Here 8 Top Benefits of Getting a Full Night’s Sleep:
1. Sleep can boost your immune system
Making sure your body has a chance to rest and recover from the day is important for your immune system to function at full strength.
When we sleep, our bodies produce a protein called cytokines, which target infection and inflammation, creating an immune response. Our bodies also produce T-cells during sleep, which are white blood cells that play a critical role in our body’s immune response to an infectious disease such as COVID-19.
2. Gaining Zzz’s Can Help Prevent Weight Gain
It’s true: Being short on sleep can really affect your weight. While you weren’t sleeping, your body cooked up a perfect recipe for weight gain.
When you’re short on sleep, it’s easy to lean on a large latte to get moving. You might be tempted to skip exercise (too tired), get takeout for dinner, and then turn in late because you’re uncomfortably full.
If this cascade of events happens a few times each year, no problem. Trouble is, more than a third of Americans aren’t getting enough sleep on a regular basis. Yet experts agree that getting enough shut-eye is as important to health, well-being, and your weight as are diet and excercise.
3. Sleep Can Strengthen Your Heart
Not getting enough sleep can lead to heart health problems like high blood pressure or heart attacks. That’s because lack of sleep can cause your body to release cortisol, a stress hormone that triggers your heart to work harder. Just like your immune system, your heart needs rest in order to function powerfully and properly. Just another reason to “heart” sleep.
4. Better Sleep = Better Mood
There is some truth in the old saying, “Getting up on the right side of the bed.” It has nothing to do with which side of the bed you roll out of, but sleeping can lead to good moods. And really, it makes sense. If you sleep well, you wake up feeling rested. Being rested helps your energy levels soar. When your energy is up, life’s little challenges won’t annoy you as much. When you’re not annoyed, you’re not as angry. If you’re not angry, you’re happy. So, go to bed early and everyone around you will thank you for it.
5. Sleeping Can Increase Productivity
You may think you’re wowing your boss by burning the midnight oil, but putting off a good night’s rest could be having an adverse effect at work or school. In fact, sleep has been linked to improved concentration and higher cognitive function, both of which can help you be successful at work. But one restless night can leave you feeling frazzled, making it more likely that you’ll make mistakes that a pot of coffee won’t be able to fix. Speaking of coffee, the more tired you feel, the more likely you are to reach for that afternoon cup. And while that may seem to fix the afternoon crash problem you experience, the extra caffeine late in the day could set you up for another sleepless night. Talk about a counterproductive cycle.
6. Lack of Sleep Can Be Dangerous.
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.
And we’re not being dramatic! Sleep is crucial for our health — and many of us are lacking when it comes to it.
Short-term problems can include:
- Lack of alertness. Even missing as little as 1.5 hours can have an impact on how you feel.
- Excessive daytime sleepiness. It can make you very sleepy and tired during the day.
- Impaired memory. Lack of sleep can affect your ability to think, remember and process information.
- Relationship stress. It can make you feel moody and you can become more likely to have conflicts with others.
- Quality of life. You may become less likely to participate in normal daily activities or to exercise.
- Greater likelihood for car accidents. Drowsy driving accounts for thousands of crashes, injuries and fatalities each year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
7. Sleep Can Increase Exercise Performance
Someone studied the effect of sleep deprvation on basketball players and guess what they found? When they didn’t sleep well, they weren’t very good basketball players. (#Duh) You might be thinking, ”So what? I’m only MVP in my dreams.” Well, sleep affects all types of exercise performance. Under-the-covers recovery helps with hand-eye coordination, reaction time and muscle recovery. Plus, depriving yourself of sleep can have a negative impact on strength and power.
8. Sleep Improves Memory
Even though sleep gives your body the rest it needs, your mind is still hard work. It’s actually processing and consolidating your memories from the day. If you don’t get enough sleep, who knows where those memories go. Or worse, your mind might actually create false memories.
The bottom line: Sleep is good. And necessary. Roy Kohler, MD, who specializes in sleep medicine at SCL Health in Montana, reaffirms all we know about the benefits of sleep, citing research that shows people who get less sleep tend to be heavier, eat more, have a higher BMI, and are more likely to be diabetic. “Consistent sleep of seven hours a night is what’s recommend for adults just for daytime functioning—being on task, being alert for the day and being able to concentrate and not be so moody and tired during the day,” says Dr. Kohler.
While there will certainly be ebbs and flows to your sleeping patterns, we hope this is enough evidence to convince you to aim for seven to eight hours a night so your mind and body can fully reap all the benefits.
Need some help counting sheep? Create a nighttime routine to get your mind and body relaxed, maybe try meditating. Oh, and stop looking at your phone or tablet — those social media alerts will all be there in the morning. Sweet dreams!
8 Top Benefits of Getting a Full Night’s Sleep!
8 Top Benefits of Getting a Full Night’s Sleep!
8 Top Benefits of Getting a Full Night’s Sleep!
8 Top Benefits of Getting a Full Night’s Sleep!
8 Top Benefits of Getting a Full Night’s Sleep!
8 Top Benefits of Getting a Full Night’s Sleep!
8 Top Benefits of Getting a Full Night’s Sleep!
8 Top Benefits of Getting a Full Night’s Sleep!
8 Top Benefits of Getting a Full Night’s Sleep!
8 Top Benefits of Getting a Full Night’s Sleep!
Also Read: 6 easy tips for successful weight loss
