Counting Sheep: the importance of a good night's sleep

By Linda

Sleep is an important part of general wellbeing. The end of Daylight Saving is approaching and if a good night's sleep proves elusive, you may find some assistance in the resources below.

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Sleep is an investment in the energy you need to be effective tomorrow.
— Tom Roth, actor

Sleep plays an important and necessary part of our wellbeing. Ask anyone who is sleep deprived. It could be the parent of a newborn, a shift-worker, or someone suffering from insomnia. Without enough sleep you not only feel tired and rundown, but your body and brain struggle to cope with daily tasks and this affects the ability to concentrate. In turn, work may be impacted particularly if you drive, or operate machinery or technology as part of your daily routine. It's also true if you run a small business.

While the amount of sleep required to remain healthy varies throughout the lifespan, in general, adults require 7-9 hours of good quality sleep each night to assist the restoration of the body.

When you sleep your body rests, conserving energy and decreasing blood pressure, heart rate, breathing and body temperature. At the same time, your brain remains active, laying down memory, restoring daytime mental functioning and carrying out processes that lead to physical growth. (Healthify)

If you suffer insomnia, sleep can be learned as author and researcher Kate Mikhail outlines in her new book Teach yourself to sleep : an ex-insomniac's guide. She outlines more in this recent RNZ interview.


If sleep is proving elusive for you, for whatever reason, try some of the suggestions in the following resources.

Healthify provides a page of sleep topics. Here you can find out about sleep, including how much you need, tips for improving it and what to do if you have problems sleeping.


Linkedin Learning, available with library registration, offers Sleep Is Your Superpower : Your sleep improvement journey along with Winding Down: Get a Better Night’s Sleep

In Sleep is Your Superpower: "The Sleep Ambassador®, Nancy Rothstein, shares tips for optimizing sleep and performing at your best in work and life. Learn how to prioritize sleep, assess your sleep, create the right sleep environment, and adopt strategies to fall asleep and stay asleep. Nancy offers concrete, practical advice based on research and science—so you can master sleep as your superpower."

Winding Down is: "designed to help you get a better night’s sleep, so that you can be your very best each day."

Further reading: