How You Should be Sleeping and Why

Throughout our lives, we learn a lot of useful things at home, in school, online – but rarely do we learn how to sleep. Most people assume there isn’t much to it, just grab a pillow and a blanket shut your eyes, and bam— healthy sleep. However, the reality about sleeping properly is much more complicated than that.

Wait- why should I care?

Good sleep brings a plethora of benefits that go beyond simply feeling well-rested. During the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep, your brain moves your recently learned knowledge (including the knowledge you learned throughout the day at school) into long-term memory. Besides helping store knowledge, adequate amounts of sleep each night have been linked to reducing the risk of several diseases and medical conditions including obesity and poor mental health.

How long should I sleep?

Most teenagers need 8-10 hours of sleep a night, however, the amount of sleep necessary varies from person to person. The ideal would be to get a full 9 hours of sleep since a sleep cycle is roughly an hour and a half. Since it can be rather difficult to achieve this much sleep during high school, students should at least aim to sleep for a couple of sleep cycles rather than an arbitrary amount of time. The best way to find out how much sleep you need is to determine how you feel after 9, 8, 7, or even 6 hours. If you can feel energized, productive, and happy with the amount of sleep you’re getting it is probably adequate.

How should I sleep?

People don’t usually think much about the position they sleep in and can sometimes end up experiencing pain or discomfort the following day. In reality, there is a better, more correct way to sleep. Sleeping on your back is the best way to go, just make sure that your spine and neck are properly supported with a pillow beneath your knees and another beneath your head at just the right height. Sleeping on your side in a fetal-like position is also great. You can place a pillow between your knees to keep your body well-positioned, just watch out for shoulder stiffness. The worst position to sleep in is on your stomach as it is bad for your neck and back.

We spend about a third of our entire lifetimes sleeping, establishing a healthy sleep schedule is key to ensure having the healthiest life possible.