As you all admit, sleep makes you feel
better, but its importance goes way beyond just boosting your mood or banishing
under-eye circles. Adequate sleep brings out a healthy lifestyle, that benefits your heart, weight, mind, and much more.
Go ahead, snooze! zzz
Sleeping is ignored, like parking our car in a garage and picking it up in the morning and maybe considered for some as a matter of wasting time.
Not anymore. Now you can see that all success and productivity secrets are hidden behind this calming relaxing power of "SLEEPING". Here are some health benefits researchers have discovered about a good night’s sleep.
1- Improve memory
Feeling forgetful? Sleep loss could be to blame. Studies have shown that while we sleep, our brains process and consolidate our memories from the day. If you don't get enough sleep, it seems like those memories might not get stored correctly and can be lost.
Your mind is surprisingly busy while you snooze. During sleep you can strengthen memories or "practice" skills learned while you were awake (it’s a process called consolidation).
If you are trying to learn something, whether it’s physical or mental - whether it's Spanish or a new tennis swing -
you'll perform better after sleeping well.
2- Lower depression
Sleeping well means more to our overall well-being than simply avoiding irritability.
"A lack of sleep can contribute to depression," Dr. Jean says. "A good night’s sleep can really help a moody person decrease their anxiety. You get more emotional stability with good sleep."
If you think the long hours put in during the week are the cause of your anxiety or impatience, I should warn you that sleep cannot necessarily be made up during the weekend. If you sleep more on the weekends, you simply aren't sleeping enough in the week. It’s all about finding a balance.
3- Better Sex Life
According to a poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, up to 26% of people say that their sex lives tend to suffer because they're just too tired. There's evidence that in men, impaired sleep can be associated with lower testosterone levels. Of course, not getting enough sleep can affect your love life in less direct ways too. "If you're a 28-year-old who's so exhausted you're falling asleep during a date at the movies, that's not good," says Ronald Kramer, MD, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
4- Live longer
Too much or too little sleep is associated with a shorter lifespan—although it’s not clear if it’s a cause or effect. (Illnesses may affect sleep patterns too.)
In a 2014 study of women ages 50 to 79, more deaths occurred in women who got less than five hours or more than six and a half hours of sleep per night.
Sleep also affects quality of life.
"Many things that we take for granted are affected by sleep," says Raymonde Jean, MD, director of sleep medicine and associate director of critical care at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City. "If you sleep better, you can certainly live better. It’s pretty clear."
5- Spur creativity and Clear Thinking
Have you ever woken up after a bad night's sleep, feeling fuzzy and easily confused, like your brain can't get out of first gear?
"Sleep loss affects how you think," Mindell tells WebMD. "It impairs your cognition, your attention, and your decision-making."
Get a good night’s sleep before getting out the easel and paintbrushes or the pen and paper.
In addition to consolidating memories, or making them stronger, your brain appears to reorganize and restructure them, which may result in more creativity as well.
People strengthen the emotional components of a memory during sleep, which may help spur the creative process.
6- Be a winner
If you're an athlete or a teacher or an officer, there may be one simple way to improve your performance in everything you do: sleep.
A Stanford University study found that college football players who tried to sleep at least 10 hours a night for seven to eight weeks improved their average sprint time and had less daytime fatigue and more stamina. The results of this study reflect previous findings seen in tennis players and swimmers.
7- Improve your grades
Children between the ages of 10 and 16 who have sleep disordered breathing, which includes snoring, sleep apnea, and other types of interrupted breathing during sleep, are more likely to have problems with attention and learning, according to a 2014 study in the journal Sleep. This could lead to "significant functional impairment at school," the study authors wrote.
In another study, college students who didn’t get enough sleep had worse grades than those who did.
"If you're trying to meet a deadline, you're willing to sacrifice sleep," Dr. Rapoport says, "but it’s severe and reoccurring sleep deprivation that clearly impairs learning."
8- Reduce Inflammation
Inflammation is linked to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, and premature aging. Research indicates that people who get less sleep—six or fewer hours a night—have higher blood levels of inflammatory proteins than those who get more.
A 2014 study found that C-reactive protein, which is associated with heart attack risk, was higher in people who got six or fewer hours of sleep a night.
People who have sleep apnea or insomnia can have an improvement in blood pressure and inflammation with treatment of the sleep disorders, Dr. Rapoport says.
9- Healthy weight
If you are thinking about going on a diet, you might want to plan an earlier bedtime too. Dieters who are well rested lost more fat—56% of their weight loss—than those who were sleep deprived, who lost more muscle mass. (They shed similar amounts of total weight regardless of sleep.)
Dieters also will feel hungrier when they got less sleep.
"Sleep and metabolism are controlled by the same sectors of the brain," Dr. Rapoport says. "When you are sleepy, certain hormones go up in your blood, and those same hormones drive appetite."
10- Lower stress
When it comes to our health stress and sleep are nearly one and the same—and both can affect cardiovascular health.
"Sleep can definitely reduce levels of stress, and with that people can have better control of their blood pressure," Dr. Jean says. "It’s also believed that sleep affects cholesterol levels, which plays a significant role in heart disease."
11- Focused Driving
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in 2012 that being tired and sleepy accounted for the highest number of fatal single car run off the road crashes due to the driver’s performance—even more than alcohol!
Sleepiness is grossly underrated as a problem by most people, but the cost to society is enormous. Sleeplessness affects reaction time and decision making."
Insufficient sleep for just one night can be as detrimental to your driving ability as having an alcoholic drink.
12-
"Sleep loss affects how you think," Mindell tells WebMD. "It impairs your cognition, your attention, and your decision-making." Studies have found that people who are sleep-deprived are substantially worse at solving logic or math problems than when they're well-rested. "They're also more likely to make odd mistakes, like leaving their keys in the fridge by accident," she tells WebMD
In addition, kids don't react the same way to sleep deprivation as adults do whereas adults get sleepy, kids tend to get hyperactive.
A 2012 study in the journal Pediatrics found that children ages seven and eight who got less than about eight hours of sleep a night were more likely to be hyperactive, inattentive, and impulsive."We diagnose and measure sleep by measuring electrical changes in the brain," Dr. Rapoport says. "So not surprisingly how we sleep affects the brain."
you'll perform better after sleeping well.
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