Sleep is essential for optimal health and directly affects your mental and physical wellbeing. Achieving adequate sleep will promote increased productivity and energy, immune system function, emotional balance, brain and heart health and healthy weight management. Healthy adult individuals need 7 to 9 hours of sleep during a 24-hour period.

The sleep cycle consists of two recurring phases, rapid eye movement (REM) and non-rapid eye movement (NREM). If the cycles are interrupted throughout the night, then we miss out on vital body processes, such as tissue growth and repair, processing and consolidating emotions, memories and stress. If you wake up feeling well rested and perform well throughout the day, it can be assumed that you obtained an adequate amount of sleep. In contrast, if you need an alarm clock to wake up on time, rely on the snooze button and feel sluggish in the afternoon, chances are you’re sleep deprived.

Important sleep hygiene tips include removing screens from the bedroom, refraining from exercising late in the day, avoiding caffeinated beverages in the evening and following a consistent and relaxing bedtime routine.