10 AMAZING FACTS ABOUT SLEEP

✔ Sleep has been called the “third pillar” of health, along with nutrition and exercise.

✔ The record for the longest period without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes during a rocking chair marathon.

✔ The record holder reported hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory and concentration lapses.

✔ Seventeen hours of sustained wakefulness leads to a decrease in performance equivalent to a blood alcohol-level of 0.05%.

✔ Sleep deprivation causes 1 out of six fatal road accidents.

✔ After five nights of partial sleep deprivation, three drinks will have the same effect on body as six would when you've slept enough.

✔ Humans sleep on average around three hours less than other primates like chimps, rhesus monkeys, squirrel monkeys and baboons, all of whom sleep for 10 hours.

✔ Ten per cent of snorers have sleep apnea, a disorder which causes sufferers to stop breathing up to 300 times a night and significantly increases the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke.

✔ Teens need about 10 hours of sleep on the average, the same as young children, while adults only need eight hours a night.

✔ Women may need to sleep an hour longer than men; not getting that extra hour might keep them tired and more prone to depression.

✔ Ironically, even an adequate amount beauty sleep can increase wrinkles.

✔ People over 65 only need an average of six hours’ sleep.