Something we hear very often from experts - and non-experts alike - is that lack of adequate sleep not only causes serious health problems, but also our productivity.

This is confirmed by a new study, and its results will impress you because it highlights how bad the concept of accumulated sleep deprivation is for productivity and also debunks some beliefs that we may have mistakenly held.

And we are talking, of course, about those 6 hours of sleep that many of us are used to getting every night and consider to be enough for us to perform adequately during our day.

No, 6 hours of sleep is not enough, on the contrary, it can be devastating to our productivity. 

So look at what happened in this particular investigation.

People who took part in the study and slept only 6 hours each night for a period of two weeks performed just as poorly as people who didn't sleep at all for two consecutive days.

But that's not what's impressive.

What is striking is that those who slept 6 hours every night, according to their reports, believed that they were doing great in the tests they were called upon to undertake!

This study , published in the journal Sleep, involved 48 adults. The participants were divided into groups and each group was allocated 4, 6 and 8 hours of sleep over a period of two weeks. In fact, an unlucky group of participants were deprived of sleep completely for 3 consecutive days.

During their time in the lab, participants were tested every two hours (unless they were actually sleeping) on ​​their cognitive performance and reaction time. They answered questions about their mood and any other symptoms they were experiencing. A classic question they were asked was , "How sleepy are you right now?"

Why is 6 hours of sleep not enough?

(Photo by Kinga Cichewicz on Unsplash )

As you can imagine, people who were able to get 8 hours of sleep each night had the highest performance on average, while those who only slept 4 hours a night had their performance go from bad to worse day by day.

On the other hand, those who got 6 hours of sleep initially seemed to have no particular problems... until the 10th day of the study.

A few days before the experiment ended, those who slept 6 hours each night had the same cognitive performance as those who didn't sleep at all for two consecutive days, meaning that 6 hours of sleep is as bad as a complete lack of sleep.

People who got 4 hours of sleep each night had equally bad results, but they appeared much earlier.

The most worrying result of the study, however, is that the group with the 6 hours of sleep did not correctly assess their sleepiness, even as their cognitive performance declined day by day.

On the other hand, people who didn't sleep at all in the evenings reported that their level of sleepiness gradually increased until the end of the experiment, when it had finally increased by a total of two levels.

However, in the 6-hour sleep group, according to their own reports, their level of sleepiness increased by one level, which raises questions about whether people can correctly assess situations in their lives when they are not getting enough sleep.

We don't know how much we sleep.

Complicating matters even further is the fact that people have no idea how many hours they sleep each night. Take Americans, for example, for whom we have the most data.

According to a survey, more than 35% of Americans sleep less than 7 hours a night on average, meaning one in three people is sleep deprived. However, those who are sleep deprived, when asked, are unable to accurately estimate how many hours they sleep at night.

A study from the University of Chicago suggests that people are just as likely to overestimate how much sleep they get as they are to underestimate it, while another sleep study shows that people generally overestimate their nightly sleep by about 0.8 hours . The same study also estimates that for every hour beyond 6 hours that people sleep, they overestimate their sleep by about half an hour .

Therefore, no one knows how much or how little they sleep at night, and when they don't sleep enough, they think they're doing better than they actually are.

So if you think you sleep 7 hours every night, like one in three Americans, it's very likely that you only sleep 6 hours.

Even a small amount of sleep deprivation, i.e. 6 hours instead of 8 hours of sleep over a period of two weeks, can have dramatic effects as the difference accumulates and the individual has greatly reduced performance in their daily lives.

Fixing Sleep: Harder Than It Sounds

Getting enough sleep every night is no easy feat. Expert advice on how to improve your sleep has been around for decades and usually involves:

• Consistency in bedtime
• Abstaining from electronic devices at least half an hour before bedtime
• Avoiding alcohol and large meals before bed (alcohol may make us sleepy but reduces the quality and duration of sleep)
• Exercise during the day

Other advice that we hear less often, but is equally valid, is to reduce our body weight, especially for obese people as sleep apnea and obesity are inextricably linked.

Other causes of sleep problems include physical, neurological, and psychological symptoms, such as anxiety and depression that can negatively affect sleep quality.

Lack of sleep is a serious health problem that affects every aspect of our daily lives and must be addressed. Our diet, exercise, and mental health all affect our ability to sleep properly, and good sleep in turn affects our ability to express our best selves every day. So it's good not to neglect it, but to invest in it.

Improve your sleep naturally

A gravity blanket in your daily life could drastically contribute to reducing stress and fighting insomnia.

Harnessing the power of Deep Tactile Pressure , a scientifically proven stress relief treatment, the Prosleep Gravity Blanket It relaxes the nervous system and increases the levels of serotonin (the "happiness" hormone) and melatonin (the sleep hormone), while at the same time reducing cortisol, which is responsible for stress and anxiety.

After a few minutes in the embrace of the blanket, you feel safe, your body relaxes, your heart rate drops, your eyelids become heavy, and your mind calms down.

Learn how it works and upgrade your sleep today!