In a piece on “Morning Ireland” recently, we heard that investment in AI (Artificial Intelligence) start-ups has skyrocketed with millions being invested in Irish companies alone. This surge had led us to question why people are so invested in making life ‘simpler’ for themselves (through the use of artificial intelligence) when, very often, people aren’t as interested in making life better for themselves be it through better eating habits, better exercise and (especially relevant to us) better sleep habits… In a piece quoted here from ‘The National Library of Medicine” in the U.S. we hear the possibility of A.I. being used as a diagnostic aid for sleep disorders…
“A large proportion of the population continue to suffer from undiagnosed, yet treatable, sleep conditions. Current pathways involve manual processes that are time consuming and costly. AI has the potential to identify sleep patients on a mass-scale by enabling population-level screening using wearable devices, automate analysis of large volumes of data, to predict treatment adherence, provide more personalised treatment, improve diagnostic rates, accelerate day-to-day clinical operations, and deepen our understanding of complex sleep disorders. While AI may not replace human decision making it can augment clinicians to arrive at decisions more effectively”.
What we do know now is that it is a fact that you get stronger if you sleep better. Sleep is an investment in the quality of life. After all, you spend a third of your life in bed! Sleep is a basic need and a vital state that neither humans nor animals can live without for many days. In the short term, sleeping badly or insomnia causes concentration problems, mood swings and makes us a danger to ourselves and others – be that in traffic or at work or even at home! In the long term, it results in a lowered resistance to sickness, speeds up the ageing process, de-energises us and even has social consequences.
The Centre for Disease Control (C.D.C.) in the U.S. has identified a sleep insufficiency epidemic in the United States, with nearly ⅓ of adults getting less than the recommended, healthy 7 hours of sleep on a nightly basis. It has been estimated that in the US alone, increasing sleep duration to a 6-7hr/nightly range in individuals sleeping less than six hours nightly could add $226B to the economy through reductions in lost productivity. In the U.K. a recent study found that 1 in 5 people suffer from sleep deficiency!
There are many factors that impede the quality of our sleep and we may examine these in more detail another time but the Irish penchant for ‘the odd pint’ or glass of wine is an unacknowledged factor for sleep loss or poor quality sleep with the illustration below showing just how impacted sleep can be.
It all points to the fact that sleep has for too long been ignored as a major contributor to our health and our quality of life so, if we can learn anything, it’s that you can’t expect to get a good night’s sleep if you buy cheap scratchy sheets and cheap pillows that will go lumpy faster than you can say “Oíche mhaith a codladh” ! Pay just a little bit more for good quality bedlinen and you will soon find yourselves reaping the benefits! Why do most people love the feel of the sheets in a good hotel – it’s because they use good quality cotton sheets and these don’t have to cost the earth! The 200tc cotton sheet we offer from “Belledorm” is a beautiful sheet (with roughly 50% off the m.r.p.) and if you want to indulge yourself even more why not look at some of their higher thread counts which still offer great value for money. You also know that, buying from an Irish company, there are no hidden V.A.T. or customs charges.
