Sleep Is Important To All Aspects Of Life
If you eat well and exercise regularly but don’t get at least seven hours of sleep every night, you may be undermining all of your other efforts. If you continue to operate without enough sleep, you may see more long-term and severe health problems. Some of the most serious potential problems associated with chronic sleep deprivation are high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, heart failure, or stroke. Other potential issues include obesity, depression, and impairment in immunity.
Studies suggest that not getting enough sleep can make you grumpy and more prone to emotional outbursts, which can hurt relationships. Starting the day on a good night’s sleep, however, can have the opposite effect. It not only helps you feel happier overall but The U.S. The Department of Health and Human Services says that getting enough sleep can also improve your mood and help you get along better with people.
Mood, Relationships, Hormones...
Sleep Is Vital For So Much In Our Lives
Sleep also helps to maintain a healthy balance of the hormones in the body. These hormones control whether one feels hungry or full, how the body reacts to insulin, the support of healthy growth and development, and the repair of muscle mass and cell/tissue repair. Puberty, fertility, and the immune system all get altered when there is insufficient sleep. Lack of sleep can lead to microsleep: a period of sleeping for brief moments while being awake. Many people are not aware of this phenomenon. Sleep insufficiency has been linked to auto accidents, industrial disasters, and many occupational mistakes – including medical ones. People who do not get enough hours of high-quality sleep have also been known to be at a higher risk of suffering from chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, depression, obesity, reduced quality of life, cancer, productivity, mood swings, suicide, and mortality.
Chronic sleep deprivation can even affect your appearance. Over time, it can lead to premature wrinkling and dark circles under the eyes. There’s also a link between lack of sleep and an increase in the stress hormone, cortisol, in the body. Cortisol can break down collagen, the protein that keeps skin smooth. So lack of sleep could mean more wrinkles! When your body is not getting the right amount of sleep, our immune system suffers as a consequence.
Take Care Of Yourself With Sleep
The immune system is devised to protect our body from catching illnesses such as the common cold, flu and other ailments. If your body is deprived of sleep, your immune system will not function well, making the human body more vulnerable to viruses and bacteria. Hence, having the proper amount of sleep strengthens our immune system, making it more equipped in fighting off infection and other ailments.
When your body is sleep-deficient, your cortisol levels accordingly increase – putting your body at risk of stress. Cortisol is a steroid hormone that the adrenal glands produce as a reaction to stress, which can either be good or bad.
A study conducted by the National Center for Biotechnology Information found that sleep deprivation can lead to an elevated cortisol level which makes a person feel more stressed, and can cause other ailments such as high blood pressure, headaches, and even trouble sleeping the next night, which only heightens the problem.
Sleep As Self Care
Studies suggest that practising mindfulness meditation helps your brain from blocking negative thoughts which is beneficial in getting a quality night of sleep. In fact, practising mindfulness meditation regularly has helped a group of 49 middle-aged and older adults who had trouble sleeping in getting improved sleeping patterns.
Sleep should be as important as getting regular exercise and eating right. Edward Everett Hale said “Sleep, and enough of it, is the prime necessity. Enough exercise, and good food and enough, are other necessities. But sleep—good sleep, and enough of it—this is a necessity without which you cannot have the exercise of use, nor the food.”
A proper sleep cycle of 6-8 hours is thus necessary to keep disorders at bay and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Try following a healthy diet and lifestyle that can promote good sleep. Staying stress-free can also help you sleep better. Thus, ignoring the inability to sleep and hoping for it to resolve on its own isn't going to help. If you are someone facing difficulty in sleeping or know someone facing this, reach out to a doctor and seek help before it affects your health.