Naps do count towards your sleep hours.
Naps are short periods of sleep which can help to reduce fatigue and improve alertness.
Naps may not provide you with the same quality of sleep as a full night's sleep, although the naps are still beneficial for your overall sleep health.
If you take regular naps, you should also ensure that the naps are not too long, and ideally under 30 minutes and ensure they don't interfere with your nighttime sleep.
You should stay in bed if you can't sleep unless it's been more than 15 minutes to 20 minutes without falling asleep.
If it's been 15 minutes to 20 minutes without falling asleep, then it's recommended to get out of bed and do something relaxing in another room.
Staying in bed and trying to force yourself to sleep can create a negative association between your bed and wakefulness and make it harder to fall asleep.
To shut the brain off to sleep, place a hand on your heart and then feel the heart's rhythm and breathe in deep for 4 seconds, then take a long and slow break out and then repeat until you fall asleep.
You should also establish a relaxing bedtime routine and avoid any screens before bed, including tablets, phones, computers televisions etc as light can interfere with sleep.
Also go to bed at the same time each night or when you need to sleep.
Going to bed and waking up around the same time each day, even on weekends, regulates your body's natural sleep and wake cycle.
Also make your bedroom as dark, cool and quiet as possible and consider the use of some earplugs, white noise machine and or blackout curtains.
Taking a warm bath and reading a book and listening to some calming music or a podcast or even practicing gentle stretching or yoga can also help you shut your brain off to sleep.
If you still have trouble sleeping you may need to use some sleeping pills.
Sleep deprivation can result in a range of negative effects, including decreased alertness, mood swings, compromised immune function and impaired cognitive function.
Consistent sleep deprivation can also contribute to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and a weakened immune system.
Chronic sleep deprivation is also linked to an increased risk of anxiety, depression and other mental health problems and it can also disrupt your body's balance of hormones which regulate your appetite and can lead to increased cravings for food and weight gain.
Lack of sleep also suppresses the immune system and makes you more susceptible to illnesses.
You should aim to get 7 to 9 hours of sleep for optimal health and don't stay up just to stay up.
Sleep is very important for our health as sleep also repairs things and resets things in our body and recharges us.
Your body will often force you to sleep after 16 hours to 18 hours but it can vary.
The average person is able to stay awake for 16 hours to 18 hours, before they feel significant sleepiness.
Your body's natural circadian rhythm is what dictates this duration and controls the cycle of sleep and wakefulness.
Going beyond this timeframe will lead to sleep deprivation which can impair physical performance and cognitive functions.
Sleep deprivation even for short periods can have serious consequences to your health.
It's not possible to directly force yourself to go to sleep or force your body to fall asleep, although you can create practices and conditions which encourage sleep.
However you could in a way force the body to sleep by taking sleeping pills or sleeping medication which makes you drowsy and so you can more easily drift off to sleep.
Sleep is a natural process and trying to force sleep can also be counterproductive.
Instead of trying to force your body to sleep, you can try relaxation techniques, drinking some warm milk before bed and establishing a consistent sleep schedule to help the body naturally transition to sleep.
Sleep is involuntary and also a physiological process which the body regulates and not something you can control with any willpower.
The body will eventually force you to sleep if you are sleep deprived.
Even if you try to stay awake, the brain will eventually enter what is called microsleeps which are brief periods of sleep that last only seconds to compensate for the lack of sleep.
Eventually these microsleeps will become more frequent and prolonged until you fall into a deeper sleep.
As you remain awake, the pressure called sleep pressure builds up and the pressure is a result of the accumulation of a substance called adenosine in the brain.
When your sleep pressure becomes too high, the brain will involuntarily slip into microsleeps, even if you're trying to stay awake.
As sleep deprivation continues, then your cognitive and physical functions will decline and make it increasingly difficult to stay awake.
Eventually, the need to sleep becomes so strong that the brain will essentially force you to sleep, even if you resist the sleep.