Sleep is as mysterious as it is familiar to every one of us. We do not know why we sleep, but we spend approximately one-third of our lives sleeping. And from our findings, we can tell you that sleep is one of the secrets to good wellbeing. But before we dive into that, what is sleep?
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What is Sleep?
Sleep is an essential and involuntary process where our bodies go into a state of rest. Without sleep, we cannot function effectively. Sleep is as essential to our bodies as eating, drinking, and breathing, and is vital for maintaining good mental and physical health. Sleeping also helps to repair and restore our brains, not just our bodies.
While we sleep, we process information, consolidate memories, and undergo several maintenance processes that help us to function during the daytime. Sleep is crucial to the health and well-being of every individual. This is why we all need to make sure we get the right amount of sleep and enough good quality sleep.
No set amount of sleep is appropriate for everyone; some people need more sleep than others. Our ability to sleep is controlled by how sleepy we feel and our sleep patterns.
How sleepy we feel relates to our drive to sleep. The sleep pattern relates to the regularity and timing of our sleep habits; if we have got into a pattern of sleeping at set times then we will be able to establish a better routine and will find it easier to sleep at that time every day.
Sleep and wellbeing are strongly related, poor sleep can increase the risk of having poor wellbeing, and poor wellbeing can make it harder to sleep. We’ll go into all the benefits you get from having good sleep
Benefits of Sleep to Your Physical & Mental Wellbeing
Research into the science of sleep has revealed several specific benefits that it brings us. Let’s take a look at them.
Restoration
Sleep is important for physical growth and repair. Most bodily functions like muscle growth, protein synthesis, tissue repair, and the release of growth hormones happen mostly or only while we are asleep.
Similarly, sleep rejuvenates and restores the brain. Sleep stops us from feeling tired because, during sleep, our brains are cleared of adenosine, a by-product of the brain’s activity that contributes to feelings of tiredness.
Chemicals that are toxic to the brain might also be cleared during sleep via a drainage system in the brain known as the glymphatic system.
Metabolism
We undergo metabolic changes during sleep, including a reduction in the rate of metabolism and body temperature during non-dreaming sleep.
These changes help us to maintain a healthy weight and avoid diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.
Mood and Mental Health
The impact of sleep on our state of mind is clear to us regularly. We feel a lot better when we are well-rested. But this effect goes beyond ordinary fluctuations in mood.
Every category of mental illness is associated with sleep disturbance, and treatment for sleep problems results in improved mental health.
Cognitive Functions
Again, we feel sharper after a good night’s sleep, and our research shows that our performance on learning and cognitive tasks is affected by a lack of sleep.
This has led to suggestions that one of the main functions of sleep might be neural plasticity — changes to the structure and organization of the brain during sleep.
What Happens When We’re Sleep Deprived?
Poor sleep over a sustained period leads to several problems that are immediately recognizable, including fatigue, sleepiness, poor concentration, lapses in memory, and irritability. Let’s look more into these effects.
Obesity
Lack of sleep has been repeatedly linked to weight gain. This is likely because sleep deprivation upsets the balance of hormones that we secrete during sleep that help control our appetite and metabolism.
As a result, we both eat more calories when we don’t get enough sleep and store more of them as fat. So if you’re trying to lose weight, get more sleep.
Diabetes
Sleep deprivation may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes by slowing the rate at which the body processes glucose.
Heart Disease and Hypertension
There is a correlation between sleep deprivation and cardiovascular disease and stroke, and this might be due to increased blood pressure. Studies have found that sleeping for less than five hours per night increases the risk of hypertension, and sleeping for seven or fewer hours per night (but also for nine or more) increases the rate of coronary heart disease.
Mood
There is a clear link between sleep deprivation and problems with mood. Getting less than four hours of sleep per night will have you feeling more stressed, sad, angry, and mentally exhausted.
And those who experience chronic insomnia are found to be five times more likely to develop depression. Good sleep greatly increases good mental wellbeing.
Immunity
Most of us will have noticed that illness makes us feel tired and sleep more, which leads to the obvious inference that sleep may be necessary for the proper functioning of the immune system.
Mental Performance
Mental performance declines along several dimensions when we are sleep-deprived. Alertness, concentration, working memory, mathematical capacity, and logical reasoning are all affected.
Life Expectancy
As might be expected given the above, poor sleep is associated with a reduced life expectancy. Studies have shown that sleeping for five hours or less per night is associated with a 15% increase in the risk of mortality.
Sleep Is The Secret Sauce
As you can see, good sleep has proven to be the secret to having good mental and physical wellbeing. We can all benefit from improving the quality of our sleep.
For many of us, it may simply be a case of making small lifestyle or attitude adjustments to help us sleep better.
For those with insomnia, it is usually necessary to seek more specialist treatment. Sleep medication is commonly used, but may have negative side effects and is not recommended in the long-term.
Psychological approaches are useful for people with long-term insomnia because they can encourage us to establish good sleep patterns and to develop a healthy, positive mental outlook about sleep, as well as deal with worrying thoughts about sleeping.
