7 Benefits of good sleep
7 Benefits of good sleep
Lack of sleep can be dangerous
Not getting enough
sleep can be dangerous for yourself and others.
When we’re tired,
our ability to focus on tasks, reflexes, and reaction times decreases. In fact,
being severely sleep-deprived is comparable to having consumed excess alcohol.
Concerningly, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 1 in 25 people
have fallen asleep at the wheel while driving. Those who slept fewer than 6
hours were most likely to fall asleep while driving (56Trusted Source).
One 2022 study
found that people who slept 6, 5, 4, or fewer than 4 hours had a risk of
causing a car accident that was 1.3, 1.9, 2.9, and 15.1 times higher,
respectively. This study suggests that your risk of a car accident increases
significantly with each hour of lost sleep (57Trusted Source).
Further, the CDC
reports that staying awake for more than 18 hours is comparable to having a
blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.05%. After 24 hours, this increases to 1.00%,
which is over the legal driving limit (56Trusted Source).
In addition to
increased risks associated with driving, lack of sleep may also increase the
risk of workplace injury and errors (58Trusted Source).
All in all, getting
proper sleep is important for everyone’s safety.
Getting a good night’s sleep is incredibly important for your
health. In fact, it’s just as important as eating a balanced, nutritious diet
and exercising. Adults who sleep
less than 7 hours each night are more likely to say they have had health
problems, including heart attack, asthma, and depression. Some of these health problems raise the risk for heart
disease, heart attack, and stroke. These health problems include: High blood
pressure.
1. May help you maintain or lose weight
Numerous studies
have associated short sleep — defined as sleeping fewer than 7 hours per night
— with a greater risk of weight gain and a higher body mass index (BMI) (3Trusted Source, 4Trusted Source, 5Trusted Source).
In fact, a 2020
analysis found that adults who slept fewer than 7 hours per night had a
whopping 41% increased risk of developing obesity. Meanwhile, sleeping longer
didn’t increase the risk (6Trusted Source).
The effect of sleep
on weight gain is believed to be affected by numerous factors, including hormones and
motivation to exercise (5Trusted Source).
For instance, sleep
deprivation increases levels of ghrelin and decreases levels of leptin. Ghrelin
is a hormone that makes us feel hungry while leptin makes us feel full. This
may cause us to feel hungrier and overeat (7Trusted Source).
This is supported
by various studies that have shown that sleep-deprived individuals have a bigger
appetite and tend to eat more calories (8Trusted Source, 9Trusted Source).
What’s more, to
compensate for lack of energy, sleep deprivation may make you crave foods that
are higher in sugar and fat, due to their higher calorie content (10Trusted Source, 11Trusted Source).
To make matters
worse, feeling tired after a night of too little sleep may leave you feeling
unmotivated to hit the gym, go for a walk, or do whichever other physical
activity you enjoy.
So, prioritizing
sleep may support healthy body weight.
2. Can improve concentration and productivity
Sleep is important
for various aspects of brain function.
Cognition,
concentration, productivity, and performance are all negatively affected by
sleep deprivation (12Trusted Source, 13Trusted Source, 14Trusted Source).
A specific study on
overworked physicians provides a good example. It found that doctors with
moderate, high, and very high sleep-related impairment were 54%, 96%, and 97%
more likely to report clinically significant medical errors (15Trusted Source).
On a similar note,
getting enough sleep can improve academic performance in children, adolescents,
and young adults (16Trusted Source, 17Trusted Source, 18Trusted Source, 19Trusted Source).
Finally, good sleep
has been shown to improve problem-solving skills and enhance memory performance in both
children and adults (20Trusted Source, 21Trusted Source, 22Trusted Source).
3. Can maximize athletic performance
Sleep has been
shown to enhance athletic performance.
Numerous studies
have shown that adequate sleep can enhance fine motor skills, reaction time,
muscular power, muscular endurance, and problem-solving skills (23Trusted Source, 24Trusted Source, 25Trusted Source).
