In order to understand the importance of sleep, you have to understand what sleep actually does for your body. When you sleep, your body goes into a “repair mode.” Old cells a replaced with fresh ones, your mind relaxes and organizes the days thoughts, your immune system revitalizes itself, and all your organs are restored to optimal conditions. If this “repair mode” is constantly interrupted by a lack of sleep, I’m sure you can imagine the damage it does. There is an old saying among doctors, “A good nights sleep is free, and a bad nights sleep is costly.” So, are you getting enough sleep?
Still, in todays society, sleep is not a priority. It is estimated that over sixty million Americans suffer from a variety of sleep disorders, and more than half of all Americans suffer from insomnia at least a few times a week! Lets look at some of the side effects of not getting a healthy amount of sleep on a continual basis:
- You increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Even in younger individuals, a sleep deficit of three hours or more a night reduced the bodies ability to produce carbohydrates, which leads to a prediabetic state.
- You become “sleep drunk.” Aka you are clumsy throughout the day. A lack of sleep shortens your reaction time and attention span, as well as impairs your memory, judgment, and coordination.
- You endanger your life, as well as the lives of others. Over 100,000 crashes a year are a direct result of driving while drowsy.
- You reduce your sex drive. Going without sleep raises your cortisol levels, which block the response of the testicles to testosterone, as well as decrease hormone production.
- Physical pain and sickness. It is not uncommon for insomniacs to experience chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, autoimmune diseases, hypertension, obesity, chronic pain syndrome, depression, and more.
So lets quickly go over what a good nights sleep does for you:
- Regulates the release of important hormones. This is important, especially in children, as it helps them grow! In adults, it regulates muscle mass and helps control fat. So yes, getting enough sleep will help you loose weight, along with exercise and eating right.
- Reduces cortisol levels. Cortisol levels are raised after a stressful day, which disrupts your neurotransmitters in your brain. The result is you being more irritable, being prone to depression, insomnia, and anxiety.
- Improves overall brain function. We covered this before, a rested brain is a productive brain.
- Boosts immune system. Getting enough sleep results in “natural killer cell” activity, which destroys bacteria, viruses, and even cancer cells.
- Slows the aging proces. It’s a fact, beauty sleep is literal. Getting a healthy amount of sleep will slow the aging process, and even cut back on those wrinkles.
So how much sleep do you need? Well we will cover this more in-depth later, but a good recommendation is between seven and nine hours per night.
Insomnia… what causes it?
Coming tomorrow!
