Have you ever wondered how well Americans stack up to recommended sleep guidelines? Or how your sleep patterns compare to the rest of the country? 

Thanks to a study conducted by Sleep Number, you can now find out. The company collected data from members of all 50 states including average sleep duration and whether or not people felt like they got enough sleep. The results are a real wake-up call! 

We all know someone who needs coffee to function. They may spend 5-6 hours per night in bed. When they wake up in the morning, the first thing they need to do is find a cup of caffeine. They might consume 3-4 cups of coffee or energy drinks per day to keep them going.

But over time, this cycle of insufficient sleep and excessive caffeine consumption can take a serious toll on your energy levels and your overall health. So this 4th of July, it's time to gain independence from your reliance on caffeine!

Americans have more incentive to stay up all night that ever before. With social media to browse, email to check, Netflix to binge-watch and chat rooms for every subject, many people have decided that yawning a little in the morning is an acceptable price to pay for a night on the Internet. And that doesn't even count those people who are pulling an all-nighter to finish work, attend a party, or deal with other circumstances. 

So today we're asking the question that perhaps no one wants to know the answer to: what does staying up all night do to your health? 

Everyone knows that the colors we're surrounded by can affect our moods. Rooms with lots of soft yellow are often perceived as warm and welcoming, for example, while gray rooms are often cool and neutral. From the pastels in your kitchen to the shades in your workplace, colors affect how we interpret the ambiance of a room and can constantly affect us while we're awake.

But can the color of a room affect our mood while we're asleep too? 

In a country where a full 1/5 of adults do not get enough sleep, being tired sounds like the norm! In our last post, we talked about the dangers of sleep deprivation. But what if you're still tired despite the fact that you're sleeping enough, or even more than normal? This condition of being constantly sleepy and perhaps sleeping excessively is called hypersomnia. 

We're pretty sure you don't need us to tell you about the causes of sleep deprivation. Not getting enough sleep is a prevalent, nationwide problem. Everyone has felt sleep-deprived at one point, and 1 in 5 adults regularly does not receive enough sleep¹. 

But what are the real effects, to your body and mind, of not getting the recommended amount of sleep? You may be tempted to brush off a lack of sleep, thinking that it's nothing a cup of coffee won't cure. But the effects of sleep deprivation are nothing to yawn at.  

You've crawled into bed ready for a good night's sleep. You begin to nod off, but haven't completely fallen asleep yet. That's when you sense something in the room near your bed. Despite your fright, you can't cry out, run, or scream. You're frozen with fear. This experience is known as sleep paralysis. 

Stress is the enemy of a good night's sleep. Whether you're worried about your upcoming review at work, your car is making a funny noise, or you're having problems with your family, stress can keep you up later than you'd like and rob you of what little rest your sleep should be giving you.

One solution to dealing with stress, and getting a fuller, more restful night's sleep, is performing some relaxing yoga poses before bed!

There are several different opinions about which sleep position is "best" for a good night's sleep and overall health. Is it true that one sleep position is really better than all the others? 

In short, the answer is not black-and-white. Each sleep position (back, front, and side) has benefits and drawbacks. Here's our breakdown of each sleep position so you can decide which one works for you. 

Everyone's had that experience before. You're staring up at the ceiling, wishing that you could manage to fall asleep.  You might find yourself counting sheep, or calculating the hours left before your alarm will go off. You think "If I fall asleep now, I can get five hours of sleep.  If I fall asleep now, I can get four hours.  Now..."  It makes for a long night--but here's some consolation: you might actually be catching some winks without even realizing it.