Four Out Of Five People Complain Of Sleep Troubles

With increased stress and anxiety along with an unmooring of our normal routines, sleep is even more essential to our health and wellbeing. However, it’s these changing conditions that are negatively impacting our ability to get a good night of sleep and recovery. 

 Most people know they need to eat right and exercise to be healthy. But what about sleep? We spend about one-third of our lives asleep, and sleep is essential to better health. But many of us are struggling with sleep. Four out of five people say that they suffer from sleep problems at least once a week and wake up feeling exhausted. 

 People who get less than seven hours of sleep a night are more likely to have chronic health problems like obesity, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, depression and premature death.

While the long-term health risks of bad sleep are enough to keep you awake at night, there’s more bad news. You’re also more likely to catch a cold. A healthy immune system can fight off a cold. But not a sleep-deprived immune system. The people most likely to get sick from the cold-infused nose drops? Those who got six or fewer hours of sleep.

Lack of Sleep Linked To Alzheimer's

Insufficient sleep is now one of the most significant lifestyle factors influencing whether or not you will develop Alzheimer’s disease. During sleep, a remarkable sewage system in the brain, called the glymphatic system, kicks into high gear. As you enter deep sleep, this sanitization system cleanses the brain of a sticky, toxic protein linked to Alzheimer’s, known as beta amyloid. Without sufficient sleep, you fail to get that power cleanse. With each passing night of insufficient sleep, that Alzheimer’s disease risk escalates, like compounding interest on a loan.

 Sleep disruption has further been associated with all major psychiatric conditions, including depression, anxiety and suicidality. Indeed, in my research over the past 20 years, we have not been able to find a single major psychiatric condition in which sleep is normal. Science is thus proving the prophetic wisdom of Charlotte Brontë, who stated that “a ruffled mind makes a restless pillow”.

Add the above physical and mental health consequences up, and a scientifically validated link becomes easier to accept: the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life. Recent findings demonstrate that individuals who routinely sleep five hours a night have a 65% increased risk of dying at any moment in time, relative to those getting seven to nine hours a night. The elastic band of sleep deprivation can stretch only so far before it snaps.