When you don’t get enough sleep, the effects are immediately obvious. Your eyes feel heavy and puffy, you have a hard time concentrating on work and you probably feel irritable or emotional. When you consistently don’t get enough sleep, it doesn’t just affect your day-to-day life; there can actually be serious health consequences. Below are some of the ways a healthy sleep schedule can change your life.
Sleep Helps Your Body Heal
When you use your laptop or smartphone all day, it needs time to re-charge. The same is true for your body. During sleep, the body produces growth hormones, which are great for your bones and tissues. Sleep is also when your muscles can finally relax, reducing inflammation.
Sleep Lowers Your Risk for Diseases
Too much or too little sleep can cause issues like heart problems and diabetes. During sleep, cells that contribute to these diseases have time to repair themselves.
Sleep Improves Cognition
Sleep aids in creativity and cognitive function, including the ability to learn, think, reason, remember, problem solve, pay attention and make decisions. In addition, when you sleep, memories are reactivated, connections between brain cells are strengthened and information is transferred from short-term to long-term memory.
Sleep Reduces Stress
Studies have shown that sleep can enhance your mood by encouraging the brain to regulate emotional responses to various life situations.
Sleep Helps with Weight Problems
The body produces two hormones that control the urge to eat: leptin, which tells us when we’re full, and ghrelin, which communicates hunger signals. When we don’t get enough sleep, leptin declines while ghrelin spikes, resulting in increased hunger and the potential to overeat. Healthy sleep helps the body regulate both hormones.
Sleep Boosts Your Immune System
Sleep helps the body produce and release cytokines, which is a type of protein that targets infection and inflammation. Furthermore, research has shown that people who are sleep deprived do not experience as vigorous a response to vaccinations, which can leave you more vulnerable to preventable illnesses.
Sleep Is Good for Your Mental Health
Many mental health disorders are associated with poor sleep. Poor sleep can in turn exacerbate mental health problems, especially depressive symptoms.
For more information about the benefits of sleep or to schedule an appointment with an expert, call ENT of Georgia today.
