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Many UK citizens spend an inordinate amount of time at work, running household chores, fighting fires, and chasing their tails.

Sleep, then, is often sacrificed, and although missing the odd couple of hours here and there is not the end of the world, lack of sleep can cause serious problems with both your physical and your emotional health over time.

Read on to learn the supreme importance of a good night’s sleep and how to improve your sleep schedule.

What Issues Can Sleep Loss Cause?

You know when you are already tired before you set out on a journey, but if you are driving you can concentrate fully on the road out of necessity and only feel exhausted when you reach your destination?

Sometimes, not dissimilar to stress, you do not realise just how tired you are, even though the following can result from a lack of sleep (especially on a regular basis):

  • Heart Failure, Stroke & Heart Disease
  • Lack of Focus & Concentration
  • Impaired Judgement in Daily Tasks
  • Premature Fine Lines & Wrinkles
  • Eradication of Sex Drive

Why Does the Body Need Sleep Every Night?

For both your mental and your physical health, it is necessary to sleep for at least seven to eight hours every single night, going through several non-REM and REM stages during this time.

Your internal body clock works to a twenty-four-hour cycle, otherwise known as your circadian rhythm and the ideal is that you awake feeling refreshed and ‘ready to go’, becoming increasingly tired throughout the day and eventually feeling ready for bed in the evening.

There are four separate stages of sleep, with stage one marking the exact point when wakefulness turns into sleep and stage two consisting of a deeper sleep, whereby your muscles relax, and your breathing and heart rates slow down.

Stage three is when such rates reach their lowest possible levels and begins as the longest stage in the night cycle, with the final stage, REM, is when your body locks itself in paralysis so you can dream and recharge safely.

How Can You Improve Sleep Quality?

Solid wooden beds are not only aesthetically stunning but a real focal feature for your bedroom. Still, they can also greatly increase your chances of getting a long and interrupted night’s sleep.

Aside from upgrading your bed, there are many other proven-to-be effective tools to try and improve both the quality and the duration of your sleep, including not using smartphones and other electronic gadgets in bed, keeping the lights dimmed to a minimum, and investing blackout blinds for the windows.

Additionally, aerobic exercise before bed will also help you to relax in bed, as will avoiding taking even the smallest of naps in the daytime, keeping a routine when it comes to the time you go to bed, set the alarm, and keeping a sleep journal to identify the triggers that mean your sleep quality is not sufficient at certain times.