The importance of sleep in your life
Sleep is a natural bodily function just as breathing, eating, and drinking are. What you may not realize is just how beneficial sleep is for you and why. The thought was once held that you would spend a third of your life sleeping, yet, the evidence of our own lives shows that to be no longer true.
Everyone recognizes the importance of sleep. You know you feel tired and have no energy when you miss sleep, plus your moods and general well-being change.
Much research has gone into understanding the benefits of sleep. Sleep has been shown to help improve immune function, metabolism, memory, as well as your ability to learn. Sleep is required so that your body can run and perform at optimal levels. Sleep aids your body to repair itself.
Sleep has been shown to help your learning and memory function. There are two main benefits connected with this and sleep. The first one is quite simple and that is a person who is deprived of sleep just cannot focus properly, so they will not learn effectively. The second benefit is that after learning something new your memory consolidates this information while sleeping. So, studying just before going to bed is a good thing.
Getting adequate sleep has been linked with living longer. Research shows that people who’ve slept less than 5 hours per night were more likely to die early. This does not mean that you want to oversleep either, too much sleep is also connected with a shorter life span.
Your health can also be affected by the quality of your sleep. People who sleep less than 6 hours a day often suffer from health issues such as arthritis, diabetes, stroke, and heart disease.
This has been linked to them having more inflammatory protein levels in their blood. When these issues are treated, and more sleep is accomplished the protein levels have been shown to decline.
Your creativity levels, athleticism, and school grades can all improve by sleeping more. It was discovered that many children with ADHD were in fact, sleep-deprived. It is recommended that young children get more than 8 hours of sleep per night.
If you are trying to lose weight, sleep has additional benefits. Dieters who sleep more find that they can lose weight quicker. This is because your metabolism and sleep are controlled by the same areas of your brain. If losing weight is your goal, then try and get a good night's rest every night.
“A well-spent day brings happy sleep.”
How much sleep do you need?
The amount of sleep that a person requires varies as they age. Newborn babies, for example, require anywhere from 12 to 18 hours of sleep per day. While an adult can manage with only 7 hours. There are several factors that affect the number of hours you need on a regular basis.
The biggest thing to understand is that there is no magic number when it comes to sleep. Sleep patterns are as individual as your personality. The quality of your sleep is often more important than the actual number of hours.
There are two basic principles that pertain to sleep:
1. Basal Sleep
2. Sleep Debt
Basal sleep is the amount of sleep required by your body to keep your body functioning at an optimal point. Sleep Debt is the number of hours you lose due to either poor sleeping habits, illness, or other problems that keep you awake.
Studies show that most adults need between 7 to 8 hours of basal sleep per night. Sleep Debt is connected to those times when you are feeling sleepy and tired, even if you just slept for 7 hours.
What this research suggests is that your body needs to catch up to your sleep debt numbers. Depending on how sleep deprived you are, this may take several nights of your sleeping for 7 hours or more to catch up.
Your mood and energy levels are a good indication of sleep deprivation. People who do not sleep enough are at more risk of being involved in a car or work-related accidents. Plus, many people find that they gain weight when they do not sleep enough for extended periods of time.
As you can see, sleep truly does have a major impact on your life. The best way to determine just how much sleep you require is to pay attention to your body. Note things such as what kind of mood you are in, if you feel more hungry than usual, and how much energy you have.
Pay attention to how many nights per week that you get enough sleep. If this number is low, then you may want to appraise your sleep habits and make some changes.
Quite often something as simple as a warm bath or shower before going to bed can make a huge difference. As can passing on the coffee or alcohol too close to bedtime.
Conclusion
The benefits of sleep cannot be overstated. Nor can the deleterious effects from lack of sleep be underrated. Sleep works hand in hand with exercise and diet, increasing the effectiveness of both.
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