If you don't feel alert and awake after 12 hours of sleep you might be getting too much. When you either don't get enough sleep or get too much sleep you can feel groggy the next day and the cycle is likely to continue. Most individuals after sleeping long hours feel tired and groggy all day so they go to bed at 10 p.m. and sleep for another 12 hours.

Either way, a messed up sleeping pattern can affect your health. Experts for decades have been warning about not getting enough sleep. They have warned that not getting enough sleep can put you into a type of drunken state. In this state individuals are incapable of making decisions and have a higher chance of getting into car accidents and dying earlier.

It seems that nowadays few people are getting the recommended amount of sleep during the week so they try to catch up on weekends. It's fine to do this but usually it doesn't make the person feel a whole lot better. Now if you're on the opposite side of the spectrum and you sleep for longer periods you don't need to start panicking yet but experts are also starting to warn about oversleeping.

Experts recommend that individuals sleep between 7 – 8 hours per night. If you're spending that much time sleeping its important to understand sleeping. The average sleep cycle is 90 minutes. It begins with stage 1 the lightest sleep and then goes through progressively deeper sleep levels through stage 4. Then it continues with rapid eye movement (REM) sleep while the person is dreaming.

Now if you sleep a lot it could be a result of the poor quality you are getting. Having a crappy night of sleep will make you want to sleep longer because you spent most of the night in the first stage. But if you consistently sleep over nine hours on a regular basis and the quality is fine then you may want to see a doctor. Sleeping a lot can be a sign of serious health risks like sleep apnea, narcolepsy or restless legs form of sleep disorder and not even know it.

Sleeping is essential for our bodies and it's important to get the right amount. Studies have shown that if you get less than five hours of sleep or more than 10, it increases your mortality. A 2007 Finnish study showed that mortality risks increased by almost 20 percent for individuals sleeping more than eight hours. Another study showed people getting more than eight hours a night are at greater risk of a stroke than others that sleep less.

Experts also believe that when it comes to sleeping it's partly genetic. A study in the Journal of Science identified a mutated gene in a mother-daughter pair that allowed them to fully function on six hours of sleep. Experts believe this gene regulates sleep length.

Scientists have yet to fully understand why some people require more sleep than others, but believe genetics plays a role. For optimal sleeping experts recommend 7 – 8 hours and warn against not getting enough sleep and oversleeping, because they increase your mortality.

Tags: health degrees, not enough sleep, oversleeping health risks, sleep and health, sleep and mortality, sleeping patterns, sleeping recommendations, too much sleep

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In Gaza poverty is common. There is a demand for basic goods but they are in very short supply. Israel has placed blockades around the borders Gaza shares with other countries. So one of the best ways to get supplies into Gaza is through tunnels and there are an estimated 1,500.

In order to pull themselves out of poverty the Palestinians were encouraged to invest in the tunnels. Investors believed that these tunnels would help them out of poverty and smuggle in necessary goods. One town that has lots of these tunnels is Rafah which shares a border with Egypt.

There are lots of tunnels but Israelis end up bombing many of them so there are always tunnels under construction. There is a lot of money to be made from operating a tunnel. Two swindlers gathered money from Palestinians in order to build a tunnel and disappeared with anywhere from $100 million to $500 million. The money is gone and there is no tunnel.

Hamas the government in Palestine is trying to get the money back and has two suspects in custody but so far no money has been recovered. It's not just investors that are losing out on the tunnels but also workers. One worker didn't get paid for three months work and doesn't think he'll ever get compensation.

Tunnels may be money makers and lifelines to the people in Gaza but they are also very dangerous. With Israel dropping bombs on the tunnels and a constant threat of cave-ins, tunnel runners are always in danger. These tunnels provide not only money and goods to Palestinians but they come with a price. One father said "I want to go to the park at the end of the day, not go looking for my son inside a tunnel digging for a living and finding him dead inside the tunnel."

There are literally hundreds of underground tunnels that connect Egypt to Rafah and thousands of Palestinians working smuggling goods. Israel claims that it's necessary to stop these tunnels because weapons are being smuggled in, which may be true but the blockades are keeping Palestinians below the poverty line.

The chief reason that poverty is so rampant is the fact that unemployment in Gaza is up to 80 percent and many are forced to work in the tunnels. Even children run away to work in these tunnels and are quickly hired because many of the tunnels are only 4 feet tall inside. Children are also recruited to dig the tunnels and many are injured or killed when the tunnel collapses with them inside. One child reported to earn $100 a day in a tunnel.

Money is hard for these children to resist because they come from such disadvantaged backgrounds. The money is what drives this business and many children get caught up in it. Just this year alone over 59 Palestinians died in the tunnels, including children.

Tags: Gaza and tunnels, Palestinian tunnels, palestinians and israelis, poverty and smuggling, smuggling goods, tunnels to Gaza

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Sea turtles have long been endangered or threatened and there are only seven species of sea turtles left in the world, because of hunting and pollution. However the population of sea turtles just exploded at San Diego's SeaWorld.

Approximately 82 eggs hatched in October. The last successful hatching took place at SeaWorld in 2003 but there were only 21 sea turtles. Park staff had incubated the eggs to try and increase the eggs chances of hatching and they were successful.

Well this time around the Park Staff decided not to incubate them and let nature do its thing. The baby sea turtles hatched on Shipwreck Beach without any assistance from park staff. The turtles hatched on October 5 from ping pong sized eggs. The babies have been steadily growing and will be on display at the park before the end of the year.

Since so many eggs hatched this year at SeaWorld the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will determine whether the new turtles stay at SeaWorld and if the turtles will be allowed to mate again next year. There are already 30 adult sea turtles at the park including three green females and one male. These adults range in age between 40 and 50 but they generally live to be over 100 years.

These turtles are in their prime for reproduction which means the park doesn't know if these baby turtles are from the same mother or many. All three females had buried eggs in the sand on the beach so in order to determine who the mother is, the baby sea turtles will be undergoing genetic testing. Staff will also be digging up Shipwreck Beach in order to see how many eggs failed to hatch.

Not much is known about sea turtles but experts know they mate in the water, then go up onto the sand. While on the sand the female will dig three different holes in order to fool predators but they end up laying their eggs in only one hole.

The nest in the sand generally holds between 100 and 120 eggs. Then the eggs incubate in the sand for three months. Depending on how warm or cold the sand is will determine the sex of each baby. The babies when they hatch only weigh a few grams but can reach 250 pounds by the age of 20. The babies live on squid, krill, shrimp, and special pellets provided by the staff.

Even though there are only seven kinds of sea turtles and they are all endangered or threatened; these babies will help them make a rebound. Since humans are the biggest problem for this species it will take a lot in order to be removed from the endangered list but sea turtles are gradually making their way back.

Tags: 81 sea turtles, baby sea turtles, marine animals, sea turtles, seaworld, wildlife conservation, working with wildlife

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