Real Health with Karl Henry The Importance of Sleep with Professor Andrew Coogan
Oct 14, 2021
25:46
On this week’s show I’ll be talking about sleep, something so many people are interested in - probably because we feel we aren’t getting enough. With many workers having returned to the office, how will this impact our sleep?
I’m joined by Professor Andrew Coogan, behavioural neuroscientist who specialises in sleep. He is also the director of the Chronobiology and Sleep Research Laboratory at Maynooth University.
Andrew says there are many reasons why we need sleep, including for learning and memory: “Our brains replay the information we have acquired during the day while we sleep. That helps strengthen our memory for the things we want to remember.”
We discuss how much sleep we should be getting. While eight hours is often suggested to be the right amount of sleep each night, Andrew says it's not that simple: “The amount of sleep we need changes with what stage of life we’re at...then within that, we are all different as people. There are probably some people out there that five hours of sleep is enough for them.”
I’m joined by Professor Andrew Coogan, behavioural neuroscientist who specialises in sleep. He is also the director of the Chronobiology and Sleep Research Laboratory at Maynooth University.
Andrew says there are many reasons why we need sleep, including for learning and memory: “Our brains replay the information we have acquired during the day while we sleep. That helps strengthen our memory for the things we want to remember.”
We discuss how much sleep we should be getting. While eight hours is often suggested to be the right amount of sleep each night, Andrew says it's not that simple: “The amount of sleep we need changes with what stage of life we’re at...then within that, we are all different as people. There are probably some people out there that five hours of sleep is enough for them.”
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