We know that all three stages of sleep are important and you go through each of these in around 90-minute cycles. 

 

Deep sleep improves your ability to recall information, light sleep improves your ability to learn new information, and REM sleep improves your ability to make sense of information and any emotion attached to it. 

 

Without a full nights sleep, it’s impossible to feel and be at your best because you aren’t getting the full benefit of all of these cycles. 

 

Seven to nine hours of sleep a night is vital for many functions of the brain and body, including memory, problem solving, attention, immune function and growth. 

 

One of the best ways to improve sleep is to try and sleep at consistent times each day - which means going to sleep at a similar time each night and waking up at a similar time each morning. 

 

If you have trouble falling asleep, two tips that help improve sleep are making sure your room is dark and cool. Lack of light triggers sleep because it increases melatonin levels, which is basically the chemical that tells your body whether it’s time to be up and about or asleep. 

 

It can be helpful to keep your bedroom dark and limit your exposure to bright artificial light in the hour leading up to sleep.

 

The second thing is reducing your core body temperature. A hot shower before bed can actually help with this because your body temperature cools once you get out. 

 

To recap… sleep is productive and helps you be at your best. To do, that you need a good nights sleep each night.