Interesting Facts

According to the Sleep Council, the average Brit goes to bed at 11:15pm and gets just 6 hours and 35 minutes sleep per night. (Yes, not all Brits are lightweights like me.)

According to a survey by Cotton USA, 23% of people hate it when their partner wears socks in bed. (The problem with that is according to Phyllis Zee, MD, PhD, professor at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, wearing socks in bed can help you fall asleep. Luckily I have no trouble sleeping, and I can't believe that only 23% of people hate it.)

Research into sleeping patterns carried out at the University of Surrey, have shown that working night shifts sends the human body into chaos, and could cause lasting damage to health. (Working irregular shifts has a similar effect to severe jet lag or repeatedly missing sleep. Even more worryingly it has a damaging effect at the level of our DNA, with hundreds of genes, whose activity should rise and fall on a daily basis, losing their rhythm, and other genes developing abnormal cycles of their own. So basically not getting enough sleep is bad for you, and sleeping at the wrong time is bad for you too.  We can't win!) Source

According to a survey carried out by lastminute.com, Brits spend nearly nine hours every weekend in front of a TV or computer screen. (34% of Brits admitted to spending their weekend watching TV,  27% catching up on sleep, cleaning the house (11%), doing ‘life’ admin (8%), getting drunk (5%). I do all of the above from time to time.)

An NHS adviser has told office workers to keep a pillow under their desk in case they feel sleepy. (Jayne Morris, the ‘life coach’ for NHS Online, has advised overworked employees to keep a pillow under your desk or a blanket in your car and grab a 20-minute power nap in the middle of the day, regardless of where you are. So put that coffee down, and grab your pillow for sleepy time.)

According to a report called The Great British Bedtime Report, commissioned by the Sleep Council to mark National Bed Month, the average amount that people in the UK spend on a new bed is £583.05. (63% of Brits buy a divan bed, with king-size beds being the most popular, 31% chose this size, but some people spend up to £40,000, and for four years the world's most expensive bed was the Magnetic Floating Bed which has a price tag of $1.6 million. If you think that is a bit much, the title of world's most expensive bed now belongs to the Baldacchino Supreme. This rather pricey little number is made from chestnut wood and curving ash wood with a canopy with edges in cherry wood, it also features Italian silk and cotton, and contains 107 kg of solid 24ct gold, and the headboard can be customized with diamonds buttons. It was a limited edition of only 2 to be made. Price? £4,000,000.00.

According to a report called The Great British Bedtime Report, people in the UK aren't getting enough sleep. (Yes, the report commissioned by the Sleep Council to mark National Bed Month, a third of the population of the UK (33%) now get by on 5 to 6 hours’ sleep a night, compared to 27% in 2010, and the majority of people (70%) sleep for 7 hours or less, with the average Briton going to bed at 11:15 pm and getting 6 hours and 35 minutes sleep per night. Research suggests 7 and a half hours is the optimum level for good health. Almost half of Britons say that stress or worry keeps them awake at night, but unsurprisingly high earners (£65-£75,000) get the best sleep of all. Now, I'm not particularly stressed or worried, but I am posting this at 5:30 in the morning.)

According to researchers at the University of Surrey, lack of sleep can have a potentially profound effect on the internal workings of the human body. (Heart disease, diabetes, obesity and poor brain function have all been linked to substandard sleep, and areas such as the immune system and how the human body responds to damage and stress were affected. I think I'll go back to bed.) Source

Right up to the Industrial Revolution, before alarm clocks became affordable, someone was employed to wake people up. (The man or woman used a short, heavy stick to knock on the clients' doors or a long and light stick, often made of bamboo, to reach windows on higher floors and would not leave a client's window until they were assured they were awake. Obviously the job no longer exists, but the fabulous job title was "knocker upper". Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, includes a brief description of a knocker-upper. The phrase "knocked up" entered British slang as a term for "being awakened", but don't use it, as it now takes the American meaning "to be made pregnant".) Source

According to Roger Ekirch, professor of history at Virginia Tech we are all sleep-deprived. (Mr Ekirch, the author of At Day's Close: A History of Night-time, says that in the pre-industrial era, most people in Europe practised what he calls "segmented sleep": having "first sleep" from finishing work until midnight, waking to talk and socialise, then having a "second sleep" until dawn. I know a few teenagers who live like that.) Source

A study commissioned by home energy service Alert Me, shows that the average British family goes to bed at around 10.30pm. (I have to admit that this makes me Mrs Average.)

Worker ants don't sleep. They rest by taking hundreds of short power naps. (Just like my 6 month old grandaughter!!) Source - BBC

Before the Victorian era it was not uncommon for married couples in the UK to sleep apart. (The change came during the industrial revolution when we all ended up crammed together in tiny houses. Nowadays, according to research presented at the British Science Festival, couples are reluctant to sleep apart, with only 8% of those in their 40s and 50s sleeping in separate rooms. I don't see why we can't sleep in separate houses.)

According to an article in the journal Sleep, missing out on a good night's sleep raises a woman's risk of heart disease. (Sleeping less than 8 hours a night has been linked to heart problems, but the risk is higher for women than for men. Which seems a bit unfair, as it's usually the man's snoring that keeps a woman awake.)

According to a study by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), the French spend more time sleeping than their counterparts in economically developed countries. (On average, the French get 8.8 hours of sleep each night, enjoying more rest than Americans and Spaniards and a full hour more than South Koreans who rank last on the list with a mere 7.8 hours of sleep. Personally if I don't get 8 hours of sleep I'm like a bear with a sore head for the rest of the day.)

Research at the University of the West of England has shown that women are more prone to nightmares than men. (In the study, 19% of men reported a nightmare compared with 30% of women. One factor which has been linked to this is changes in a woman's body temperature during her monthly cycle.)

powered by ODEO According to a survey by the Sleep Council, many Brits check texts, surf the internet, or play games in bed. (I wonder what kind of games they actually meant.)

powered by ODEO Whales catnap. (Yes, according to researchers at St Andrews University, Sperm whales literally drift off to sleep for short periods. Drift off - get it?)

In Japanese work culture, sleeping on the job is tolerated, as long as you remain upright and obey certain other rules. It's called inemuri. (I shall try to explain this to my culturally illiterate boss if he ever catches me snoozing at my desk.)

Total lack of sleep will kill you quicker than lack of food. (If you go 10 days without sleep you're toast, whilst starvation takes a few weeks. In fact if you go for more than three days without any sleep at all, you will lose orientation in place and time, you will hallucinate and eventually your body will begin to break down. The average human requires between seven and eight hours of sleep every night. This enables the body to repair and refresh itself in order to start the new day. If you try to burn the candle at both ends and don't get enough sleep, it will affect everything that you do. Mistakes can be made, accidents can happen and there is evidence of short-term memory. Good news for the over 60s is that you can get away with between five and six hours sleep.)