9 facts about sleep that might surprise you

We already know that sleep is crucial for our health. We learnt what time to go to bed and how many hours of sleep is enough for us to feel good and for our internal systems to work properly.

And here are the most unexpected scientific discoveries and interesting facts about sleep:

1. Scientists proven that constant lack of sleep leads to weight gain. You can put on up to a kilogram in a week. That happens due to the fact that the body tries to fill up the missing resources by any means. That's why those ones who don't get enough sleep are hungry all the time.

2. We get the maximum benefit from sleep from 10 p.m to 1 a.m. That's another scientifically proven fact.

3. The feeling of falling that we sometimes experience while dreaming is a characteristic of the first stage of sleep. Muscle spasms, which are called "microclimatic tremors", occur in this stage. These spasms are quite common for mammals.

4. Information is transferred from short-term memory to long-term memory while we're sleeping.

5. In 2011, the Association of Psychological Sciences published a report that confirmed the fact that all important tasks that couldn't be completed during the day are solved at night. Think of D. Mendeleev and his periodic table. The idea of it came up to him in a dream. Paul McCartney came up with the tune for the famous song "Yesterday" also while sleeping.

6. Everyone dreams. But we simply forget most of it (90%). Moreover, 50% of our dream is forgotten within the first 5 minutes after waking up, 90% - within 10 minutes. That's why many people claim that they don't dream. They do, but just don't remember any of it.

7. We are able to control our dreams. This skill, of course, needs to be practiced. But as a result of such a practice, you can go back to the moment of the dream that you didn't finish watching and turn it into a whole «series».

8. Scientists also believe that while dreaming we rehearse situations that may happen in real life. For example, if you avoided some sort of danger in one of your dreams, the brain memorizes the story in order to replicate it later in life.

9. It's proven that people sleeping less than 5 hours a day have a threefold increased risk of developing mental illness.

As you can see, many studies support the idea that sleep is essential for a healthy body. 8-9 hours of sleep are required for an adult to function properly. That has been repeatedly confirmed by scientists around the world. Sleep is especially important if you want to lose weight. After all, quality sleep, along with appropriate nutrition and training, is guaranteed to lead to the desired results.