The benefits of sleep are many.Sleepplays a crucial role in tissue repair, hormone regulation, and overall health.
Getting enough sleep boosts brain power, improves weight management, and reduces stress and inflammation.
Most adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep per day.
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Getting less than six or seven hours of sleep can affect you the next day.
Chronically missing out on sleep increases your risk of disease.
This article discusses 10 benefits of sleep.
It explains how sleep is important for good health.
Strengthens Your Heart
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During sleep, your body releases hormones.
Some of them keep your heart and blood vessels healthy.
Lack of sleep deprives you of these hormones.
Regulates Your Blood Sugar
Sleep helps regulate your metabolism.
That’s the way your body converts food to energy.
Sleep deprivation can cause many problems with metabolism, including fluctuatingblood sugar levels.
This can be a problem if you havediabetes.
It also raises your risk of developingtype 2 diabetes.
When you’re sleep deprived, your body releasesstresshormones.
Stress can make you react in ways that aren’t productive.
You may act out of fear or make rash decisions.
Or you may be irritable.
A poor night’s sleep can make you feel anxious.
This may last until you finally get some much-needed rest.
Improving Sleep
Practicing relaxation techniques can help you fall asleep faster.
Decreases Inflammation
Sleep regulates your immune system.
When you don’t get enough, irregular immune system activity can cause inflammation.
You may not notice excess inflammation.
But it can have an effect on your body.
Chronic inflammation damages structures and increases your risk of many health conditions.
Poor sleep appears to disrupt the balance ofghrelinandleptin.
Those are hormones that control appetite.
If you want to lose or maintain weight, don’t forget thatgood sleepis part of the equation.
Improves Your Balance
Sleep helps you maintain your physical abilities.
Studies show sleep deprivation leads to short-term balance problems.
That’s called postural instability.It can lead to injuries and falls.
Even mild instability can cause problems during sports or exercise.
Increases Your Energy and Alertness
A good night’s sleep makes you feel energized and alert.
This helps you focus and get things done.
It’s easier to exercise when you’re energetic and alert.
So that’s an indirect benefit of getting enough sleep.
Being engaged and active throughout your day feels good.
And being more active all day makes another good night’s sleep more likely.
Improves Your Memory
Sleep appears to play a big role in what’s called memory consolidation.
During sleep, your brain makes connections.
It links events, feelings, and sensory input to form memories.
Deep sleepis important for this.
So more quality sleep can improve your memory.
Boosts Your Executive Functioning
Executive function involves complex thinking.
That includes things like problem-solving, planning, and making decisions.
It can also affect your alertness and memory.
Executive function helps you with work, school, social interactions, and more.
One night of sleep deprivation can impair executive function the next day.
Repairs Your Tissues
While you sleep, your body works hard to repair damage.
The damage can be from stress, ultraviolet rays, and other harmful things you’re exposed to.
Your cells produce certain proteins while you sleep.
They form the building blocks of cells.
That lets cells repair the day’s damage and keep you healthy.
Summary
While you sleep, your body is hard at work.
It restores hormonal balance, repairs itself, and keeps the circulatory and immune systems functioning properly.
Your brain forms and stores memories.
Quality sleep allows you to be energetic and alert.
It allows you to exercise, work, learn, socialize, and do all the things you enjoy.
Bishir M, Bhat A, Essa MM, et al.Sleep deprivation and neurological disorders.Biomed Res Int.
2015;6(6):648-659.
