Measure your knowledge on slumber and vivid fantasies: What's your grasp on sleep and dreams?
Snoozing Your Way to a Healthier Life:
Sleeping, it seems, takes up a significant chunk of our time. But despite making us immobile during those hours, it plays a crucial role in our overall health. Turns out, our bodies perform some essential physiological functions while we're asleep, and disruptions in sleep can lead to a host of health problems, including a raise in the risk of death.
You ever wondered what's happening inside your head during those dreamland escapades? Well, sleep also serves as a gateway to an experience that we can't access during our awake hours.
Take this quiz below to test your knowledge about the science behind sleep and the dreams we dream! Don't forget to log in to get on the leaderboard; if you're stuck, the yellow button offers helpful hints, and do share your score in the comments.
More Science Quizzes
- Brain Power: Test your knowledge on the body's most intricate organ
- Psichologic Puzzles: Brush up on psychology's most infamous experiments
- Evolution Chatter: What do you know about the evolution of Homo sapiens?
Now, let's dive deeper into why disrupted sleep can up the mortality risk. Sleep deprivation has been linked to:
- Heart Troubles: Lack of sleep significantly increases the risk of conditions like hypertension, stroke, and heart disease - all of which bump up the chances of all-cause mortality among adults dealing with inadequate sleep.
- Sweet Disorders: Insufficient sleep leads to conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes, commonly associated with increased mortality risk.
- Mental Health Struggles: Sleep deprivation contributes to feelings of anxiety, emotional instability, stress vulnerability, and depression - problems that can exacerbate health risks and affect lifespan.
- Epileptic Woes: Sleep deprivation almost doubles the risk of all-cause mortality in older adults with epilepsy. Managing sleep disturbances keeps survivors sailing smoothly.
- Daydream Dangers: Excessive daytime sleepiness, a byproduct of disturbed or insufficient sleep, is associated with a 16% higher mortality rate among middle-aged women - a solid indicator of increased risk of death.
- Nap Matters: Certain nap patterns in middle-to-older aged adults align with mortality risk, suggesting that both nighttime and daytime sleep habits could impact health.
The relationship between sleep duration and all-cause mortality follows a U-shape, in which short sleep duration (less than 7 hours per night) and excessive sleep are associated with higher death risk. Striking that sweet 7 to 9-hour sleep mark helps keep these risks at bay.
