You need sleep.
That’s the general message of World Sleep Day, an annual event that requires no gifts, no card, no flowers. It’s always the Friday before the Spring Equinox, aimed at celebrating the benefits of sleeping, unfortunately falling the Friday after Americans give up an hour of sleep for Daylight Saving Time.
This year the World Sleep Day Committee has selected as its motto: “Join the Sleep World, Preserve Your Rhythms to Enjoy Life.”
Sleep, and getting enough of it, is an undervalued and critical part of life not to be made light of.
A study published in Science by a graduate student at the University of Michigan examines sleep habits from around the world. People in the northern climes of Europe, like the Dutch and Belgians, are among those who sleep the most, while folks in Japan and Singapore get by with the least amount of shut eye. Americans and Australians are among the earliest risers. The study found that the later people go to bed, the less sleep they are likely to get.