With the Easter holidays upon us, we are all looking forward to catching up on our sleep. But considering it’s something we all do every day, how much do we REALLY know about it?
Here are 5 facts about sleep that we found pretty fascinating
- Around 12% of people dream entirely in black and white. This is a complete shift from a time before colour TV (I know, what a thought right?!) when only 15% of people dreamed in colour. What a transformation!
- It is impossible to sneeze while sleeping. This is because the nerves that help you to sneeze are at rest. So if a bug crawls up your nose in the middle of the night, the only way to sneeze it out would be to wake up.
- You know that feeling when you’re so cozy in bed and it feels almost impossible to get up? There’s actually a scientific name for that: Clinomania. Who knew?! Well, now we all do!
- Naps can be used to help us catch up on vital sleep throughout the day, but have you ever woken up from a nap feeling more tired than you started? This may be because you have actually slept for too long. NASA scientists have conducted studies into napping, and have concluded that the perfect length of time for a snooze is 26 minutes.
- Most people have between 4 – 6 dreams a night, even if they don’t remember them. If you are one of the lucky people who does remember your dreams when you wake up, apparently this only lasts for the first 5 minutes. After this, people have generally forgotten 50% of their dreams, losing another 40% after a further 5 minutes. Can you remember your dreams longer than 10 minutes after waking up? Why not try writing them down as soon as you open your eyes to create a dream diary.
Image Source: Unsplash
5 awesome facts about sleeping animals
Humans aren’t the only living creatures to sleep. So just for fun, here are 5 really cool facts about animal sleep that we just HAD to share!
- A tiger sleeps about the same amount of time as a human infant every day, which is about 16 hours. That’s a lot of time for dreams!
- Giraffes and elephants only need around 2 hours of sleep a day, although they like about 4 – 5 hours if they can get it. Both animals can sleep standing up, although elephants lie down when they are dreaming.
- Hibernating is often thought of as animals going to sleep for a few months, but this isn’t technically true. Sleep is a gentle resting state, while hibernation is a heavy torpor. This means that the animals are essentially unconscious in order to save valuable energy and fat reserves. It is nearly impossible to wake a hibernating animal.
- An octopus can change colour while it is sleeping! Scientists don’t know if this is in reaction to dreams they may be having or if it is involuntary, but either way, it’s pretty cool.
- Only one side of a bird’s brain sleeps at a time. This is called unihemispheric sleep. It means that birds can keep one eye open at all times while they remain alert for potential predators, while also getting the rest they need. They can even do this while they are gliding through the air, with some migratory birds recorded as flying for over 200 days straight!
Image Source: Pixabay
These are just a few of the intriguing facts about sleep which we found. Why not share what you know about snoozing by tagging us @wiseupteam on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Image Source: Unsplash
Title Image Source: Pixabay
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