What is Sleep Debt?
Time...none of us have enough. There’s work, family, friends, health/wellness, travel, the sex life (or lack thereof), bills, and not to mention hopes, dreams, and aspirations. Trying to keep up with everything proves nearly impossible in a 24 hour period, so what gives? More often than not, sleep.
“I’ll catch up on sleep this weekend,” you say — until you find yourself out partying, or up with the baby, or just binging a new tv show...until 3am. And you’ll get charged if you skip that 7am spin class you already signed up for. Repeat. And repeat again. Until you find yourself with a massive pile of sleep debt.
So what is sleep debt?
Sleep debt is defined as: “the cumulative effect of not getting enough sleep”. Every hour of sleep you skip adds up. And as the sleep debt builds...so do the side effects, including mental and physical fatigue, weight gain (gasp!), and irritability. Not good.
So yes, sleep debt is a thing. And the collection agency is calling. According to Harvard Health, the adults should get between 7-9 hours of sleep a day. But studies show that 60% of women fall below that number. Sometimes it can be caused by a medical condition, but more often than not its caused by a busy schedule that requires missing our bedtimes and sleeping long enough to get back to normal.
What’s the good news?
Unlike our beloved credit cards, sleep debt doesn’t carry interest and can easily be repaid: just sleep. In order to make up long-standing sleep debt, you’ll have to sleep more hours in one night than usual.
Struggling to get to sleep? Read these tips.
NIGHT is 100% about chasing the dream, packing your schedule, and doing all that it takes to make it to the next level, but the one thing we don’t condone: skimping on sleep. And with NIGHT products, you can pay your sleep debt with added benefits!