Sleeping well at night is extremely important for our health. Sleeping is no less important than exercising and eating healthy. Sadly, we are adapting the western environmental styles more now and ruining the natural sleeping patterns.
A lot of us do not realize the disadvantages of sleeplessness and so feel that sleeping less may make us more active. Also, the quality of sleep is continuously deteriorating. However, we are completely wrong here. In this article, we will list down some of the reasons as to why you should sleep well.
Table of Contents
Why should you sleep well?
The following is a list of the reasons why sleeping well is so important.
Sleep for weight loss
There is a direct relationship between sleep and weight gain. People who sleep less are more likely to gain more weight and become unfit compared to the people who sleep well. Moreover, sleeplessness is a major reason for one of the most common problems of this age-obese.
According to several pieces of research, experts have found out that children who sleep lesser than 9-10 hours are almost 90% more likely to develop obesity. In a similar way, when it comes to adults. The ones who do not get proper sleep for an average 7-9 hours may gain, excessive weight with just a couple of months.
Another connection of sleep with weight gain is that no sleep leaves us tired for the next day. So, we do not want to take part in any kind of physical activities. On the other hand, exercise and physical activities are important for your health. Ultimately, all the wrong habits come together and result in nothing but excessive weight gain.
Sleep well to control appetite
The second reason is also connected to weight gain but in a slightly different way. According to researches and several doctors, people who sleep less usually eat more. Not getting enough sleep leads to too much binge-eating. It is proven that people who do not sleep enough have a larger appetite when compared to others who sleep well.
More appetite means excessive consumption of unhealthy calories and junk food. The problem is that lack of sleep leads to hormonal problems inside the body. There is an abnormal fluctuation of the hormones that control and regulate our appetite.
Ghrelin is the hormone that triggers our appetite as and when required and leptin is the hormone that suppresses abnormal appetite. In the case of sleep-deprivation, every hormonal function involving these two hormones goes wrong. The levels of ghrelin increase drastically and the leptin levels go down below normal. As a result, we feel hungry even when we ate enough and cannot control this abnormal habit.
Productivity and concentration
Our health not only means our body fitness. Health includes our mental fitness too. Sleep improves the functioning of our brain, which also includes cognition, productivity, concentration, and performance. Lack of sleep means all of these starts functioning abnormally.
Once the research was conducted on a group of medical interns who were made to work for 24 hours continuously. Another group worked for normal hours and slept at night. As expected, the first group of interns was making repeated mistakes in comparison to the other interns who slept well at night.
Another research came out with the report saying that sleep-deprivation may lead a person to be zoned-out in such a way that he may seem under the effects of alcohol. It is, therefore, an intoxicated state in spite of zero alcohol consumption.
While on the other hand, sleeping well means that you are now more focused and better at problem-solving and decision making. Now you know how not sleeping well even for a couple of nights can lead to serious health issues.
Improve athletic performance
Good sleep is directly proportional to excellent athletic performance. Several studies that were conducted on athletes have come up with a similar conclusion. When they sleep well, they play better. Good sleep leads to better speed, reaction times, accuracy and mental well-being.
On the other hand, sleeping less means fatigue, laziness, and inactive attitude. Even in elderly people, lack of sleep means poor performance in exercise and thus functional limitation ultimately.
When women are sleepless, they tend to feel lazy and tired throughout the next day at work or even while performing daily chores. Therefore, sleeping longer leads to a more active day and fresher mornings.
Heart disorders
Your sleep duration and quality can have major effects on your heart health. Chronic diseases such as heart problems are a common result of sleep-deprivation. According to expert physicians, people who do not sleep for at least 7-9 hours a day are more likely to develop heart attacks. Also, these people are at a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes, in comparison to the ones who sleep well.
For type II diabetes
The insulin levels in your body may go below the minimum level and you may be at a higher risk of blood sugar if you do not get enough sleep. As per reports, if you do sleep for less than 5 hours for just 6 days at a stretch, you are inviting all the symptoms of pre-diabetes. The best part is that if you sleep enough for the next 1 week to 10 days, these symptoms fade away automatically. People who do not sleep enough are exposed to a maximum risk of type II diabetes within a very short time.
Depression and anxiety
Low duration of sleep leads to mental and emotional problems such as anxiety and depression. It is a fact that out of all the people who are suffering from depression, 95% complain of sleep-deprivation too. Such major levels of anxiety and depression may even lead to drastic steps in life such as suicides. Problems such as sleep apnea and insomnia are the major causes of depression.
Final thoughts
When you feel sleepy early in the morning or at work, do you consider the reason? It is extreme stress and sleeplessness that leads to rounds of continuous yawning. Sleep well and live a better life.
