Do you notice the effects of a bad night’s sleep? We often forget that living a healthy lifestyle involves the basics like diet or exercise and a healthy sleep routine. Lack of quality sleep can impact your health, so you must take it seriously. Let’s discuss some of the significant health benefits of sleep:
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1. Stronger Immune System
The ability of your body to fight off foreign bodies is affected mainly by the quality of sleep you get each day. Your immune system gets compromised day by day as you get used to a poor sleep pattern. As you sleep, your body undergoes repair, regeneration, and recovery, giving it the ability to fight infections better. Therefore, it is essential to give your body the needed rest each day.
2. Healthier Heart
Does your family have a history of heart diseases? You should evaluate the amount of sleep you get each day. Like your immune system, your blood pressure drops naturally during sleep, giving your heart time to recover. Thus, when you deny your body sleep, your heart rate and blood pressure don’t go down, thus increasing the risk of exposure to heart diseases like high blood pressure, stroke, or coronary heart disease. It can also lead to further issues in blood sugar regulation leading to diabetes.
3. Improved Mental and Emotional Health
Sleep is not beneficial to your physical well-being but also your emotional being. When you are stressed or depressed, the cortisol hormone is produced at high levels keeping you awake most of the time. Therefore, you must develop a good sleep pattern to ensure that the stress hormones are not triggered.
Despite mental conditions causing a bad night’s sleep, a poor sleeping pattern can also lead to an increase in developing a mental condition, a foul mood, and panic attacks. It becomes equally hard to overcome the stress-related conditions that lead from that.
4. Weight Control
Even with an exercise routine in place, your diet must be in line to ensure that your weight is under control. Poor sleep seems to be correlated with weight gain since it triggers an urge of improper food intake.
It is said that the longer you stay awake, the higher the chances of your body releasing the hormone leptin, which is an appetite booster. Once that hormone is out of balance, you are more likely to choose unhealthy foods with high-calorie content, and over time, you will have a significant weight gain.
5. Higher Cognitive Function
While fixing yourself a cup of coffee to keep you alert after burning the midnight oil may seem like a solution, it is a bad idea. Even if you take strong coffee, it will not fix the burnout from the previous day, and it will negatively affect your brain productivity, and your energy levels will be unmatched as opposed to someone who has a good night’s sleeps.
You are also highly likely to make mistakes. Therefore, a proper sleep routine will give you the energy you need to coordinate every activity, enhance your memory, and enable you to stay focused and alert all day long.
As you can see above, sleep’s health benefits are far more beneficial than one would think. Thus, it is necessary to prioritize quality sleep by setting aside at least 7-8 hours a night each day to achieve maximum benefits. If you are struggling with a poor sleeps pattern, consult a physician to identify the root problem and find ways to fix it.
About the Author
Jenn Walker is a freelance writer, blogger, dog-enthusiast, and avid beachgoer operating out of Southern New Jersey. She frequently works for a many healthcare clients, including USA Sleep Diagnostic Centers, a sleep study clinic in Fort Bragg.
