This post is inspired by Niniane. She just read a book called The Promise of Sleep. Here are some interesting facts she got from it:

I used to think that sleepiness increased linearly with number of hours awake. If you feel sleepy at 9pm, you must surely be even more sleepy at 1am! Not so, says the book. Our bodies release biological alertness hormones twice a day. If I miss the 10pm sleepiness train, I will not be tired again until 2:30am.

I also learned that exposing your body to light will make you stay awake longer. Even shining a bright light on the back of your knee will confuse your body’s clock and make you less sleepy.

I love sleep. I try to sleep at least 8 hours a night. When I get less, I am sooooo tired…like today!! Anyways, here are other cool facts I found about sleep:

– Anything less than five minutes to fall asleep at night means you’re sleep deprived. The ideal is between 10 and 15 minutes, meaning you’re still tired enough to sleep deeply, but not so exhausted you feel sleepy by day.

– Seventeen hours of sustained wakefulness leads to a decrease in performance equivalent to a blood alcohol-level of 0.05%.

– After five nights of partial sleep deprivation, three drinks will have the same effect on your body as six would when you’ve slept enough.

– Some studies suggest women need up to an hour’s extra sleep a night compared to men, and not getting it may be one reason women are much more susceptible to depression than men.

– The extra-hour of sleep received when clocks are put back at the start of daylight in Canada has been found to coincide with a fall in the number of road accidents.

This one is funny for me:
– Experts say one of the most alluring sleep distractions is the 24-hour accessibility of the internet.