Getting Enough Sleep Is Essential To Health

Do you despise dragging yourself to the gym every day? Detest that kale salad that you force into your belly every day at lunch? Want to ditch the bad-tasting evening multivitamin?

All of these things are, of course, good for your overall health. However, there’s a good chance that you’re neglecting one easy task that is one of the most important things you can do to take care of yourself (perhaps even more important than that multivitamin, in fact).

Good sleep!

Getting enough sleep is essential both to look and feel good. If you aren’t getting enough good sleep, you’re setting yourself up for a lifetime of health problems and complications, from obesity to depression and much, much more.

There's nothing indulgent about a good night’s sleep - it’s all for the sake of your health! So settle in and read these tips on how getting adequate sleep can improve your health and wellbeing - you’ll be glad you did.

Higher Body Weight

If you can’t lose weight despite your best efforts to shed the pounds, it might not be your diet or exercise routines that need to be tweaked - but instead, your nighttime habits between the sheets.

Poor sleep, particularly poor sleep habits that are chronic, are linked to weight gain, with those who have a shorter sleep duration weighing significantly more than individuals who get enough sleep.

Believe it or not, sleep deprivation is one of the biggest and most prominent risk factors for obesity!

Why that is, exactly, is not totally clear - though many studies blame the link on numerous factors like a lack of motivation to exercise, increased hunger, and hormonal swings that can occur when you’re short on sleep.

Eat Fewer Calories

On the flip side, a solid night’s sleep can also help you eat fewer calories the next day.  Have you ever pulled an all-nighter and found yourself devouring everything in your path the next day?

That’s because a lack of sleep increases levels of ghrelin, the hormone that stimulates appetite, in your body. It also causes levels of leptin, the appetite-suppression hormone, to plummet.

Long story short - if you want to eat fewer calories, start logging more sleep. It’s as easy as that!

Improves Concentration

If you’ve found yourself slumping over your desk, unable to stare at your computer screen, after a poor night of sleep, you aren’t alone. Sleep is crucial for various aspects of brain function. Not only does it help improve your productivity and cognitive performance but it also boosts your ability to concentrate as well as your overall cognition.

In fact, in a study on interns working in a medical study, it was discovered that those who worked more than 24 hours straight without resting made a whopping 36% more serious medical errors than those working a schedule that allowed for more sleep.

A lack of sleep can even impact brain function so much that the effects mimic those caused by alcohol intoxication - driving sleep-deprived could very well be worse than driving drunk!

Getting enough sleep will help you look and feel sharper. When you run low on sleep, you’re going to have a harder time remembering and recalling details - remember, sleep plays an integral role in memory and in learning. If you don’t get enough sleep, it will be hard for your brain to focus and absorb new information.

Not only that, but it’s harder for our brain to store memories that you can pull up later.

Maximize Athletic Performance

Want to perform better on the tennis court or running track? You might want to start getting some more rest.

While it’s easy to be tempted into setting that early alarm and hitting the gym before work, you might want to reconsider your bedtime if that’s something you’re interested in doing. There’s nothing wrong with a solid exercise routine - but it shouldn’t come at the expense of sleep.

Sleep improves your mental well-being as well as your reaction times, accuracy, and speed. This is something that has been studied extensively, with the results felt among all demographics.

That said, there are some athletic endeavors that are more seriously impacted than others by poor sleep. While athletics activities that require short bursts of energy, like weightlifting or wrestling, aren’t seriously impacted, those that require extensive endurance, like biking, swimming, and running, can really take a hit if you decide to skip out on sleep time.

Poor sleep can even lead to issues such as difficulty performing independent activities, reduced grip strength, and slower walking speeds - so get that rest while you can!

Poor Sleepers Have A Greater Risk of Heart Disease

Just as poor sleep can increase your odds of obesity, so, too, can it up your chances of suffering from heart disease or other cardiovascular problems.

Multiple studies have found that individuals who don’t log enough sleep are at a far greater risk of stroke or heart disease than those who sleep seven to eight hours per night!

Why, exactly, is this the case? It’s simple.

When you’re asleep, your blood pressure and heart rate both go down. This helps to give your blood vessels and heart a break, letting them repair damage and catch up. The less sleep you get, the higher your blood pressure stays, on average, during a 24-hour period. High blood pressure, as you likely know, can lead to a number of health problems, including stroke.

Sleep Affects Glucose Metabolism

Not only does sleep make you want to eat more, but it also affects the way your body processes food - particularly the glucose that is found in food.

It can reduce your insulin sensitivity and adversely affect your blood sugar. In fact, many nights of too- little sleep can cause symptoms of prediabetes. This occurs in healthy adults of all ages, with a strong link demonstrated between type 2 diabetes and short sleep duration.

Depression

You aren’t alone if you find yourself feeling down in the dumps after a bad night’s sleep. In fact, more than 90% of people with clinical depression also report poor sleep quality. Since poor sleep impacts your mood as well as your decision-making skills and judgment, it will likely come as no surprise that poor sleep carries with it an increased risk of suicide.

