October 9, 2017
10 Reasons Why Sleep Is Important
I hear it all the time. “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” or “I can function just fine on three hours of sleep.” We have come to believe that sleep is not so important. Some of us have insomnia and other health concerns that may prevent us from sleeping well. (There are things that can be done so your body gets more sleep).
However, many of us have an unhealthy habit of not getting enough sleep.
Sleep is last on our list of things to do. No matter how much you try and convince yourself that you don’t need adequate sleep or your body can function on 3-4 hours of sleep daily, the truth is your just telling yourself lies.
Sleep is important and I’m going to give you 10 reasons why:
1) The cells in your body need sleep to repair themselves. I’m not making this up you can research it for yourself. Sleep helps to boost reproduction of the cells involved in brain repair.
2) Sleep is involved in healing and repair of your heart and blood vessels. Sleep deficiency is linked to several disease, including heart disease and diabetes.
3) Short sleep duration is a strong risk factor for obesity.
4) Good sleepers tend to eat fewer calories. When your body is deprived of sleep there is a fluctuation in appetite hormones that causes poor appetite regulation.
5) Good sleep can improve concentration and productivity.
6) Better mood. When you feel exhausted you’re cranky. Not getting enough sleep affects your emotional regulation. I know from experience when I need more sleep I’m highly irritable.
7) Better Memory. The more sleep you get the better your memory. When you don’t get enough sleep your memories aren’t stored correctly and can be lost.
8) Stronger Immunity. In a research study, people who got seven hours of sleep a night or less were almost three times as likely to get sick than those who got at least eight hours.
9) Adequate sleep decreases your risk of accidents and depression. Millions of people suffer from depression. More than half of them also struggle with insomnia. It seems that insomnia precedes depression in some cases. Getting less than six hours of sleep can affect your cognitive abilities. Drowsy drivers cause thousands of accidents yearly.
10) Lastly, Research shows sleep deprivation shortens your life span. A good nights rest may actually add years to your life-span.
Got Sleep?
