10 interesting facts about sleep

Sleep. Everyone does it. So it’s surprising that most of us don’t know a great deal about it, especially when you consider we’ll spend around half of our lives snoozing.

Sleep is intrinsically linked to our health and wellbeing. If you’ve ever been sleep deprived, you will know what we mean. A lack of sleep can negatively impact our mental and physical health. We find it hard to concentrate. We’re more likely to get sick or become overweight. Lack of sleep can actually kill us.

So, it’s important we learn as much as we can about sleep. In this article, we’ll give you ten interesting facts about sleeping that we hope will encourage you to do everything you can to get the best possible quality shut-eye.

12% of people dream in black and white

If you only dream in black and white, you might not realise that other people dream in colour, but it is more likely that you dream in colour and had no idea some people only dream in black and white.

Weirdly, before colour television was invented only 15% of people dreamt in colour, so there is definitely an element of viewership happening somewhere in our dreams.

Older people are more likely to dream in black and white than younger people, perhaps because they remember the black and white televisions.

The record for the longest time spent without sleep was 11 days

This is not recommended. Randy, the gentleman who lasted this long without sleep, was extremely sleep deprived. In fact, going without sleep for this long is used as a torture method, and it kills people.

The sensation of falling when half asleep and jerking awake has a name

They’re called hypnic jerks. Nobody really knows why they happen, but they are healthy. They happen more to younger people and are apparently made worse by caffeine.

Sleep deprivation will kill you quicker than food deprivation

You might not consider sleep more dangerous than food deprivation, but if you were to go without both, lack of sleep will kill you quicker than lack of food.

People who are born blind dream in emotion, sound and smell, rather than sight

You might never have wondered what people born blind dream about, but they dream using their other senses, rather than in images. The timing of blindness impacts what a person dreams about.

Within 5 minutes of waking up, 50% of your dream is forgotten

After an additional 5 minutes, 90% of recollection is gone. Freud reckons this is because dreams represent repressed thoughts and our brains want to get rid of them quickly. It’s more likely we actually just get busy and forget irrelevant information, which is what happens throughout the majority of our life. If we remembered absolutely everything, our heads would be full.

If you like to remember your dreams, or want to analyse them, it’s a good idea to keep a notebook by the bed and write your dreams down as soon as you wake up.

Your personality is linked to your sleeping position

Side sleepers are more likely to be suspicious. Stomach sleepers are more adventurous. Back sleepers are strong, silent and focused people who don’t like fuss. There’s more here.

Basically, the position you sleep in has been found to be linked to the type of person you are. We find that fascinating and really, really odd.

If you fall asleep in less than 15 minutes, you are probably sleep deprived

If you tumble into bed every night and drop off immediately, it probably means you are actually sleep deprived. You should try to increase the number of hours of sleep you get each night slowly over time until you get to a point where it takes you between fifteen to twenty minutes to fall asleep.

The more you earn, the better you sleep (to a point)

The Sleep council found that people who earn £65,000 to £75,000 a year get the best sleep. Perhaps this is the perfect equilibrium between earning enough money to live without having so much responsibility that you start laying awake with stress.

Most nightmares are not scary

You might associate nightmares with extreme fear, but the most commonly experienced emotions in nightmares are actually sadness, guilt and confusion.

Your traditional views on what counts as a nightmare might be wrong. The definition of a nightmare is a dream associated with negative feelings, which is where the above comes in.

If you’re looking to improve the quality of your sleep, it might be time to get a new mattress. Ely mattresses are made from 100% natural and recyclable materials. They’re breathable, durable and naturally hypo-allergenic. They come with a thirty night sleep trial and are available to buy on 0% finance.

For more information about our amazing mattresses, read about our thirteen layers.

For more information about sleep, please read our other blogs.