Gabriel Moreira |
Madrid. (The reason). -Rest is essential in a person’s daily life. Can sleep well and at the correct times It means having enough energy to face the day without being off or without strength. However, lack of sleep is a problem that affects many.
Sleeping is not simply resting, but an essential biological process for physical recovery, memory consolidation, emotional balance and the correct functioning of the body.
However, a factor that is little taken into account has to do with sleep latency. This is the interval between going to bed and falling asleep, and is considered a central indicator that reflects a person’s general sleepiness and provides information about the quality of sleep, according to the National Institutes of Health of Spain.
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Taking a long time to fall asleep can have a series of consequences, but the other way around also happens. And if it takes a person very little time to fall asleep, negative consequences also appear.
Within 10 minutes
According to studies, the average latency in healthy adults is between 10 and 20 minutes. Outside this range, it is likely that the citizen will suffer some negative consequences. On the one hand, a period of less than eight minutes is usually related to drowsiness, where the person has accumulated sleep or a disorder such as narcolepsy.
On the other hand, those who take more than 20 minutes to fall asleep may have insomnia problems or disorders that make it difficult to fall asleep, as explained by the US Sleep Foundation.
«The same person can experience variations in sleep latency, depending on their sleep level. For example, if you try to go to bed earlier than usual, you might experience longer sleep latency. Not being as tired, it takes longer to fall asleep. “Conversely, if a person wakes up earlier, they are likely to experience a shorter sleep latency because they are more tired than usual,” the foundation explains.
Disrupt sleep
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Sleep latency is the time from when a person goes to bed with the intention of sleeping until they actually fall asleep. Within this parameter, the researchers add a new variable: sleep efficiency.
This corresponds to the percentage of time a person spends sleeping at night and is obtained by dividing the total time asleep by the total time in bed and multiplying that result by 100. As they explain, doctors usually look for a sleep efficiency of at least 85%.
All of these data vary depending on a series of characteristics that the individual has. Alcohol consumption, the presence of chronic pain or the use of certain medications can significantly modify sleep latency.
Likewise, age and the number of daily naps also affect this process. In this case, altering the usual schedules or taking more naps than usual can shorten or prolong the time needed to sleep, depending on the level of accumulated fatigue.
lack of sleep
Lack of sleep can affect the immune system. Studies show that people who don’t sleep well or enough are more likely to get sick. In this case, problems related to mood, concentration and memory may appear in the short term, increasing the risk of errors in study or work.
For its part, in the long term, lack of sleep is associated with diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, strokes, obesity, depression, and heart and kidney problems.
insomnia
The complete opposite of lack of sleep is insomnia. It is a sleep disorder characterized by difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up too early without being able to go back to sleep.
This sleep disorder occurs in a third of the population (30%), being more common in the elderly, women and people with psychiatric illnesses.
Most cases of insomnia have an acute onset, coinciding with stressful situations, and tend to become chronic in 60% of cases.
Some of its most visible consequences are decreased concentration, lack of physical energy, behavioral changes, and ease of irritation, among others.
