The Benefits of Getting a Full Night’s Sleep
The benefits of getting a full night’s sleep are gaining notoriety in our culture. We all wish we had more of it. Yet it’s still elusive. And while yawning and feeling tired all the time can be a bummer, a lack of sleep can actually have a huge impact on your health. Experts say you should aim to get between seven and nine hours of sleep every night. Let’s cover the benefits of getting a full night’s sleep
1. Sleep Can Boost Your Immune System
When your body gets the sleep it needs, your immune cells and proteins get the rest they need to fight off whatever comes their way — like colds or the flu. Furthermore, according to the sleep specialists over at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, proper sleep can also make vaccines more effective. Given the current state of Covid 19, this should be enough motivation to prioritize your sleep!
2. Gaining Sleep Can Help Prevent Weight Gain
Racking up eight full hours of sleep isn’t going to result in losing weight by itself. But it can help your body from packing on the pounds. If you don’t get enough sleep, your body produces ghrelin, a hormone that boosts appetite. Your body also decreases the production of leptin, a hormone that tells you you’re full. In combination it’s one dangerous receipt for weight gain. Plus, when you don’t sleep enough you get more stressed and don’t have the energy to fight off junk food cravings.
3. Sleep Can Strengthen Your Heart
Not getting enough sleep can lead to heart health problems like high blood pressure or heart attacks. That’s because lack of sleep can cause your body to release cortisol, a stress hormone that triggers your heart to work harder. Just like your immune system, your heart needs rest in order to function powerfully and properly.
4. Better Sleep = Better Mood
There is serious truth in the saying, “Getting up on the right side of the bed.” It has nothing to do with which side of the bed you roll out of, but sleeping can lead to good moods. If you sleep well, you wake up feeling rested. Being rested helps your energy levels soar. When your energy is up, life’s little challenges won’t annoy you as much. When you’re not annoyed, you’re not as angry. If you’re not angry, you’re happy.
5. Sleeping Can Increase Productivity
You may think you’re wowing your boss by burning the midnight oil. But putting off a good night’s sleep could be having an adverse effect at work or school. In fact, sleep has been linked to improved concentration and higher cognitive function, both of which can help you be successful at work. But one restless night can leave you feeling frazzled, making it more likely that you’ll make mistakes that a pot of coffee won’t be able to fix. Speaking of coffee, the more tired you feel, the more likely you are to reach for that afternoon caffeine. And while that may seem to fix the afternoon crash problem you experience, the extra caffeine late in the day could set you up for another sleepless night. Talk about a counterproductive cycle.
6. Lack of Sleep Can Be Dangerous. Literally.
According to a study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, you’re twice as likely to get in a car accident when you’re cruising on six to seven hours of sleep compared to if you get a full eight hours. Sleep less than five hours and your chances of a crash quadruple! That’s because your reaction time slows way down when your brain isn’t fully rested.
7. Sleep Can Increase Exercise Performance
A study of the effects of sleep deprivation on basketball players found that when they didn’t sleep well, they weren’t very good basketball players. This isn’t just for professional athlete’s either. Sleep recovery affects all types of exercise performance. Sleep recovery helps with hand-eye coordination, reaction time and muscle recovery. Plus, depriving yourself of sleep can have a negative impact on strength and power.
8. Sleep Improves Memory
Even though sleep gives your body the rest it needs, your mind is still hard at work. It’s actually processing and consolidating your memories from the day. If you don’t get enough sleep, who knows where those memories go. Or worse, your mind might actually create false memories.
Conclusion
The benefits of getting a full night’s sleep have now been explained. The bottom line: Sleep is good. And necessary. Roy Kohler, MD, who specializes in sleep medicine at SCL Health in Montana, reaffirms all we know about the benefits of sleep, citing research that shows people who get less sleep tend to be heavier, eat more, have a higher BMI, and are more likely to be diabetic. “Consistent sleep of seven hours a night is what’s recommend for adults just for daytime functioning—being on task, being alert for the day and being able to concentrate and not be so moody and tired during the day,” says Dr. Kohler.
While there will certainly be ebbs and flows to your sleeping patterns, I hope this is enough evidence to convince you to aim for seven to eight hours a night so your mind and body can fully reap all the benefits.
Need some help counting sheep? I help my clients create a nighttime routine to get your mind and body relaxed. Stop looking at your phone or tablet — those social media alerts will all be there in the morning.
