Stats compiled by Conor Stewart (2017), and submitted to leading stats portal Statista (16 June 2020) provide interesting insights into sleeping patterns in the UK. For one thing, 73% of women and 60% of men often have disrupted sleep. The sample size further indicates that 36% of women and 26% of men currently suffer from insomnia.
Overall, 54% of women and 41% of men don’t get the right amount of sleep every night. Viewed in perspective, this presents problems for day-to-day functionality. Even the updated sleep statistics for 2022 present similar findings. It’s easy to disregard something as necessary as sleep when factoring in quality of life, productivity, and performance.
Sleep is sacrosanct. Anyone who has been deprived of sleep, or been subjected to interrupted sleep knows all too well how unhealthy it is. Multiple sleep studies have been conducted in the UK, often with the same findings. Folks simply aren’t getting enough sleep. Cybercrew contributor Aaryaman Aashind published an article on sleep statistics [2022] where he presented startling findings.
40% of people between 18 – 24 years of age struggled to fall asleep quickly, and 33% of people in the UK over 55 years of age have the same problem. The younger generation – 18 to 29-year-olds have reported at least eight hours of sleep per night. That is widely regarded by sleep experts, physicians, and health and wellness experts as the optimal amount of sleep needed to recharge your batteries.
How Does Sleep Deprivation Affect Health and Wellness?
General well-being is a product of many things, including nutrition, exercise, stimulation, sleep, lifestyle, et al. Anybody who has been deprived of sleep for too long will invariably become grouchy, careless, unproductive, and imbalanced. It’s a simple equation. Without sleep, the body doesn’t get a chance to rejuvenate and replenish depleted energy stores.
Not surprisingly, different parts of the UK are associated with more or less sleep. For example, people in the South get more sleep on average than people in the North. People in the U.K.’s capital city, London get more sleep than most other parts of the country. The average sleep time in the UK is 6.45 hours. Yet 33% of people in the country sleep less now than they did before 2020.
There are many remedies for improving sleep patterns, not least of which are the following:
- Supplements
There are many tried and tested products for sleep disorders. In the UK, stats indicate that 387,600 searches through January 2021 were conducted for the sleep aid Nytol. Some 1.28M searches for melatonin were made between January 2020 and January 2021. An additional 63,600 searches for Nitrazepam were made in the same period of time. There are other options, including botanical products such as CBD sleep drops which have come into their own in recent months. Relax Drops are one of several highly recommended sleep aids in addition to medicinal mushrooms for a better night’s rest.
Caveat: while doctors may prescribe sedatives and sleep aids for short-term use, these are not recommended over the long term.
- Healthy Nutrition
Nutrition goes hand-in-hand with healthy living. It is one of the most important topics, for several reasons. Healthy nutrition is all about eating balanced meals. This includes the appropriate mix of proteins, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fats, and essential elements. Healthy eating is healthy living.
It’s never a good idea to eat a heavy meal just before bedtime – it can interfere with your sleep patterns. For tailored advice on healthy nutrition, it’s a good idea to speak to a dietician, nutritionist, or doctor.
- Lifestyle Changes
Lifestyle is all about how you live your life. It includes your hobbies, patterns of behaviour, work schedule, free time, exercise regimen, stress level and so much more. One of the best ways to improve your sleeping patterns is to switch off all electronic devices at least two hours before you plan on falling asleep.
Laptops, smartphones, TVs, tablets, and other devices tend to hyper-stimulate the brain, making it really difficult to fall asleep. Make sure you have a comfortable mattress, sleepwear,) and the right ambient temperature (15°C -19°C). Our body temperature tends to fluctuate during the sleep cycle. Our core temperature drops as we fall asleep, and rises as we are about to wake up.
Lifestyle changes also include lots more exercise. It’s great for overall health and wellness, and it’s the perfect sleep aid at the end of the day.
- Weight Management
Weight management makes a mountain of difference for overall health and wellness. It’s also great for improving your sleep patterns. The heavier we are, the more of a burden we place on all of our organs, joints, muscles, and bones. A healthy eating plan, regular exercise, and other lifestyle changes (from sedentary to active) can make it much easier to manage your weight better. When you start losing weight, you’ll find that everything becomes easier, including sleep.