Sleep problems are a matter of worldwide concern. According to the results of a recent online survey by the China Sleep Research Association, middle-aged and elderly people accounted for 18.8% of the 12,000 respondents with sleep problems, of which 77.28% of patients had chronic insomnia. Recent surveys show that 38% of the world’s population has sleep disorders. In order to improve the quality of the nation, many developed countries, such as Japan, Germany and Spain have also formulated relevant laws and regulations for the sleep problem, forcing the nationals to have sufficient sleep. It can be seen that sleep is very important to human health. First, why people need to sleep Everyone needs to sleep. This is a fact that everyone knows, but why do we need to sleep? How long does a person need to sleep? What are the benefits of sleep for human health, but not everyone can know. 1.Why do we need to sleep The report “Sleep and Health” jointly released by the World Health Organization and the World Sleep Research Organization suggests that sleep, like air, food and water, is a basic necessity for human life. If deprived of sleep, human thinking, emotions, and behavior will be abnormal. Scientific research has proven that experimental animals deprived of sleep will die after three weeks. If there is no sleep, there is no life. Sleep is the “patron saint” of life. One third of human time is spent in sleep, and human sleep is directly related to the quality of human survival and quality of life. If a person does not have enough sleep, the continuous sleep time is lower than the physiological needs (about six to eight hours), up to more than three days, will be mentally unstable, brain disorder, affecting work, learning, long-term sleep disorders, will lead to human physiological disorders. If a person has long-term insomnia, it will also cause many diseases, such as: hypertension, hyperlipidemia, endocrine disorders, anxiety, depression and other psychosomatic diseases, for children, it will affect the growth and development. But too much sleep is not good for one’s health. 2.How long does a person need to sleep? The amount of sleep required by each person varies greatly, which is related to many factors such as personality, health condition, working environment and labor intensity, and also has a certain relationship with each person’s sleep habits. The amount of sleep people usually need varies with age, with newborns needing 18-20 hours of sleep a day on average, children after one year of age needing 9-14 hours of sleep, young adults sleeping about 8 hours a day, and older people sleeping less at night and more during the day for short periods of interrupted sleep. Individual sleep needs vary greatly, with a few adults needing only 3-4 hours of sleep to meet their needs, while others need more than 10 hours of sleep per night. Einstein basically slept more than 10 hours a day, while Napoleon and Edison, slept only 3-4 hours a day. This difference may be related to genetic factors. In general, the human body’s requirement for sleep is 7 hours-9 hours a night for young adults, 1 hour-3 hours more for teenagers and young children, and 1 hour-3 hours less for the elderly. Second, what is the role of sleep “health from sleep” is a new viewpoint put forward by medical researchers based on the latest results of sleep research in recent years. Chronic sleep deprivation and insomnia can bring about a series of damage to the body, including reduced thinking ability, reduced alertness and judgment, low immune function, endocrine disruption, etc. Sleep has six main roles. 1, eliminate fatigue, restore physical strength Sleep is the main way to eliminate physical fatigue. Because during sleep, the gastrointestinal tract and its related organs are in a resting state. During sleep, the body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure drops, whistling slows down, the body’s basal metabolic rate decreases, so that physical strength can be restored. More importantly, during sleep, the body synthesizes the energy materials needed to produce the body for activity. Experiments have shown that the anabolism of energy in the body during sleep exceeds the catabolism, so that the energy consumed by the tissue during activity is replenished. 2, protect the brain, restore energy Sleep is the brain rest, repair needs. Sleep deprivation is characterized by irritability, agitation or depression, inattention, memory loss, etc.; long-term lack of sleep can lead to hallucinations. In contrast, those who get enough sleep are full of energy, quick thinking and high efficiency. This is because the human brain has a highly developed function, but after a certain level of continuous operation of the brain will be tired. The oxygen consumption of the brain is greatly reduced in the sleep state, which is conducive to the energy storage of brain cells and the repair and maintenance of some important nerve cells. Sleep is not only a “body rest”, but also an important rest for the brain to eliminate brain fatigue. Therefore, sleep is good for protecting the brain and improving brain power. 