I frequently write about sleep; I’m sure you’ve noticed. I do this because I feel that sleep is incredibly important and the modern society consists of people who are woefully deficient in it.
We certainly don’t understand everything about sleep, and it seems like we learn something new about it on a regular basis. I thought this infographic was pretty interesting, especially the bit about the sleep experiences of blind people. It comes courtesy of the Daily Infographic website. (Click to view full size.)
If you’re looking for some additional information about getting the best sleep possible, I recommend you check out the book Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival. It covers a lot of the science behind some of the concepts mentioned here in more depth.
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14 Responses to Interesting Sleep Facts – Infographic
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This is interesting, Thank you! I have to say, I don’t really dream of other men very often unless I’m fighting in my dreams. War dreams aren’t fun either.
I would guess there is something in the correlation of my own sleep issues and my dreams.
I’ve read a theory that dreaming is a form of mental practice for the body, a way of preparing for possible future scenarios.
In this line of thinking, if you are currently preoccupied with some kind of real life stress, it may happen that your brain comes up with hypothetical scenarios to run through while you sleep.
I find the theory fascinating, and it seems to me that on some occasions it has been very relevant.
If you think about it, from a relationship competition stand point, other man can be a form of stress, or danger. So the brain might fill a man’s dreams with images of other men as a way of devising strategies to compete.
I’ve given up on trying to tie my dreams to my waking life. Things are so off-the-wall crazy in my dreams that it just doesn’t connect. Most of the time, when I’m having disturbing dreams like fighting, war, or self-preservation; it has coincided with being too hot. If I’m dealing with stress, I just don’t get much sleep in general. My mind kicks into overdrive, and I can’t stop thinking.
Restful sleep is usually libido driven. Ironically, this is the only thing I can tie into real life.
Heavy lifting, magnesium, zinc and D3 supplementation has DRASTICALLY improved my sleep quality recently, so Stress may have been the factor tying it all together.
It sounds like you take ZMA. I found the Zinc-Magnesium-pyroxidine supplementation to be beneficial as well. Had some whacked out dreams until my mineral levels seemed to reach optimal levels.
It’s not the ZMA specific, it’s the po’ version from the Bayou Walmart with individual bottles. I can mix and match according to the day. Seafood days i’ll skip the zinc, take more D3 on rainy days, etc. I do an Emergen-c packet and cod liver oil as well. I do want to experiment with a ZMA soon, but i do like the calming effect of doubling up on the Mag if I’m really tired or stressed.
10 days without sleep can kill you? The record is 11 days, and the 17 year old was in perfect health.
Where did this figure come from? I read Why We Sleep (http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Sleep-Functions-publications/dp/019261682X) and, according to it no one has ever died from lack of sleep.
It’s possible that the “10 days can kill you” is a lower limit that was found to be lethal. I suppose that individual variation will cause that limit to be different for people.
For instance, one of the references found at the bottom of the infographic [ http://www.abc.net.au/science/sleep/facts.htm ] lists the record for the longest period without sleep to be 18 days. That is obviously contrary to the stated record of Randy Gardner of 11 days.
That same Australian claim of 18 days is mentioned in the wikipedia article on Randy [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Gardner_(record_holder) ] pointing out that little evidence is presented to its authenticity.
Yeah, unfortunately this nice graphic is a mix of actual facts and urban myths, and it’s not always clear which is which. I mean obviously, sleeping on your stomach always makes you fun at parties, but other than that one
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Yes, some of these “facts” are questionable but the post is still interesting. Thank you.
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It would be interesting if you could include the realm of polyphasic sleep.
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