A full night’s rest to start the day, sleep is one of the most important things for humans to function behind food and water. While we know the dangers of not getting enough sleep or sleeping too much, other aspects of sleep are rarer. Check out these seven weird facts about sleep, and see if any of these apply to you.
7. The moon can affect your sleep
Our seventh selection for weird facts about sleep has to do with the moon. While a full moon often brings crazy working shifts and weird events, it can also disrupt sleep. According to some studies, many people have a harder time falling and staying asleep a few days before a full moon. In addition to falling asleep, sleep quality can also decrease. This might be due to the full moon influencing the production of melatonin, later disrupting internal sleep rhythms.
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6. Ten minutes is key to falling asleep
Next up for weird facts about sleep is the time it takes to fall asleep. The average time to completely fall asleep is between 10-20 minutes. If it only takes you less than five minutes, then you might be sleep-deprived or exhausted. If it takes you longer to fall asleep, such as 30 minutes, you could have a sleep issue like insomnia. Most healthy adults fall asleep within ten minutes, making it that “key” marker of consistent sleep habits.
5. What you eat can affect your sleep
You might want to think twice before eating certain foods before bed. For our fifth selection of weird facts about sleep, sugars, grease, carbs, or other ingredients can impact that night’s sleep. For instance, sugary foods may prompt nightmares or weird dreams, while greasy food can make it harder to sleep as your body digests. Before heading to bed, you should try to avoid saturated fats, refined carbohydrates, alcohol, caffeine, spicy foods, or high-fat foods as they have different ways of disrupting sleep.
4. Within five minutes of waking up, 50% of your dream is forgotten
Ranking fourth on the weird facts about sleep list is forgetting dreams not long after waking up. 50% of your dream is forgotten after five minutes, and after ten, 90% of the dream has disappeared. Sigmund Freud believed this was because dreams were repressed thoughts, and the brain wanted to be rid of them. It is much more likely that our brains are simply used more once we wake up, so we forget what we dreamed about in the process. Dreams also happen during REM sleep, where memory consolidation is not fully active.
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3. There are over 100 recognized sleep disorders
Jumping into the top three weird facts about sleep is the wide range of sleep disorders. According to medical research, there are over 100 recognized sleep disorders, with the most common being insomnia, sleep apnea, narcolepsy, restless legs syndrome, and circadian rhythm disorders. All disorders are split into four groups: difficulty staying/falling asleep, difficulty staying awake, difficulty maintaining a sleep schedule, and unusual behaviors during sleep.
2. You burn around 400 calories every night
Next up for weird facts about sleep is the surprising amount of calories burned while in bed. While not everyone burns 400 calories (depending on weight), sleeping does burn calories. This is due to your basal metabolic rate to do basic functions such as breathing, digestion, and keeping your heart beating while asleep. On average, a person can burn 50 calories an hour, adding up to 400 calories for eight hours of sleep.
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1. Not everyone dreams in color
Last but not least, our weird facts about sleep list ends with dreams without color. While most people dream in color, a small percentage dreams in black and white. This was more prevalent before color television was introduced, with about 15% of people having dreams in color during that time. Today, however, the positions have switched, and most people who still dream in black and white are from older generations.
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