Getting enough sleep is vital to our overall health and well-being. Nevertheless, millions of people either do not get enough sleep or suffer from sleep-related problems.
Surveys conducted by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving public health and safety through sleep-related research, reveal that 60 percent of adults report having sleep problems at least a few nights a week. In addition, the NSF says that more than 40 percent of adults report daytime sleepiness severe enough to interfere with their daily activities at least a few days per month.
It further states that millions of people struggle to stay alert at home, in school, on the job and on the road. Tragically, the NSF claims that more than 100,000 police-reported highway crashes, causing 71,000 injuries and 1,500 deaths each year in the United States alone, are attributed to sleep deprivation.
The NSF states that exercise can be a boon for good sleep, especially when done regularly. It also says that people who exercise may take less time to fall asleep than people who don't. Some studies, the NSF reports, suggest that soaking in hot water (such as a hot tub or bath) before retiring can ease the transition into deeper sleep.
Researchers say that this may be due to the body's "temperature shift," the period when a person's core body temperature automatically drops after leaving a source of warm or hot water. They believe this may signal the body that it's time to fall asleep. Water is also thought to promote sleep through the inherently relaxing properties of buoyancy, which relieves pressure on joints and muscles and creates the sensation of weightlessness.
However water may help induce sleep, the process and outcome represents a natural remedy, unlike the use (or overuse) of sleeping aids such as prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications and/or alcohol – all which can make you feel groggy, give you headaches or have other adverse side effects.
