April 28, 2017

If You’re Suffering From Sleep Loss, You’re Not Alone

If you have trouble sleeping, don’t worry. You’re one of the millions of people that struggle with sleep loss around the world. To get an idea of just how many people have difficulty sleeping at night, take a look at The Sleep Loss Map. By analyzing Twitter data for phrases containing any mention about sleep loss, the map determines where people are experiencing sleeplessness based on the geolocation tags.

The map can be updated to display results from the last 1 to 24 hours and includes a list of the top 10 countries and cities currently experiencing sleep loss. At the time of writing this, there are currently 60,390 people in Brazil having difficulty sleeping with the United States coming in at second with 58,509 people. In the last 24 hours, 257,499 people have tweeted about sleeplessness, just a small fraction compared to the 1,487,867 people who have tweeted about sleep loss since the map began in December of last year.

So why do so many people have difficulty sleeping? There are many factors that can affect sleep cycles, such as stress, sex, non-24 hour disorder, and even the cycle of the moon. In fact, studies have shown that new parents likely lose up to 6 months worth of sleep within the first 2 years of having a child and roughly 90% of American high school students are sleep deprived.

Even if you are one of the millions that suffer nightly from sleep loss, there are some strategies that can help you get some shut-eye. A great strategy to start would be to create a relaxing routine. One way to do so is to prepare for bed at the same time every night and stay away from electronics—especially your phone!—when laying in bed. Another strategy to keep in mind is to avoid heavy food and caffeine before bed by replacing those with calming teas and light snacks, such as almonds, to promote healthy sleep patterns. Additionally, writing a list before bed of anything that is worrying you will help to get it out of your mind until the following morning. If these tricks aren’t really helping, don’t stress. Just hop out of bed and do something calming and relaxing, like taking a bath, and once you start feeling drowsy, hop back into bed.

Check out the full map here.

Source: Visual News