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As humans we spend an average of 25 years sleeping, that’s a third of our lives. Until 25 years ago, scientists knew little about this nighttime habit of ours.

However we’re simply not getting enough, which is why we’ve compiled the most shocking and interesting sleep facts.

1. Humans spend a third of their life sleeping. That’s about 25 years.

2. The record for the longest period without sleep is 11 days.

3. It’s impossible to sneeze while sleeping.

4. We lose over a pound of weight during sleep by exhaling.

5. Dysania is the state of finding it hard to get out of bed in the morning.

6. Somniphobia is the fear of falling asleep.

7. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

8. Sleeping less than 7 hours each night reduces your life expectancy.

9. Lack of sleep can cause weight gain of 2 pounds (0.9 kg) in under a week.

10. Parents of new babies miss out on 6 months worth of sleep in the first 2 years of their child’s life.

11. People who procrastinate may be more likely to have insomnia, a study found.

12. 73% of college students report sleep problems, a study found.

13. People who frequently take naps tend to die younger than those who don’t, a study found.

14. Most people can survive for up to 2 months without eating, but people can only live up to 11 days without sleeping.

15. Depression can cause you to dream up to 3 to 4 times more than you normally would.

16. Night owls are more likely to suffer from nightmares, surveys suggest.

17. Studies show that napping at work can boost your productivity.

18. Many Tibetan monks sleep upright.

19. A snail can sleep for 3 years.

20. Horses can sleep standing.

21. Cats sleep for 70% of their lives.

22. Koalas sleep up to 20 hours a day.

23. Rabbits often sleep with their eyes open.

24. Only one-half of a dolphin’s brain goes to sleep at a time.

25. Sea otters hold hands when they sleep so they don’t drift away from each other.

26. Giraffes only need 5 to 30 minutes of sleep in a 24-hour period.

27. The chances of us eating even one spider in our sleep throughout our lifetime is close to 0%.

28. If you deprive a fruit fly or a fish of sleep, it will try to catch up the next day.

29. Trees “sleep” at night, relaxing their branches after dawn and perking them up before sunrise.

30. Neuroscientists believe babies don’t dream for the first few years of their life.

31. 8% of Americans sleep naked.

32. The average person in France sleeps 8.83 hours per day, the most in the developed world.

33. 40% of adult Americans have always slept on the same side of the bed.

34. Memories take hold better during sleep.

35. Lack of sleep may shrink your brain.

36. Sleeping less than 7 hours each night reduces your life expectancy.

37. Believing You’ve Slept Well, Even If You Haven’t, Improves Performance.

38. Some Deaf People Make Sign Language in Their Sleep.

39. People experience better sleep during the new moon and worse sleep during a full moon, a study found.

40. To your brain, one sleepless night is the cognitive equivalent of being legally drunk.

41. 1% to 3% of the world population are short sleepers, people who live happily on just a few hours of sleep per night.

42. Researchers from NASA say the perfect nap lasts for 26 minutes.

43. Later school start times improve sleep and daytime functioning in adolescents, a study says.

44. An experiment in 1998 found that a bright light shone on the backs of human knees can reset the brain’s sleep-wake clock.

45. You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.

46. The occurrence of nightmares could be due to heart conditions, migraine, sleep deprivation and beta blockers.

47. Sleep deprivation affects the brain in multiple ways that can impair judgment and slow reaction.

48. Sleeping under a weighted blanket can help reduce insomnia and anxiety.

49. Research has found that the more visually creative a person is, the lower the quality of their sleep.

50. Blind people are twice as likely to smell things in their dreams as sighted people.

51. 75% of Americans dreamt almost always in black and white in 1940, while today is just 12%.

52. 75% of couples go to bed at different times at least four times a week, a UK study found.

53. A baby’s brain can use up to 50% of the total glucose supply, which may help explain why babies need so much sleep.

54. Women experience significantly more nightmares than men and have more emotional dreams, a research found.

55. Violent dreams may be an early sign of brain disorders down the line, including Parkinson’s disease and dementia.

56. In darkness, most people eventually adjust to a 48-hour cycle: 36 hours of activity followed by 12 hours of sleep. The reasons are still unclear.

57. It’s illegal to lie down and fall asleep with your shoes on in North Dakota.

58. 3 AM is when most Americans are sleeping (95.1%). Conversely, 6 PM is when most Americans are awake (97.5%).

59. In 1849, David Atchison became President of the United States for just one day, and he spent most of the day sleeping.

60. John Lennon sometimes liked to sleep in an old coffin.

61. Sleeping on the job is acceptable in Japan, as it’s viewed as exhaustion from working hard.

62. The ability of the brain to tell what’s important from what’s not is compromised by lack of sleep.

63. According to a study, each kid in a woman’s household increases her risk of getting insufficient sleep by 46 percent.

64. People ascrib more importance to pleasant dreams about a person they like than a person they don’t like.

65. People in Britain who wake in the middle of the night are most likely to do it at 3:44 a.m.

66. A plane-crash dream is more likely to affect travel plans than either thinking about a crash or a government warning, a study says.

67. Before alarm clocks were invented, there were “knocker-ups” who went tapping on client’s windows with long sticks until they were awake.

68. Half of the pilots surveyed in the UK admitted to having fallen asleep while flying a passenger plane.

69. While you sleep, your brain filters out noises that might wake you up if it doesn’t think you’re in danger.

70. Wealthy ancient Egyptians slept with neck supports rather than pillows to preserve their hairstyles.

71. People who play video games are more likely to be lucid dreamers, having control over their actions in dreams, than those who don’t.

72. Drinking caffeine in the evening delays our brain’s release of melatonin and interrupts our circadian rhythm by as much as 40 minutes.

73. Morphine derives its name from Morpheus, the god of sleep and dreaming in Greek Mythology, for its tendency to cause sleep.

74. During WW1, a Hungarian man was shot in the frontal lobe, making it impossible for him to fall asleep. He continued to live a full, sleepless life.

Image credit: shenhuifu