Introduction
Sleep is a natural state of rest for the human body. It’s the best way to regenerate, to relax and to replenish. However, over time we’ve learned that sleep isn’t just something we do to get away from our day-to-day lives… there are health benefits associated with getting enough sleep too! Now, if you’re like me you might be saying “but I’m too busy to sleep…” or “I’ll just stay up later.” Not so fast! We have a few reasons why you should reconsider your stance on sleep:
It’s the best way to lower your blood pressure.
When you fall asleep, your body produces more nitric oxide—a hormone that helps blood vessels relax and expand. When this happens, your heart has to work less hard to push blood through the vessels in your body. So less pressure is put on your arteries and veins, which lowers blood pressure.
In addition to getting enough sleep each night, the quality of that sleep is also important for keeping your BP in check. If you don’t get enough REM (rapid eye movement) sleep during the night or if you wake up frequently during the night due to stress or anxiety about things like money or relationship problems, then this can throw off normal levels of nitric oxide production and make it harder for you to lower BP naturally by resting quietly without interruption
It helps you get over a cold faster.
When you’re sick, sleep helps your body heal. When it’s fighting off an infection or recovering from illness or injury, sleep promotes the immune system’s ability to fight off germs and get rid of toxins. When it’s recovering from surgery or trauma, sleep helps with the healing process by giving the body time to recover and repair itself and giving the mind time to process what happened.
It makes your heart happier.
When you’re fully rested, your body produces more of the hormone leptin. Leptin tells your brain when to feel full and satisfied—it helps regulate appetite and metabolism.
When you don’t get enough sleep, this process is disrupted: Your body produces less leptin than it should, which means you’re at a higher risk of overeating and gaining weight.
In fact, research has shown that getting just one extra hour of quality shut-eye each night can help lower your blood pressure by an average of 4 points; in turn, that reduction could reduce the risk for heart attack or stroke by 2 percent over time!
It could change the shape of your body.
Sleeping less than 7 hours a night is associated with a higher body mass index (BMI), which means you’re more likely to be overweight.
In addition to being linked with obesity, sleep deprivation can also lead to diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In fact, one study found that sleeping only 4-5 hours per night increased the risk of heart disease by up to 50%.
Another study found that insufficient sleep may increase your risk of high blood pressure by 80%, which increases your risk of stroke and other serious health problems.
It can help you live longer.
Sleep deprivation can lead to serious health problems, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It’s a well-known fact that sleep deprivation can lead to weight gain and obesity—but did you know it can also cause or worsen heart disease? According to a 2014 study published in the American Journal of Cardiology, people who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to have high blood pressure than those who do get adequate rest. High blood pressure increases your risk for heart disease, stroke and kidney failure—and when your body doesn’t get its full amount of shut-eye each night, those risks increase even more.
Another consequence of chronic sleep deprivation is diabetes: A 2017 study published in The Lancet found that not getting enough quality sleep increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 60 percent! Researchers suspect this might be due to insufficient insulin production caused by disrupted circadian rhythms during periods of poor slumbering habits over time (you know what they say: “breakfast like a king”).
Sleep is more important than you might think.
We’ve all heard about how important exercise is. But did you know that sleep is equally—if not more—important? In fact, studies have shown that sleep can help lower your blood pressure and reduce your risk of heart disease. Sleep also helps fight colds, reduce stress and anxiety, improve memory and learning skills, lower inflammation levels in the body (which may be why it’s good for your joints), boost fertility levels in women by helping them ovulate on time…the list goes on!
If you’re curious about what exactly happens during that glorious eight hours of zzz’s each night (and why), keep reading. We’ll cover everything from why we need to get enough sleep to what happens when we don’t get enough restful slumber.
Conclusion
I hope that you now see the benefits of getting enough sleep every night. It’s something that most of us don’t pay attention to, but it can have a huge impact on our health. If you have any questions about the benefits of sleeping more or how to get better sleep, feel free to email me at sam@sleepdiary.com—I’m always happy to help!