The Science of Sleep: What You Need to Know

What makes sleeping so important? There are a lot of reasons, but generally, this is the time when your body recovers from the different stresses that it’s out under during the day. See, the brain accumulates metabolic waste as it goes about its normal neural activities — like writing reports, making dinner and sustaining conversations with friends.

Science has proven that sleeping plays a crucial role in cleaning out the brain each night, flushing out different toxins, repairing damaged skin and slowing down different body systems so they don’t burn out. Most of these activities are only possible during deep sleep. That means the shorter and more uncomfortable the sleep, the less time and quality those functions operate on.

What causes bad sleep?

As each person lives a different lifestyle, there are also varying reasons why you’re not getting the sleep your body needs. Some people are naturally light sleepers, so any sound, light or discomfort will wake them up almost instantly. Others go into REM sleep, which is a lot deeper and cannot be easily disturbed, much faster.

Regardless of how you sleep, you need to find a way to make yourself comfortable enough to sleep through the required number of hours, which doctors say is 8. Here are some factors that you have to be mindful of because they could affect the length and quality of sleep you get.

Light

One of the body functions that regulate sleep is your circadian rhythm — which means that your body responds to light cues. The darker the room, the higher the melatonin production. When your body senses light, it stops. That’s how we’re programmed to rise and sleep with the sun. Since there are bright room lights, laptops and TVs now, the body assumes you should still be up even if it’s late.

To create a conducive sleep environment, you need to keep your room’s lighting to a minimum. Make sure to turn off all light sources, like your TV or the bright lights in your room before heading to bed. You can also install blackout curtains, so that if you’re getting up at 8:30 in the morning but sunrise is at 6, the extra light won’t wake you up and fragment your sleep.

Beddings

Contrary to popular belief, price has little to do with the comfort level of a sleeping essential – whether that’s pillow or a mattress. What’s more important to look at is the the science behind how the product was made and the results that it brings to your sleeping pattern.

For example, a Phiten pillow is co designed by a therapist to adequately support your head, shoulders and neck throughout the night. You can toss and turn for all 8 hours, but still wake up feeling rejuvenated.

Each pillow developed by Phiten – including the Shiatsu Pillow, Shiatsu Hill Pillow and Zero Feeling Pillow – comes with 5 AquaGold Silica Balls that massages your head at strategic acupuncture points for enhanced blood circulation, better posture and faster body recovery.

To enhance the effect, wrap a Phiten pillow up with its matching Phiten pillow case. It’s made from high quality materials, such as silk, and it’s permeated with 30 times more AquaGold, which promotes better sleep and relaxation. This Phiten pillow case is also antibacterial because it’s made with “deocell” thread that lessens the growth of bacteria even with constant use.

Finally, perfecting this bedding trifecta is the Phiten mattress. What sets the TitanFit Mattress X30 apart is the combination of comfort and body recovery. Like the brand’s other sleeping products, the Phiten mattress is designed to fully support your body as you sleep. It eliminates the possibility of back aches due to a sagging, low quality mattress, thanks to its urethane foam. This foam is a resilient material that adjusts to the contours of your body while you lay on  it.

On top of that, this Phiten mattress is also permeated with 30 times more AquaTitanium that speeds up pain relief and body recovery while you sleep. You can use this Phiten mattress on its own or on top of another mattress, depending on your comfort level. It’s breathable — perfect for whatever season — and durable — a bedding investment you can keep for years to come.

The Phiten pillow, pillow case and mattress is the perfect combo for a great night sleep. Together, they don’t just assure your comfort for the entire night. They also allow your body to recover from muscle pain and other stresses of the previous day faster. These set is designed for optimal healing and comfort, so you’re indulging in more than just good sleep. You’re investing in good health.

Sound

Another common source of discomfort when you’re sleeping is noise — whether that’s the unending honking of cars from a few floors below or the snoring of your partner next to you. Unwanted sounds can really affect your sleeping patterns because there are only specific noises that your body can tolerate before it starts waking up.

Your noise tolerance varies from one person. For those who have lived in the city their whole life, traffic and sirens might bother them less but the crickets or strong winds can wake them up unexpectedly. For those who have only had homes in the suburbs or rural areas, any high pitched or loud sounds will disrupt their sleep almost instantly.

There are a few ways to solve this. You can install noise cancelling drapes on your windows to make sure no external noise comes through. If the issues is your partner snoring, you can try buying ear plugs or you can listen to white noise which cancels out most other background noises.

So…

Hopefully, this simple list of things that could affect your sleep helps enhance your sleeping habits. As of now, more than half of the world population has trouble sleeping — prompting them to toss and turn all night and chug cups of the coffee the following day. We’re keeping our fingers crossed you won’t be one of them anymore.