3, enhance immunity, rehabilitation of the body “sleep is the first line of defense against disease. Immunologist Berry Darby of the University of Florida in the United States. Professor Darby made a series of studies on the relationship between sleep, hypnosis and human immunity. Professor Darby conducted self-hypnosis training for 28 test subjects, and the results showed that the T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes in the blood of the subjects after the implementation of hypnosis had a significant increase. The increase in the number of T and B lymphocytes means that the body is able to fight against many diseases. The researchers also found that the treated subjects showed greater self-confidence, self-esteem and independence in the face of the stresses of daily life. The final conclusion is that sleep, in addition to eliminating fatigue and giving new energy, is also closely related to the ability to improve immunity and resist disease. The results of a sleep study published in the Lancet by the University of Chicago show that sleep is closely related to endocrinology. Researchers found that young subjects who slept four hours a day for a week had increased blood glucose values, which may be caused by sleep deprivation that makes the central nervous system active and inhibits pancreatic function, resulting in a decrease in insulin secretion. Researchers speculate that sleep deprivation may be one of the reasons for the increase in the number of people developing diabetes in recent years. Studies of middle-aged people have also found that sleep deprivation can also cause endocrine disruption. Under normal circumstances, the amount of corticosteroids produced at night will gradually decline, and melatonin with the melatonin, so that people can quickly enter the dream state. The amount of corticosteroids slowly rises with dawn, reaching a peak near dawn. With sufficient sleep, there will be a natural circulation of corticosteroids, making the person refreshed. But if a week of continuous sleep deprivation, corticosteroids can not rise to the peak in the early morning, there will be mental depression, etc. 4, delay aging and promote longevity In human life, waking and sleeping alternate like day and night, constituting the basic rhythm of life, once this rhythm is terminated, life is also over, no wonder the ancients said: “Sleep and food are both the key to health, those who can sleep, can eat, can live long.” One of the ways to slow down the aging of brain cells is to get enough effective sleep. In recent years, many research studies have shown that the healthy and long-lived elderly people have a good and normal sleep. Therefore, people must pay attention to sleep, only in this way, to avoid premature aging. 5, to protect people’s mental health Sleep is very important to protect people’s mental health and maintain normal mental activities. Because a short period of poor sleep, there will be inattention, while a long time can cause memory loss, cognitive decline, unreasonable thinking and emotional disorders and other abnormal conditions. 6, conducive to skin beauty There is a saying that “beautiful women are sleeping out”. Sleep deprivation, even if you do more beauty is also not helpful. Sleep to the body to re-inject new energy. If you don’t sleep well, you will wake up in the morning with stiff joints and weak legs and feet. The skin also rests during the night, and cell division is accelerated by 200% during sleep. During sleep, the skin metabolism is active, capillary circulation increases, its secretion and removal process is strengthened, providing more nutrition and oxygen to the skin and take away the toxins and metabolic substances, speeding up the regeneration of the skin, so sleep is beneficial to skin beauty. Third, the science of healthy sleep “four elements” attention to health must pay attention to sleep. If we calculate eight hours of sleep per day, one third of a person’s life is spent in sleep. The science of healthy sleep is very important. The ideal sleep bedding, scientific sleep posture, reasonable sleep time, suitable sleep environment is the four elements of scientific and healthy sleep, the quality of sleep has a great impact. 1, the choice of the ideal sleep lounger Ideal lounger, conducive to human sleep. Sleeping appliance is the sleep appliance, generally refers to the bed, quilt, mattress, pillow and other items. These items accompany people throughout their lives and affect their health. Should be conducive to human health, health perspective to choose the sleeping equipment, to create good external conditions for sleep. (1) bed: from the need to facilitate sleep and health care to consider the main height, width, narrow and soft and hard. From the point of view of health, the height of the bed should be moderate, the bed is too low, the bed has a sense of loss of gravity, and poor ventilation, susceptible to moisture; bed is too high, up and down the bed is not convenient, especially for the elderly more inconvenient. Bed suitable for the height of 40 cm -100 cm, this height is roughly in the normal adult into the kneecap slightly above the convenience of getting in and out of bed when sleeping. Bed soft and hard to appropriate, too hard bed does not adapt to the needs of the human physiological curve, easy on the muscles and crest burden and damage. In addition, too hard bed to sleep uncomfortable, frequent turning, affecting the quality of sleep. Too soft beds affect the normal activities of the crest and limb joints, and easy to make people fatigue. More suitable beds to flat is appropriate, and then laid on top of the 10 cm thick cotton pad, which is beneficial to the human body. If you choose elastic Simmons, spring bed, etc. must choose high quality, to maintain the appropriate hardness. (2) quilt, mattress: should choose the absorbent, soft cotton fabric made of quilt, mattress, and quilt tires, mattress tires to be filled with cotton, which is conducive to the absorption of human sweat waves, can guarantee a good sleep. (3) pillow: pillow is an indispensable bedding in sleep. Scientific use of pillows, sleep and body are very line benefit. The height of the pillow should be appropriate, in order to be comfortable. From a physiological point of view, the height of the pillow, adults to about 15 cm is appropriate. The elderly should be lower, in order to facilitate the blood supply to the head. The pillow is too high, whether supine or side lying, will make the normal physiological curvature of the cervical spine changes, easy to cause “pillow”. The pillow is too low, the blood in the brain increases. Make the head blood vessels congestion, the head has a feeling of swelling. Pillow filling to soft texture, light weight, breathable performance is good. Buckwheat bark, cotton, mung bean shells, rice husk, etc., these materials basically meet the requirements, in recent years, the pillow core material fiber, down, wool, sand, etc., of which the fiber pillow core more comfortable. 