Does it ever occur to you that your prolonged restless sleep can rob a few years from you? This is not meant to scare you but to make you ponder if you have been ignoring your need for good sleep lately. The sooner we realize the importance that sleep plays in our life, the better. The negligence of sleep and its vital role in our health, has brought us to the point where we can’t afford (literally) to ignore it any further. The way you need food to eat, water to drink and oxygen to breathe, similarly, you need sleep to rejuvenate your brain and body.

Sleep deprivation causes a whole range of chronic diseases and aggravation of mental disorders among other health risks. So, it isn’t difficult to imagine how it can steal away some years of your life and cause early death. A comprehensive review of population-based studies from around the world has revealed that those who sleep less (especially lesser than five hours a night) have a 12% greater risk of dying. As of 2010, this has been equated to 6.3 million attributable deaths in those above the age of 16 in the UK and over 25 million attributable deaths in the USA for those over the age of 20.

With each year passing, new studies are conducted on sleep using more innovative methods and the results are always intriguing. The Fitbit app has been tracking the sleep stages of its customers since 2017, thereby making it a large dataset of over six billion nights of its American customers. This biometric sleep data shows that the time spent in deep sleep, steeply decreases with advancing age and that sleep suffers due to inconsistencies in bedtime.

Trouble sleeping at night inevitably results in drowsiness during the day. Besides reducing your productivity and alertness, it can also cost you your life. If you think this is an exaggeration, consider the tragic outcomes of industrial accidents at factories and manufacturing plants that often occur due to judgment errors and slower reactions of sleep-deprived workers. This is further supported by various studies that release statistics based on their understanding of the number of road accidents that happen every year. The results of a study conducted in the US by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety clearly show that drivers who have had less than 4-5 hours of sleep (in past 24 hours) are highly impaired for driving, while those who slept less than 2 hours are just not fit to operate a vehicle. In India, owing to the sheer volume and indiscipline of traffic this situation is compounded manifold. Police officers patrolling Indian expressways have reported that most of the accidents on highways are due to drivers “dozing-off” involuntarily.

Various researchers across the globe have been studying how less sleep leads to a shorter lifespan. A major contribution comes from the weakening of our immunity due to lack of sleep, as reported by several studies. Inadequate amount of sleep promotes immune alterations that hamper the activation of T and B cells – our defender cells that champion the cause of our immune responses – thereby making us vulnerable to a large number of diseases.

From infants to the elderly, everybody should sleep for the hours that are recommended to their age groups. All of us stay up late once in a while but we really must not make a habit of it. Of course, it is easier said than done but now that you know how detrimental lack of sleep can be for your health and in fact your life span, it’s high time to take it seriously and make efforts to improve sleep quality. If you’re looking for natural sleep deprivation solutions, Restopatch is one of the best herbal remedies for insomnia. It is made of 100% natural ingredients comprised of Jatamansi/Muskroot (Nardostachys jatamansi) and Sarpagandha/Serpentine wood (Rauvolfia serpentine). It is these ingredients packaged into a convenient skin patch that makes it a natural sleep supplement and a superior alternative to oral pills as well as messy, smelly sprays/oils. It just needs to be patched on the neck, behind the ear, or on an area with little or no hair. Once placed, it releases the active ingredients slowly over a long period of time via its patented technology of sustained release. This patch being non-allergic and non-habit forming is perfect for those who are keen to adopt traditional therapies rather than opting for allopathic medication for treating illnesses.

So, let this patch take care of giving you a good night’s rest so that you can spend your day fully alert and awake at work and with your family and friends.

Try it today!

Dr. Avani Shukla
Ph.D. in Molecular Neurobiology
International Max Planck Research School
Göttingen, Germany