If you have a  sleeping disorder like sleep apnea or insomnia, your risk of developing depression is even higher.

Even if you don’t suffer from depression, good sleep is vital if you want to stay in a good mood. While you’re asleep, your brain is hard at work processing your emotions. That’s why, after a good night’s sleep, you often feel better about the argument you had at work or with your spouse. Your brain needs the time it spends asleep to react and recognize its emotions.

Cut your sleep time short, and you will likely find that you experience more negative emotional reactions and fewer positive ones.

Allow yourself to become chronically sleep-deprived and you could find yourself suffering from an increased likelihood of a mood disorder, too. A large study demonstrated that when you have insomnia, you’re five times more likely to develop depression  - and your likelihood of developing an anxiety disorder or panic disorder is much higher, too.

Improves Immune Function

Even a small loss of sleep can dramatically impair immune functioning. If you find yourself feeling sniffly after you worked tirelessly to meet your big deadline at work, poor sleep during that period could be why your body is feeling more rundown.

In fact, in a study of individuals who slept fewer than seven hours, it was discovered that these people were nearly three times more likely to develop a cold than those who logged a full eight hours plus.

If you find yourself often feeling rundown and succumbing to the common cold, make sure you get more sleep. It could make a world of difference!

Increased Inflammation

“Inflammation” is a bit of a buzzword when it comes to health these days - and for good reason. It can have a major impact on many health issues.

Poor sleep can contribute to inflammation, with sleep loss known to activate all kinds of markers of inflammation and cell damage. It’s been linked to long-term digestive inflammation with diseases like Crohn’s disease and inflammatory bowel disease commonly plugging poor sleepers.

Affects Emotions and Social Interactions

You’re not imagining it - poor sleep does make it harder for you to interact socially.

There are numerous studies that have backed up this claim, which was once thought to be purely anecdotal. Facial recognition tests prove that people who sleep poorly have a reduced ability to positively recognize common expressions of happiness and anger.

Other Health Issues

In addition to all of the concerns we mentioned above, there are countless other health issues that can be caused (or can be worsened) by a lack of sleep.

Sleep is necessary for every aspect of your well-being. Poor sleep can cause an increased risk of kidney disease, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, and more.

It can worsen mental health issues like insomnia, depression, and even schizophrenia.

Of course, there are all the ways that sleep helps you function in the day-to-day, too. You need good sleep in order to make solid decisions at work, at home, and in your relationships. Poor sleep has been linked to an increased risk of motor vehicle accidents and other avoidable tragedies - so make sure you’re getting the sleep your body needs to help you stay safe!

Tips for Getting More Sleep

Ready to start logging the zzz’s your body needs - and that you deserve? Follow these simple tips to get more rest.

First, make sure you try to get seven to eight solid hours each night on your new organic mattress. While there will inevitably be nights where you fall short of this mark, doing your best to get enough rest is a good goal to set for yourself.

While naps can be restorative if you do have a bad night of sleep, try to avoid taking nas later than three p.m. (perhaps even earlier than that, depending on when you go to bed) and try not to nap any longer than twenty minutes. This will leave you feeling more groggy and may ruin your full night of sleep later that evening.

Try to steer clear of caffeine and alcohol, especially late in the day. Both of these can mess with your sleep. Try to ditch nicotine completely, if you’re a smoker, and get regular exercise (just not within a few hours of bedtime, as this can leave you feeling too alert).

Setting up a good routine for sleep and having good sleep hygiene can also help put you on the path to success. If you can, go to bed at roughly the same time every night and wake up at the same time in the morning - yes, even on the weekends! Try not to eat heavy meals late in the day and make sure your bedroom is a sleep oasis. 

What does that mean? It should be cool, dark, quiet, and comfortable. Also, it should be used solely for sleep and sex - avoid watching television or playing on your cell phone before bed.

Last but not least, don’t lie in bed awake. If you can’t fall asleep within twenty minutes, get out of bed and do something relaxing in dim lighting until you feel sleepy. When you still find yourself having trouble getting enough sleep after reading these tips, then it might be time to see your doctor to find out what else can be done.

Get The Best Night’s Sleep To Help Improve Your Lifestyle and Health

Sleep is important to your overall health. If you aren’t getting enough, it could lead to a number of chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. In addition, sleep deprivation can reduce your focus and attentiveness while working or driving.  

Hopefully, now that you know how important sleep is to your overall health, you can use these tips to get the best night’s snooze possible. Go catch some zzz’s - it’s good for your health (and feels good, too).

Karen A Mulvey is a personal social blogger and mom with 14 years of experience in the every day world of motherhood and sustainable product research. Karen is on a mission to help everyday families select sustainable, non-toxic organic products, stop stressing about uncertainties on sustainable home goods and apparel, and start living the life they’ve always wanted.

Follow Karen at @karenAmulveycs | Karen A Mulvey

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