Great Sleep Is Good For Your Health
Busy schedules, tight deadlines, and the priority to be on top of everything happening in the world have caused most Americans to spend less and less time in bed. As a matter of fact, most Americans prioritize many other things over the hours they spend sleeping. As a result, this 24/7, always on, busy schedule is turning most of us into zombies, stuck in a daily cycle. Your body needs to rest and rejuvenate for the next day activities, and sleep is the best way to do so. In spite of the hustles and daily duties of life, you need to reserve time to get enough sleep. Most importantly, you have to practice good sleeping habits.
Some of the side effects of not having a healthy sleep schedule, less than seven to eight hours a day, are the risks of developing and succumbing to chronic illnesses. To avoid frequent visits to physicians or prescriptions drugs, having healthy sleep each day is important. The truth is you need enough sleep—of all the generational wisdom passed down generations, the fact that you need a good night’s sleep is essentially vital for any developing mind.
For eons sleep research and findings have been kept behind curtains, however, recent studies by organizations such as American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society have noted that individuals of age 18-60 require 7 hours of sleep every single night to ensure your well-being and optimal health. So if you are still carrying your gadgets to bed, busy doing nothing as you wait for the next release of The Walking Dead episode late in the night, Sleep Medicine lists the following science-backed reasons for you to turn off the lights and have a healthy sleep tonight.
Sleep Boosts Immune System
It is apparent that not having a healthy sleep undermines your immune system. When you fall asleep, your body releases cytokine protein, which aids your body to fight illnesses and suppresses inflammation. Essentially, less sleep implies that your body will release a small amount of Cytokine protein and vice versa. Looking at how these two are related, it makes sense why you are at a higher risk of becoming sick when you are tired and stay ailing longer.
The Sleep Research Society monitored 150 persons to show the difference between those who would rest and those who did not, after being exposed to the flu virus: Those that had less than six hours of sleep were three times susceptible to catch a cold as compared to their counterparts who spent eight hours sleeping.
More research conducted within sleep medicine has led to similar conclusions, ascertaining the real link as there are other factors that might have influenced the outcomes. You can’t go wrong with having eight hours of sleep every day, when possible.
Sleep Cleans the Brain
Sleep is essential to you as it helps your lymphatic system to clear toxins and metabolites, which accumulated in your brain during the day, out of your neuron system.
Notably, your lymphatic system becomes active only when you fall asleep. It is worth noting that, if you don’t rest your brain, then it does not receive the necessary cleaning. The consequences are dire.
Research conducted on sleep-deprived mice indicated that beta-amyloid protein accumulated on their cerebral spinal fluid. Since such composition of fluid is associated with Alzheimer’s ailment, researchers hypothesized that individuals that do not have enough sleep are at the verge of developing neuro-degenerative ailments.
Sleep helps you maintain a Healthy Body Weight
The research conducted by Harvard School of Public Health exclusively indicated that getting enough or healthy sleep is a stepping stone to weight control. It is apparent that when you spend more time sleeping you eat less, the study goes deeper and beyond that. Additionally, it found that individuals that sleep less per night have a higher accumulation of ghrelin hormone in their blood circulation. This hormone is responsible for appetite stimulation.
Thus, if you are deprived of sleep the hormone will increase in your blood, which will in turn trigger hunger. To round it up, your body responds to tiredness is to alert you through hunger that it needs food.—as a result of the long hours of staying awake.
Sleep is good for your Heart and protects from Diabetes
It’s quite ordinary to have bouts of disturbed sleep, however, if you continuously wake up stuporous, should it persist for several years, you should be worried about your health.
Additionally, less than seven to eight hours of sleep is associated with reduced immune strengths, which may result to cardiovascular risks. Research shows a correlation between increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes and sleep deprivation.
Sleep Refreshes your Body
Research conducted by Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., on more than 17,000 students in 24 countries: They were asked the number of hours they sleep per night. Thirty-six percent, which is more than a third of the participants indicated that they slept for 7 to 8 hours and said that they woke up refreshed and energetic to handle the daily activities.
Typically 8 hours of sleep seems to be the norm for most people. It is the amount of time you need to sleep to ensure that you wake up refreshed and replenished to stay awake the rest of the day. Notably, having more sleep is helpful to your well-being during the day.
Sleep Improves Your Brain’s Performance
Less sleep not only results in poor health, but it also impacts your memory, moods, concentration, and problem-solving ability. Overworking your body and staying long hours is an exemplary explanation of how sleep is connected to alertness, productivity, and performance. When there is too much of beta-amyloid in the brain and other toxins, which accumulated during the day, your brain gets tired and may not be able to perform optimally as compared when such elements are of low concentration in your body.
Thus, it is necessary that you have enough sleep to flush such toxin and metabolites out of your system to improve your brain performance.
The busy life and all other human activities you participate to be at par with every trend should not deprive you enough or more sleep. However, it will require you to have strategic planning to have enough sleep. Try having enough sleep the health gain is awesome.