2, the posture of scientific sleep Sleeping posture has a variety of different habits, but there are three basic postures, namely, supine, prone and side lying. Some statistics, supine posture sleep accounted for about 60%, side sleep accounted for 35%, prone only 5%. It is generally believed that supine is conducive to blood circulation, but care should be taken not to put hands on the chest, so as not to have a sense of depression, easy to cause nightmares. Side lying can make the whole body muscle relaxation, conducive to gastrointestinal peristalsis, side lying legs should be naturally bent. The pillow should not be too low. Sleep posture selection, should be conducive to rapid sleep, to sleep comfortably. People with heart disease, it is best to sleep on the right side, so as not to cause heart pressure and increase the chances of morbidity; high blood pressure and head pain, should be properly padded pillow; lung disease patients in addition to high pillow, but also often change the sleeping position to facilitate the discharge of phlegm; liver and gallbladder system diseases, the right side of sleep is appropriate; pain in the limbs, the stress to avoid pressure on the pain and lying. In short, choose a comfortable, conducive to the condition of the sleeping position, which helps to sleep peacefully. 3, reasonable sleep time The length of sleep varies greatly among individuals, in general, a healthy adult should ensure about 8 hours of sleep every day, the elderly generally have a shorter sleep time at night, it is not easy to fall asleep, easy to wake up after sleep, sleep time is slightly shorter. In addition to the length of sleep, the key to determine whether the sleep is good or not is the depth of sleep and the feeling after waking up. The depth of sleep is what we call the actual or unreal sleep. Deep sleep is also known as solid sleep, the brain cortical inhibition is very deep, the formation of sound sleep, so that the energy can be fully restored, wake up fatigue disappeared, the whole body comfortable and relaxed, clear mind, refreshed, indicating that the quality of sleep during this period of time is good. If the degree of sleep is very shallow, especially mixed with some nightmares, woken up in the middle of sleep, then even if the sleep time is long, but also do not get a good rest, wake up still feel dizzy, fatigue, indicating that there is no good rest, so the length of sleep mainly depends on the degree of sleep and the quality of sleep. We should pay attention to sleep, son is 23:00 to 1:00 the next day, noon is 11:00 to 13:00. General 11:00 p.m. before going to sleep, this time to rest the most nourishing yin, noon nap is very important, but the rest time should not be too long, to lie down to sleep not sitting or dozing on their stomachs. Adequate sleep, the degree of sleep is deep, beneficial to health and longevity. 4, the relationship between sleep and the environment Sleep is good or bad, and the sleep environment is closely related. Elegant and quiet, soft light, moderate temperature environment is very important for the rest of the dream and sleep. Sleep environment generally has the following requirements: (1) the environment is quiet: quiet environment is one of the basic conditions for sleep. Noise has the greatest impact on the quality of sleep. Experts point out that when the external noise exceeds 40 decibels, sleep will be affected. Noisy environment, so that the mood can not be quiet and difficult to sleep, so the bedroom window should avoid facing the street downtown or add soundproofing facilities. (2) the light should be dark: sleep in the light, people sleep, although the eyes are closed, but still can feel the light. If you sleep on the light, the light will disturb the natural balance of the human body, resulting in the human body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure becomes uncoordinated, thus making people feel disturbed, difficult to sleep, even if they fall asleep, but also easy to wake up, so that the sleep is unstable, shallow sleep period increased. (3) temperature and humidity appropriate: bedroom to ensure that the temperature and humidity is relatively stable, the room temperature is generally 20 ℃ is good, humidity to about 60% is appropriate. The bedroom should also be clean and elegant and conducive to sleep. (4) fresh indoor air: the bedroom should ensure sufficient sunlight during the day, air circulation, in order to maintain the freshness of indoor air. Bedroom must have a window, before going to bed, after waking up, it is appropriate to open the window for ventilation, sleep should not all close the doors and windows, should retain the door on the ventilation window, or the window open a slit. Adequate oxygen is conducive to brain cells to recover from fatigue, and facilitate the skin’s whistling function.