SHLOOF sleep mask – The Impact of Sleep on Health and Wellbeing

Sleep is crucial for our health, both physical and mental, as important as diet and exercise.

SHLOOF sleep mask is a useful tool to assist in the pursuit of a restorative night’s sleep. The patented design works with the shape of the head to provide support and insulation from light and sound, with no edges against the skin and ergonomics to ensure cushioning support where it counts.

The SHLOOF design was born of necessity, a comfortable way to standardise sleep wherever you are. Whether under a flight path or next to a busy road, the importance of consistent sleep is indisputable and well documented.

We spend approximately a third of our lives asleep. Sleep is an essential and involuntary process, without which we cannot function effectively. It is as essential to our bodies as eating, drinking and breathing, and is vital for maintaining good mental and physical health. Sleeping helps to repair and restore our brains, not just our bodies.

During sleep we can process information, consolidate memories, and undergo a number of maintenance processes that help us to function during the daytime. Sleep is crucial to the health of individuals within the UK and to the public health of the UK population.

We all need to make sure we get the right amount of sleep, and enough good quality sleep. There is no set amount of sleep that is appropriate for everyone; some people need more sleep than others. Our ability to sleep is controlled by how sleepy we feel and our sleep pattern. How sleepy we feel relates to our drive to sleep. The sleep pattern relates to the regularity and timing of our sleep habits; if we have got into a pattern of sleeping at set times then we will be able to establish a better routine, and will find it easier to sleep at that time every day.

Sleep is a more complex process than many people realise, much of it is still a mystery to scientists. During sleep, the body goes through a variety of processes and sleep stages. Good quality sleep is likely to be the result of spending enough time in all of the stages, including enough deep sleep which helps us feel refreshed.

Poor sleep over a sustained period leads to a number of problems which are immediately recognisable, including fatigue, sleepiness, poor concentration, lapses in memory, and irritability.

Up to one third of the population may suffer from insomnia (lack of sleep or poor quality sleep). This can affect mood, energy and concentration levels, our relationships, and our ability to stay awake and function during the day.

Sleep and health are strongly related, poor sleep can increase the risk of having poor health, and poor health can make it harder to sleep. Common mental health problems like anxiety and depression can often underpin sleep problems. Where this is the case, a combination approach to treating the mental health problem and sleep problem in tandem is often the most effective.

Sleep medication is commonly used, but may have negative side effects and is not recommended in the long-term. Psychological approaches are useful for people with long-term insomnia because they can encourage us to establish good sleep patterns, and to develop a healthy, positive mental outlook about sleep, as well as dealing with worrying thoughts towards sleeping.

One of the most widely used and successful therapies is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). This is useful even for people who have had insomnia for a long period of time. A full course of such a therapy with a sleep specialist is potentially costly, and is most appropriate for people with severe sleep problems. Still, some CBT principles can be appropriate and easily practiced for anyone who is experiencing a sleepless night.

Key points:

Sleeping well is vital to staying healthy. Regularly getting a good night’s slumber will improve mental and physical health, boost productivity at work, help creativity, benefit the immune system and encourage your brain and heart to function properly. Sleep deprivation can lead to prematurely aged skin, lower libido and heightened susceptibility to diabetes or Alzheimer’s.

According to a survey cited by The Sleep Council, 70 per cent of us sleep for less than seven hours a night, which, for most people, is too little. Even the best duvet, the best mattress and the best pillow in the world are no good if your sleep is disturbed by noise, whether it’s neighbours partying, traffic thundering past or birds chirping at 4am.

The best earplugs can make a huge difference to your sleep quality. For many of us, these little buds are the only thing reducing noise pollution during the night. “Earplugs are great for blocking out noise such as snoring partners, or for using in the warmer months when you may leave a window open at night,” explains Lisa Artis, chief adviser at The Sleep Council.

Sleeping with a sleep mask can help you sleep better in many ways, including: