The word from the nutritionist
A good rest will improve your life
Paracelso, a doctor of XVI century, wrote that the natural sleep lasts about 6 hours and can eliminate the tiredness.
During the sleep the activities of different nervous centers slacken and there is a reduction of many organic functions, in particular: the metabolism, the circulation of the blood and the breathing slacken, the physical temperature decreases… But your body continues to work: your brain is active with a consume of oxygen like during wakefulness, the kidneys and the liver eliminate more toxins than in the state of wake, the immune system produces more antibodies, the bone marrow increases its production of red blood cells.
The sleep is fundamental and essential for the health and the psychophysical wellness of your body. A nice rest allows a correct growth and good working of your immune system, a better concentration and more serenity. A short rest is dangerous for your health, in fact, it increases the risk of road and work accidents, it raises the blood-pressure and it increases the heart-beats. Besides, a too short sleep has consequences on your mood, your social relations, your yield at work and the quality of your life. But also a too long rest can have negative effects: it can cause irritability and a diminution of your yield at work.
So, how many hours do you have to sleep? It’s not easy to establish the number of hours that it is necessary to sleep to have a good rest, in fact, there are different factors to consider: the age, the life-style, the psychophysical characteristics. Different researches say that:
• a new-born baby has to sleep from 14 to 16 hours a day (distributed throughout the day);
• a baby (6-12 months) has to sleep from 14 to 15 hours a day and starts to distinguish the day from the night;
• a baby (3-5 years) has to sleep 10-12 hours;
• a child (about 10 years) has to sleep about 10 hours each night;
• a teen-ager and an adult person has to sleep 8 hours each night;
• an ancient person sleeps about 6-7 hours.
It’s important to learn to sleep a correct number of hours to keep a good health and improve your psychophysical wellness.
Published 16 February 2017