How many times do we find ourselves having coffee during work hours just to get rid of our sleepiness? Quite often, people do not understand how much sleep is needed by their body in order to function smoothly throughout the day. Adding to it, long working hours blurs the line between the day and night.

Watch out for the following signs to know whether you need to spend more time in bed or not:

-        Online at 4: It is a good thing to stay connected with your friends and family 24×7, but not at the cost of your sleep. Waking up at intervals to check your phone or laptop at night strongly indicates you need more sleep.

-        Always stressed: If you don’t remember the last time you felt really happy, and are constantly stressed about some thing or the other, then maybe all you need is sound sleep.

-        Forgetful: You keep forgetting things, trivial and important things alike. If you are unable to find a reason for it, it could very well be due to lack of sleep.

-        Weird with food: Your relationship with food is beyond explanation. Either you eat a lot or sometimes don’t eat at all and don’t quite understand when you feel hungry.

-        Weight matters: If all of a sudden you don’t seem to fit into your old pair of clothes, it could very well be your body telling you “I need sleep.”

-        Infection alert: You find yourself being attacked with one infection after the other. In such a case, you might need regular sleep rather than a pill.

-        Always in a dilemma: Simple things that are easy to decide seem complicated to you. Suddenly decision making looks like a difficult task to you.

-        Blur effect: Things around you look blurred to you and your eyes are red most of the days. Sleep deprivation might be causing it.

-        Nothing seems right: Your mood swings are becoming unexplainable; nothing seems to be happening the way it is supposed to happen.

These are just a few things to help you realize that you are depriving yourself of some regular sound sleep. So it’s never too late to ‘switch off’ your system and enjoy the calmness. As Mahatma Gandhi rightly said,

“Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.”

How many of you timely sleep 8 hours a day, as prescribed by doctors?