http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/17/cheating-ourselves-of-sleep/?_r=0

Research shows that most people need 7-8 hours of sleep to function optimally. Getting less than the recommended hours of sleep compromises your health- it can affect memory, productivity and bodily functions such as the immune system, appetite, lungs & kidneys etc. studies have also shown that insufficient sleep is linked to weight gain. people with less time to sleep have more time to eat drink and snack. Hormones in the blood are also affected- the hormones that tell your brain that you’re hungry/full vary depending on how sleep deprived a person is. the risk of type 2 diabetes increases, as long as cancer.

Point is, sleep more, it’s good for you.

-Jasmine Ma

Although people usually associate insomnia with their emotions or difficulties in life, food choices are actually one of the factors of insomnia. The four simple precautions on food to avoid insomnia are as follows:

• Caffeine – no food or drinks such as chocolates, coffee, tea hours before bed
• Alcohol – it may make you feel sleepy temporarily but will cause frequent awakenings during sleep.
• Large Meal at Dinner – large dinner may make you feel drowsy but that does not turn into sleep once into bed as your stomach is fully filled it gets uncomfortable when you lie down. It gets harder for your body to let you sleep while its still busy digesting your dinner.
• Liquids – Try not to take in liquids at least 90 minutes before going to bed. This is because it takes your body approximately 90 minutes to digest any sort of liquid that you intake.

Muhammad Junaid

A group of Norwegian researchers asked over 52,000 men and women to fill out health questionnaires and after receiving the results, they followed the subjects for over eleven years. Researchers then compared the subjects with people who never had sleep problems. Subjects who had trouble falling asleep had an increased 45% risk of heart attack. People with problems staying asleep had a 30% increased risk, and finally, those who woke up tired had a 27% increase in risk.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/health/research/chronic-insomnia-raises-heart-attack-threat-study-says.html

– Winnie Zhang

This article was on the effects of sleeping and relaxing and productivity during the day. It talks about how we often try to push ourselves to accomplish so much, however, to get more done we should take more time doing less. It’s been proven that taking afternoon naps, receiving more hours of sleep at night, and taking more frequent vacations helps us improve our productivity and health. The article discusses how day-time naps helps us perform much better on tests that measured attentiveness and reaction time. Longer naps about 60-90 minutes improve your memory.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/opinion/sunday/relax-youll-be-more-productive.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&ref=sleep&adxnnlx=1382394608-+RkdQ6ptykyLB830+eO8DA

– Chloe Magliato