Sleep. It’s fun isn’t it? Well, it’s fun for us but maybe that’s just because we’re huge nerds who know everything there is to know about sleep. Nevertheless, we thought we’d compile some sleep facts from the deepest realms of our mind, to ponder upon before you next take the plunge into dream city.
- The average person dreams 4-6 times every night, but how often do you actually remember them? You won’t be able to recall most of your dreams, and the ones you can, you’ll forget 60% of it within five minutes of waking up. Funny old thing, our brain (don’t lay awake thinking about it too long though!)
- Nowadays, 75% of people dream in colour, BUT before colour TV was invented this figure stood at 15%. Who said television kills imagination? It merely paints it in.
- You can sleep yourself skinny. Sleep is just as important as diet and exercise, scientists have discovered. Sleep helps you regulate hormones that control your appetite, so you’ll eat fewer calories if you get your recommend sleep. Lack of sleep can decrease ghrelin, a hormone that helps you feel satiated, and increase the hunger hormone leptin. See we told you, fun facts.
- Humans spend 1/3 of their life sleeping. This is unbelievable. By that logic, every hour you spend living, 20 minutes will be spent sleeping. This isn’t technically a fun fact, it’s likely to trigger an existential crisis, so we better lighten it up with the next one.
- Some people can take cat naps, sleep with their eyes open, without even knowing! We can’t imagine the horror of getting an engagement ring, spending a fortune on a wedding, cementing your life to another person to find out that they sometimes sleep wide-eyed. Always check the important things before committing!
- We are the only mammals that willingly delay sleep. Cats, dogs, ponies, the New Zealand greater short-tailed bat – if they’re tired, they fall asleep. Us humans haven’t reached that level of intellect yet and we keep to a sleeping pattern that our jobs and life abides by (we’re trying our hardest to normalise it, don’t you worry)
So, there you have it, the first instalment of some ‘fun’, and potentially existentially-wounding, sleep facts about our specialist subject. Anyway, we’re going to try and get our 1/3 of dozing in.
