1. Did you know that you can sleep with your eyes open? It's called micro-sleeping, which often lasts for 15 seconds or less.
2. Humans are the only mammals that can delay/defer sleep. Other living species go to sleep when their body tells them to.
3. Humans temporarily grow 0.3 inches while sleeping and then shrink back down to their normal height due to the cartilage discs being squeezed by gravity.
4. Taking short naps or siestas improves mood, and memory and reduces stress. In many Mediterranean and Asian countries, a siesta is an important part of their culture and many businesses close down for a long afternoon nap.
5. Napping at work in Japan is a sign of how hard an employee is working. It is even culturally acceptable to fall asleep on the job. In fact, they even have a name for it, 'Inemuri', which translates to 'sleeping on duty', or the act of falling asleep in public.
6. Scandinavians believe that the cold air is healthy for children, which is why it is common for parents to leave their babies napping outside while they are inside a café or a restaurant.
7. Sleep is more important than food. Being sleep-deprived is more dangerous than food deprivation. Lack of sleep impairs our memory and ability to function normally during the day since the neurons in the brain need sleep to recover.
8. It is impossible to sneeze while sleeping. Sleep relaxes all the muscles in the human body, which means that the muscles we use to sneeze become inactive/paralysed.
9. In Botswana, people only sleep when they are tired. They have no sleep schedule because sleep is seen as a 'fluid state' and is only required when the body is tired.
10. Primary students in China are allowed to take naps during school hours as part of the new 'sleep initiative' that encourages a healthy sleeping habit for better cognitive growth.
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