Healthy Life – Happy Life

– 5 –

5

What ‘sleeping’ means?

Sleeping is a physiological and cyclical state, characterized by the low activity and low response to stimuli.  Sleep is often influenced by the activity of the person during the day and takes up nearly a third of his life.

a

Why is sleep important?

Sleep plays a vital role in good health and well-being throughout your life, getting enough quality sleep at the right time can help protect your mental health and physical health, life quality and safety.

How you feel when you are awake depends in part of what happens when you were sleeping.  During sleep your body works to support healthy brain function and maintains your physical health.  In children and teens sleep supports growth and development.

a

♦ Sleep is a physiological need of the body, just like oxygen, water, and food.

♦ The immune system is built during sleep.

♦ Sleep saves energy.  During the stages of deep sleep the body uses a lot less energy.

♦ The growth hormone in children is secreted mostly asleep, when the peak of the provision is the first part of the night concentrating on deep sleep.

♦ Sleep is the time both the body and the mind rest;  yet during sleep intense activity occurs in the brain.  Sleep is essential for the developing brain and body.  Babies, for instance, process what they have learned during the night.

♦ Sleep affects learning, memory and reasoning; the ability to regulate emotional arousal, and the ability to deal with the sensory stimulation level: touch, sound, and so on.

– 7 –

5

The relation between sleep and studies

Do you often forget things that you’re sure you know?

Do you find it hard to concentrate on complex assignments?

Do you get less than six hours of sleep a night?

If so, you’re probably not getting enough sleep. That’s right!

Lack of sleep can hinder you from thinking clearly and can even kill!

Studies show that excessive sleepiness can hurt work performance.

Sleep plays a critical role in thinking and learning.

Lack of sleep hurts cognitive processes in many ways.

First, it impairs attention, alertness, concentration, reasoning, and problem solving, it makes it more difficult to learn efficiently.

Second, during the night, various sleep cycles play a role in “consolidating” memories in the mind.  If you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t be able to remember what you learned and experienced during the day.

During sleep, our brain takes our memories, reactivates and looks at them again, and stores them in a more efficient way.  Not getting enough sleep hurts our brain’s ability to do so, and it hurts our memory.

So if you feel it’s hard to remember things and think during the day, lack of sleep might be your problem.  Try to go to bed earlier.  If  8-9 hours of sleep are not enough for you, try to get more.  Then you are going to find out that it is easier to remember and understand things, be more alerted, and just enjoy life even more.

A video that was made by Shiran Haskal and explains lack of sleep.

The following 2 videos explain what happens when you get enough sleep time.

– 9 –

What is the impact of lack of sleep in children?

♦ Problems starting from levels of concentration and information comprehension, losing information knowledge and memory, and finishing with cognitive physical and mental disabilities.  Moreover, lack of sleep can lead to slower reactions and consequently causes accidents and injuries.

♦ Research shows a connection between sleep disorders and behavioural problems of children.  Perhaps a child who is born with a tendency to behavioural problems can develop sleep problems which can cause a child to be irritable, impatient and restless. Sometimes there are signs of hyperactivity in the kids as a result of cumulative fatigue.

♦ Lack of sleep causes hunger inducing hormone secretion, leading the children to eat more and develop obesity.  Parents should encourage a greater number of hours of sleep which arranged metabolic function of children and the maintenance of normal weight.

♦ Weakness of the immune system since the body remains in a state of alertness and stress, which increases the risk of damage to health.

–

Too little? dangerous! Too much? Too!

Study from 2011 published in the European Heart Association found that people who get enough sleep “are at increased risk of 48% of developing or dying from coronary heart disease During the follow-up of 7 to 25 years, and an increased risk of 15% of developing or dying from a stroke during that time.  “According to the studies, sleep too little also increases the risk of diabetes, headaches, and depression, and affects libido, aging skin, memory capacity judgment and reaction time.

And what about too much sleep?  It’s not ideal.  The same study found that “those who sleep nine hours or more per night, showed an increased risk of 38% of developing or dying from coronary heart disease and an increased risk of 65% having a stroke.

–

– 13 –

9

What kind of sports are good for the health ?

Basketball:

Basketball teaches you about being a good team player and can be a great social sport.  Adults should check with their doctor before taking up basketball.  Basketball puts a lot of stress on the body and injuries can happen, so warming up, stretching your muscles and joints, and cooling down is important.  Make sure you have plenty of fluids on hand and rehydrate regularly.

a

Soccer:

Increases Aerobic Capacity: Running, at any intensity, for 90 minutes requires a high level of stamina.  Therefore, soccer players often have a tremendous amount of aerobic   capacity which enables them to go from walking to sprinting and have a fast recovery to do it again and again.

a

Improves Cardiovascular Health:  An average player runs about 5 to 7 miles in a full game.  The constant walking, jogging and running keep the players’ heart rates up, and provide excellent cardiovascular exercise.  This constant movement helps players strengthen their hearts, resist plaque build-up in the coronary arteries, reduce their blood pressure and burn excess calories.

a

Lowers Body Fat and Improves Muscle Tone:  Soccer is a great sport for burning fat because it works the muscles and your heart in different ways. Soccer builds more muscle mass and burns more fat by recruiting both slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscle fibers. As a general workout, soccer playing burns more calories than typical workouts because players are forced to switch between using the aerobic and anaerobic energy pathways.

a

Builds Muscle Strength: lower body strength is required for kicking, jumping, tackling, twisting and turning and also forms the foundation for explosive speed. Upper body strength is required for shielding the ball, holding off opponents, throw-ins and also contributes to overall power and explosiveness. Regular soccer playing builds strength by using the whole body.

– 20 –

20

Summary

We wanted to make book about healthy life and how to manage it.

Our question was “Is healthy food enough to have a healthy life?”

a

We worked very hard to produce this book.

We worked in groups and every one made his/her part. In the book we talked about sleeping, eating and sports.

While making a research we have learned a lot about different kinds of diets, the influence of sleeping on our body and the importance of sport. We got a lot of new knowledge about our bodies and health. This project made us think over and over again how important it is to be healthy and to stay healthy.

The research was very integrative and challenging because this kind of work is new for us and it’s always not so easy to start something new.

a

To sum up, we hope that you will enjoy reading this book as well as we enjoy writing it.

Thank you.