. You may believe for some reason that you only need 6 or 7 hours of sleep, but the amount of sleep you need varies per person and can be anywhere from 5 hours of sleep to 10 hours of sleep. And pregnant women in their first trimester need even more sleep than usual. You also may need more sleep if you haven’t been getting enough sleep for a few nights.

So how can you figure out how much you need? One way is to give yourself at least 8 hours to get sleep for a few nights in a row. Then on the last night, go to sleep at a reasonable time and make sure there is nothing to wake you up in the morning. See when your body naturally wakes you up. As long as you don’t have stress or anxiety that may cause you to have a troubled sleep or to wake early, this should be a good indication of how much sleep you need, especially if you feel rested the next day and don’t feel like you need a nap.

Affects of Sleep Deprivation

There are many negative effects caused by not getting enough sleep. One is loss of reflexes. This is especially crucial when you’re driving and need to react quickly. Also having trouble focusing, lack of memory or recall skills, impatience, high blood pressure, obesity, and more. Sleep helps our bodies to recovers from the stress of that day. Without it, our health suffers as does our quality of life.