According to recent medical research, sleeping more than nine hours or less than six hours a night can __________ your life expectancy. Those who are likely to live longest are people who regularly get between seven and eight hours a night. A survey of 1,000 adults conducted by the Better Sleep Council (BSC) found that few people understand the important role sleep plays in normal daily brain functions, and many people actually reduce their brain power by getting too little sleep.

One in three adults admit that they do not get enough sleep, and lack of sleep is leaving millions of people without the energy to work as hard as they should. Although a large number of people say that they need to be mentally alert in their work, over half of the people interviewed say that they sleep just under seven hours a night during the week. On the other hand, most of the people interviewed say that they sleep more than seven hours a night on weekends. This suggests that a significant number of people try to catch up on their sleep on weekends instead of getting enough sleep during the week, when they need it most.

According to this survey, nearly half of the population believes that the brain rests when the body sleeps. In fact, the opposite is true. Sleep allows the brain to go to work, filing and storing the day’s events. “Most people incorrectly think the brain is resting or recuperating during sleep. Actually, some parts of the brain are more active when you’re asleep,” confirms Dr. Mark Mahowald, director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center. “Your brain is like a cluttered desktop at the end of the day. At night, when you’re asleep and no more information can be put on the desk, or in your brain, your brain can then file away the information.”