Part 1: Sleep Disorders – The Facts
According to the NHS, 30% of the population in the UK suffer from sleep disorders(Source: NHS). Increasingly, it has become difficult for us to fall asleep, sleep throughout the night without waking, or achieve the deep sleep that our bodies need. Günther W. Amann Jenson, a Swiss sleep psychologist, maintains that up to 80% of people don’t recover from the exertions of everyday life when sleeping.
What happens in your sleep?
There are many societies and institutes in the UK dedicated to the study of sleep and its correlation to illness. Scientists at the British Sleep Society, for example, have focused on body processes and brain function in particular. Studies show that our bodies and brains remain extremely active while we sleep: they process our experiences, store knowledge, repair cells, revitalise our immune systems, and reenergise us so that we can function efficiently and effectively when we rise. Although we think of sleep as a time of inaction, on average we turn up to thirty times during the night. When we sleep, only our consciousness truly sleeps.
For more comprehensive information on sleep and how it affects our health see: Sleepio