Benefits of Sleep For A Healthier Life

Inadequate sleep at night can wreak havoc on your mental and physical health the next day. Continuous lack of sleep causes more damages that are everlasting than just a day. At Sleepy’s Express we have participated in recent studies that have shown not getting enough, quality sleep regularly can have tremendous benefits on your health and overall well-being.

Here are the benefits of sleep that can contribute to a healthier life.

1. Sharper brain

Inadequate rest can cause you some trouble when it comes to recalling even minor details. Studies have shown that an important path in memory and learning, and without adequate, quality rest, it will be difficult for you to learn new information and also stay focused during the day. With poor sleep, your brain will also not have sufficient time to effectively store memories so you can retrieve later on.

2. Boosts your mood

When we are asleep, our brain is still functioning, albeit in much lower capacity than when we are awake. One of the things our brains do when we are unconscious is to process our emotions. The mind requires this less-action moment to recognize and react adequately to the emotions. But when you cut short your rest, you are likely to experience more negative emotional reactions compared to positive ones.

If you continue depriving yourself of adequate slumber, you risk developing a mood disorder. A certain study found that people with insomnia are five times riskier to develop depression and the chances of panic disorders and anxiety are also greater.

3. Proper blood sugar regulation

When you nap, especially during a deep, slow-wave cycle of sleep, the level of glucose in your blood usually drops. So if you don’t allow your body enough of this time means your body will not reset, leaving the blood sugar levels high.

So, make sure you allow yourself to reach this deep-sleep stage and stay there for as long as it is necessary.

4. Make you much more energetic

If you are an active person or take part in enduring sports like biking, swimming, and running, sleep loss may greatly affect your energy levels. Lack of rest also robs your time for muscle recovery as well as draining your motivation, which is what you will need in order to cross the finish line. Also, you will face difficult physical and mental challenges, which will then slow down your reaction times.

But a proper siesta will set you up for great performance the following day.

5. May help keep cancer at bay

It has been found that people who work late at night are at greater risk of developing breast cancer and colon cancer. According to researchers, light exposure can reduce melatonin levels. Melatonin is a hormone that controls the sleep-wake cycle and is also believed to help protect against cancer since it is believed to inhibit the growth of tumors.

So when you go to bed, make sure your bedroom is dark and free of any electronics in order to allow your body to secrete the melatonin required to help you sleep and suppress the growth of cancerous tumors.

6. Can help you lose weight

Experts have also found that people who skimp on having a snooze have more chances of becoming obese or overweight. It is believed that lack of rest affects the hormone balance in the body, which in turn affects appetite. Lack of rest also affects the hormones leptin and ghrelin – the two hormones regulate appetite.

Therefore, if you are looking to maintain or lose weight, make sure you get adequate rest aside from dieting and exercising.

What to avoid

We’ve gone through some benefits of a good night’s snooze you might not have known before. But what should you avoid to get that perfect night’s rest?

There are the obvious things to do like regular exercise and healthy diet advice but let’s find some other things to avoid.

• Cigarettes

Cigarettes are harmful to your health in many ways, but because of the nicotine in them, it can impact your ability to fall asleep because nicotine is a stimulant. Many people who do smoke tend to have a cigarette before bed as a misguided way to relax when they can’t turn off. However, this is going to have the opposite effect to the one you intend. Some smokers have the additional problem of sometimes waking up throughout the night because of nicotine withdrawal.

• Food

I mentioned a healthy diet previously, but what about eating times, what type of foods to eat for a better night’s kip. Well, avoiding an excess of high-fat foods is known to upset sleep cycles (as well as your scales).

If you want to enjoy a large meal before bed, it can be extra challenging to a bit of shut-eye because of the uncomfortable feeling, so don’t eat a heavy meal less than four hours before bedtime, to allow proper digestion.

You want to avoid spicy food before bed because this can cause heartburn which is another cause of discomfort that can keep you alert.

Avoiding protein before bed will help you sleep better because protein stimulates brain activity. Also, a lot of people’s hidden pleasures before bed is chocolate, but what people don’t release is that chocolate contains caffeine.

• Exercise

It’s common knowledge that regular aerobic exercise helps regulate your sleep pattern. However, how close to bedtime should you exercise? And can it affect your forty winks negatively?

Exercising does activate the body, so if you plan on working out vigorously or taking any stimuli when exercising, make sure you leave adequate time before bed because it can cause you to stay awake. There’s also the case of extra water consumption that can lead to bathroom breaks in the middle of the night breaking up your dream sleep.

Most people say leave a gap of 3 hours before exercising and sleep. However, everyone is different so you will have to work out how your body reacts to exercise near to when you want to slumber.

Conclude

We have covered 6 vital benefits on what sleep has for a healthier life and go over a few things to avoid.

1. Sharper brain
2. Boosts your mood
3. Proper blood sugar regulation
4. Make you much more energetic
5. May help keep cancer at bay
6. Can help you lose weight