Insufficient sleep has been declared a public health epidemic in America by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
35% of American adults are regularly getting less than the recommended amount of sleep every night.
Do you struggle to get enough sleep at night? If you do, it’s important to understand that the benefits of good sleep go way beyond just feeling well-rested.
Sleep is an essential process and your health can suffer when you’re sleep-deprived. Let’s take a look at the health benefits of sleep and why sleep is important.
Sleeping Reduces Stress
If you’re running on fumes, your body responds by pumping out stress chemicals.
This can cause high blood pressure, which can increase your risk of heart problems like stroke and heart attack.
It can be a vicious cycle, where sleep deprivation leads to stress hormone production, which makes it more difficult to sleep the next night. It’s best to not let yourself become chronically sleep-deprived!
Sleeping Can Keep Your Heart in Good Health
There’s a correlation between the worsening of blood pressure and cholesterol and a lack of sleep. Both of these conditions are associated with a higher risk for heart disease and stroke.
To protect your heart from coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease, it’s essential to get enough quality sleep.
Melatonin Production is Linked to Cancer Prevention
As you prepare for sleep and while sleeping, your body produce the sleep hormone melatonin.
It’s believed that melatonin might be able to prevent cell damage through possessing antioxidant properties. This cell damage can lead to cancer.
If you’re not getting enough sleep, your body is producing less melatonin.
To help make sure you’re body is producing adequate melatonin, it’s important to make sure your bedroom is dark at night and avoid using electronic devices right before bed. This is because light exposure reduces the amount of melatonin your body produces.
Sleep Can Help Reduce Inflammation
Inflammation can contribute to a long list of health disorders.
One of the advantages of sleeping is that your body isn’t relying on stress chemicals to function, which in turn increases inflammation.
Sleep Improves Your Memory
Getting less than enough sleep is not only harmful to your body, but it impacts your mind as well.
Deep sleep is vital to a process called memory consolidation. When you get an adequate amount of sleep regularly, you’ll have a much easier time both processing information and remembering things.
Sleep Might Help You With Weight Loss
There seems to be a correlation between getting too little sleep and being overweight or obese.
This might be because of the way that inadequate sleep changes your hormone balance which can then, in turn, affect your appetite.
Sleep Leads to Healthier Skin
If you don’t get enough sleep, the aging process is accelerated, immune-related skin diseases can flare up, and inflammation can worsen existing skin conditions.
Not only that, but insufficient sleep can lead to an increase in the bread down of hyaluronic acid and collagen. These are the substances responsible for skin elasticity and glow.
It’s called beauty sleep for a reason!
Sleep Might Help You Live Longer
Though there’s much more research to be done, there does seem to be a strong correlation between people who get too much or too little sleep and a shorter life span.
Regardless of whether or not the amount of sleep you’re getting is affecting the length of your life, getting too little or too much sleep is likely affecting the quality of your life.
How Can You Get More, Good Quality Sleep?
While some people might have an easier time falling asleep than others, there are a number of things you can do to improve your sleep quality.
One of the things you can do is to have a set schedule and stick to it. Start winding down and getting ready for bed at the same time every night, and wake up at the same time every morning. This helps regulate your circadian rhythm, which is basically your body’s clock.
Getting daily exercise is another way to ensure you’ll be able to sleep like a baby.
Most people sleep best when their room is on the cooler side. You might want to adjust your thermostat before bed because it’s possible you’re tossing and turning due to being too warm.
The comfort of your mattress and pillows is important, too. If it’s time to get new bedding, read the benefits of using a silk pillowcase and bedding.
There are a number of sleep accessories you can use to help you get a good night’s sleep. Blackout curtains or a silk eye mask can help you achieve complete darkness.
Many people have success using white noise machines to help them fall asleep.
Other useful sleep accessories include weighted blankets, humidifiers, air purifiers, and essential oil diffusers.
Don’t forget that using your electronic devices close to bedtime can affect your melatonin production and make it harder to fall asleep. Stop using your phone, laptop, tablet, or watching TV at least an hour if not a few hours before going to sleep.
Don’t Overlook the Benefits of Good Sleep: Your Health Depends On It!
There is a long list of benefits of good sleep. While there’s a lot more to learn about the benefits of sleep, it’s known that people who consistently get less than enough sleep are more likely to fall victim to chronic disease.
Insufficient sleep can lead to diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, obesity, mood disorders, a weakened immune system, and a shorter life expectancy.
Remember, sleep is more than a luxury. It’s a necessity!
If you loved this article about the benefits of sleeping, be sure to check out the rest of the blog for more informative and fascinating content!