The National Safety Administration knows what lack of sleep does to a driver. Their organization reports that 100,000 crashes each year are from drivers falling asleep at the wheel. Further estimates include 71,000 injuries and 1550 deaths each year in the U.S. And about 4 percent of accidents in rural areas are due to sleepiness, of which 4 percent are fatal.
These statistics tell us that there’s a lot of pain, suffering, grief, and wasted lives just because someone couldn’t get a good night of sleep.
But it’s also a wake up call to all of us that our sleep habits affect not only our own lives… but the lives of others. And if you delve a little deeper into sleep habits, you would find that the importance of sleep is evident in our lives because it is essential for us to make good decisions.
Relationship Between the Importance of Sleep and Drug Use
University of Michigan Health System researchers found that when a young teenage boy doesn’t get enough sleep, he is more likely – twice as likely – to become a drug user, smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol later in life. And these three bad habits never bring any positive benefits to one’s life in the long term.
The Importance of Sleep – Related to Money Matters
In another study researchers paid subjects to perform computer tasks. During the time they worked on the computer, the subjects had a choice to either stop and take a paycheck or forge ahead and earn more. However, if they forged ahead and their work was inaccurate or not completed on time, they would forfeit their check. The researchers found that when subjects were sleepy, they couldn’t correctly gauge their workload or quit the tasks prematurely. Often they risked losing everything even though it was easy to see the task could not be finished in the required amount of time. This proved the importance of sleep to the researchers, especially on decision making.
Sleep Habit Evaluation
Many people believe that to get a good night of sleep, a prescription drug or OTC drug is needed, but this is not so. To get a good night of sleep, you may simply have to rearrange your day’s activities. What type of sleep habits do you have? Do you take short naps during the day, or long ones? Does your diet include beverages such as Mountain Dew, Cola, PepsiCola, Coke, and coffee which keep you from getting a good night’s rest. Do you have a “no more caffeine after 5 pm” rule? Setting boundaries for things that affect sleep sends a message to your subconscious about the importance of sleep.
Another area to consider is diet; to have sound sleep, you need nutrients. Calcium deficiency and magnesium deficiency both will cause restlessness and the inability to sleep. Taking your vitamins right before bed, especially the B vitamins, will activate your mind and cause you to be too alert as you lie down to sleep. These two issues are sleep mistakes which can cost you hours of mental fog, lack of concentration, and in the worst case, affect other people’s lives negatively. It’s a hard way to discover the importance of sleep.
Medicinal Herbs Known to Enhance Sleep Patterns
Medicinal herbs may be able to help as they are used in 80% of the world to treat sleep disorders. Medicinal herbs contain different natural chemicals that relax the nervous system and remove the hyperirritability that may contribute to lack of sleep. Medicinal herbs can increase the total amount of sleep you have while increasing the time you spend in deep sleep. For example, jujube, one of hundreds of Chinese medicinal herbs, is often used to treat insomnia found in cancer patients. It possesses sleep-inducing properties. There are no side effects from many medicinal herbs used to treat insomnia.
Taking drugs for alleviating sleep disorders is learning the importance of sleep the hard way. By considering medicinal herbs, you open up to a better way of solving the issue. Read more about medicinal herbs and then make an educated decision.
Learning about medicinal herbs is not only fun; it’s a way to connect with nature.
When you have sleep issues, learning more about medicinal herbs for sleep enhancement could be what saves your life. Find out more today.