How Much Sleep Is Necessary?

"Getting enough sleep is a vital part of staying fit and healthy, which is why scientists are constantly looking at ways of ensuring this happens.

"Now, a new study from India suggests that extra hours in bed don't mean much in terms of benefits if there isn't also a corresponding increase in good-quality slumber."

Click on the link below for the results of an interesting study:

Experiment Reveals Why Getting More Sleep Isn't Always Beneficial

Sleep 101

"Russell Foster is a circadian neuroscientist: He studies the sleep cycles of the brain. And he asks: What do we know about sleep? Not a lot, it turns out, for something we do with one-third of our lives. In this talk, Foster shares three popular theories about why we sleep, busts some myths about how much sleep we need at different ages -- and hints at some bold new uses of sleep as a predictor of mental health."

Sleep is more important than you probably realize.

Why do we sleep?

Sleep Myths

If you are like me, you have some problem(s) with sleep. However, getting the truth about how to maximize sleep is another story. The following link presents the science behind the do's and don't's of sleep from two experts who are actually researching the subject:

Sleep Experts Debunk 15 Sleep Myths

Sleep Patterns

"One thing you can do is rearrange your sleep cycle to give yourself more time. Paleoanthropologists espouse that our ancestors probably didn’t sleep for seven hours at a clip, as it would make them easy prey. Instead, they probably slept at different periods throughout the day and night, and you can too."

With Polyphasic Sleep, You Can Thrive on as Little as Two Hours per Night

It's OK To Let Babies Cry Themselves To Sleep, Study Finds

- - - this approach – while noisy – is perfectly healthy for children, according to a study from Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia.

Sleep Is A Factor In Health

Lack of Sleep Affects Cholesterol Metabolism and Inflammation

Can Sleep Heal Our Brains?

 "'The thing about sleep that is maddening is we don’t know what it’s for,' Paul Shaw says with a hint of frustration. Rather than truly grasping the role sleep plays in our complicated biology, the neuroscientist has been stuck merely describing it. He’s not alone."

Sleep, its mystery and importance

Why Does the Sound of Water Help You Sleep?

http://www.livescience.com/53403-why-sound-of-water-helps-you-sleep.html