Fun facts about sleep from The National Sleep Research Project

This is a fun article with some suprising statistics that were compiled as an adjunct to The National Sleep Research Project.

Dreaming

Some interesting facts:

  • Dreams were once thought to only occur during REM sleep - however they can occur to a lesser extend in non-REM sleep phases
  • REM Sleep occurs in bursts for about a total of 2hrs per night usually about 90mins after falling asleep
  • Taking less than 5 minutes to fall asleep means you are sleep deprived with 10 - 15 minutes being average and means you are tired enough to sleep deeply
  • It is impossible to tell if someone is awake without medical supervision as people can take naps with their eyes open
  • One of the best predictors of insomnia later in live is developing bad habits as a result of having your sleep disturbed by children
  • The extra-hour of sleep received when clocks are put back at the start of daylight in Canada has been found to coincide with a fall in the number of road accidents.

For all 40 intriguing sleep facts - read the full article here - 40 FACTS ABOUT SLEEP YOU PROBABLY DIDN'T KNOW...