What’s more, lack
of sleep may increase your risk of injury and lower your motivation to exercise
(24Trusted Source).
So, getting enough
sleep may be just the thing you need to take your performance to the next
level.
Low sleep quality
and duration may increase your risk of
developing heart disease (26Trusted Source, 27Trusted Source, 28Trusted Source).
One analysis of 19
studies found that sleeping fewer than 7 hours per day resulted in a 13%
increased risk of death from heart disease (29Trusted Source).
Another analysis
found that compared with 7 hours of sleep, each 1-hour decrease in sleep was
associated with a 6% increased risk of all-cause mortality and heart disease (30Trusted Source).
What’s more, short
sleep appears to increase the risk of high blood pressure, especially in those
with obstructive sleep apnea — a condition characterized by interrupted
breathing during sleep (31Trusted Source, 32Trusted Source).
In fact, one study
found that people who slept fewer than 5 hours per night had a 61% higher risk
of developing high blood pressure than those who slept 7 hours (33Trusted Source).
Interestingly,
excessive sleep in adults — more than 9 hours — was also shown to increase the
risk of heart disease and high blood pressure (29Trusted Source, 30Trusted Source, 33Trusted Source).
5. Affects sugar metabolism and type 2 diabetes risk
Short sleep is
associated with a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance — which is when your
body cannot use the hormone insulin properly (34Trusted Source).
In fact, an
analysis of 36 studies in over 1 million participants found that very short
sleep of fewer than 5 hours and short sleep of fewer than 6 hours increased the
risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 48% and 18%, respectively (35Trusted Source).
It’s thought that
sleep deprivation can cause physiological changes like decreased insulin
sensitivity, increased inflammation, and hunger hormone changes, as well as
behavioral changes like poor decision making and greater food intake — all of
which increase diabetes risk (36Trusted Source).
Plus, sleep
deprivation is associated with a higher risk of developing obesity, heart
disease, and metabolic syndrome. These factors also increase your risk of
diabetes (36Trusted Source, 37Trusted Source).
6. Poor sleep is linked to depression
Mental health
concerns, such as depression, are strongly linked to poor sleep
quality and sleeping disorders (38Trusted Source, 39Trusted Source, 40Trusted Source).
One study in 2,672
participants found that those with anxiety and depression were more likely to
report poorer sleep scores than those without anxiety and depression (40Trusted Source).
In other studies,
people with sleeping disorders like insomnia or obstructive sleep apnea also
report higher rates of depression than those without (41Trusted Source, 42Trusted Source).
If you have trouble
with sleep and notice your mental health has worsened, it’s important to speak
with your healthcare professional.
7. Poor sleep is linked to increased inflammation
Poor sleep can have
a major effect on inflammation in the body.
Sleep plays a key
role in the regulation of our central nervous system. In particular, it’s
involved in the stress-response systems known as the sympathetic nervous system
and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis (51Trusted Source).
Sleep loss,
especially from disturbed sleep, is known to activate inflammatory signaling
pathways and lead to higher levels of undesirable markers of inflammation, like
interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein (51Trusted Source, 52Trusted Source).
Over time, chronic
inflammation can cause the development of many chronic conditions, including
obesity, heart disease, certain types of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease,
depression, and type 2 diabetes (51Trusted Source, 52Trusted Source).
9. Affects emotions and social
interactions
Sleep loss reduces
your ability to regulate emotions and interact socially.
When we’re tired,
we have a harder time controlling emotional outbursts and our behaviors in
front of others. Tiredness may also affect our ability to respond to humor and
show empathy (53Trusted Source, 54Trusted Source).
Plus, those who are
chronically sleep-deprived are more likely to withdrawal from social events and
experience loneliness (55Trusted Source).
Prioritizing sleep
may be a key way to improve your relationships with others and help you become
more social.
If you deal with
loneliness or emotional outbursts, don’t be afraid to reach out to a friend,
family member, or healthcare professional to get support. To learn more, view
this list of resources.
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