Did you know that the Koala sleeps for 22 hours a day? This makes it the longest sleeping mammal in the world.
Even though we don’t have the sleeping habits of a koala, we all need to sleep. In fact, did you know that sleeping for less than 7 hours per day could shorten your lifespan?
Want to know more weird and wacky facts about sleep? Here are some of our favourites:
1. Although researchers weren’t able to determine the cause, they found that people were more likely to sleep better on a new moon and worse on a full moon.
2. The average person should take around 10-15 minutes to fall asleep; if it takes any less, it could be a sign of sleep deprivation.
3. Your body will naturally start to feel tired at 2 pm and at 2 am. This is why we often feel a slump in energy during the afternoon.
4. Struggling to get out of the bed each morning is actually a condition known as dysania. Researchers have linked dysania to depression, nutritional deficiencies and other health problems.
5. The less you sleep the hungrier you are likely to be. Researchers have found that sleep helps to regulate the hormone leptin, which is responsible for signalling to your brain that you are full.
6. The rate of car accidents goes down when daylight savings ends. Researchers believe that this is due to the extra hour of sleep that is gained.
7. Before the existence of alarm clocks you could hire a “knocker-up”, who would knock on your window in order to wake you up. If you lived on the top floor of a building, they would use long sticks to reach your window.
8. Most people should be able to survive for around 2 months without eating, but the average person can only survive around 11 days without sleep.
9. Parents of newborns are believed to miss out on an estimated 6 months of sleep in the first 2 years of their child’s life.
10. The average human will spend around a third of their life asleep. This is equivalent to about 25 years and is even more reason why you should ensure that your mattress is super comfortable.
11. Regular exercise was shown to improve sleeping patterns, but sporadic exercise before bed was shown to delay the sleeping process.
12. Today around 75 percent of the population dream in colour, but before the emergence of colour television only around 15 percent would dream in colour.
13. The biggest distraction when it comes to sleeping each night is the internet. In studies it was consistently shown to be the number one reason why people delayed going to bed.
14. If you are awake for 17 hours straight, your body function will decrease to the same level as if you had a blood alcohol reading of .05 percent.
15. Part of the reason so many people struggle with Monday morning is due to the change in sleeping patterns over the weekend. Researchers actually refer to this as “social jet lag”.
Sleep is an interesting phenomenon that is still teaching us things about the human body to this day. One thing is for sure however, we all love and benefit from a good night of sleep.
Sweet dreams, Koalas
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