We have all been through it, that rusty feeling in the morning.  The alarm clock blares its wake-up call, but we still need at least another hour in bed.  Make that two or three when you think about the rain in Msida and traffic in Marsa.  Here we dispel some popular sleeping myths.

The first myth is that everyone needs eight hours of sleep.  The amount of sleep someone needs depends on a variety of factors (including genetics). It also depends on your sleeping patterns, is six-and-a-half hours of uninterrupted sleep better than eight hours of broken sleep? Tracking your bed time, how many hours you sleep a night and how well rested you feel each day can help you find the ideal amount of sleep for your body, according to sleep experts at Harvard.  Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of the UK famously remarked in an interview that she only needed around four hours sleep a day to function properly.

A second myth is that snoring is harmless. According to a poll by the National Sleep Foundation in the US, 32 percent of adults in America suffer from snoring at least a few nights per week. However, if you suffer from loud and chronic snoring, it could be a symptom of a serious, even life-threatening condition known as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). OSA is characterised by pauses in breathing while asleep which are caused by the airways becoming blocked. If left undiagnosed, OSA can reduce blood oxygen levels and put a strain on the heart and respiratory systems, increasing the risk of high blood pressure, stroke and even a heart attack.

Another one we hear often is that you swallow a few spiders (or some other insect) every year while asleep. Fortunately for the arachnaphobics around us, this is extremely unlikely. We make noise and vibrate in our sleep, and that’s likely to scare off spiders. Thanks for that.

Hope you enjoyed this Sunday morning column, I sure did (as I am still lying in!).