1. Sleep Helps Boost the Immune System
If your body gets the required amount of sleep, your immune cells as well as proteins get the rest needed to fight off anything that comes their way, such as the flu or colds. Furthermore, according to the sleep specialists at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, getting enough sleep can also improve the efficacy of vaccines, which is a definite plus.
2. Getting Enough Sleep Helps Prevent Weight Gain
Getting the recommended full 8 hours of sleep will probably not result in weight loss by itself, but it can definitely help prevent the body from gaining extra pounds. If you don’t get sufficient sleep, the body produces ghrelin, which is an appetite-boosting hormone. The body also reduces the production of leptin, a hormone that informs the brain that you are actually full.
If you put both of them together, you end up with a dangerous combination for late-night snacking. Furthermore, if you don’t get enough sleep, you will end up getting more stressed and you will not have the energy to fight off the junk food cravings.
3. Sleep Helps Strengthen the Heart
Not getting sufficient sleep may lead to problems with heart health such as heart attacks or high blood pressure. The reason for this is that lack of sleep may cause the body to release cortisol, which is a stress hormone which causes the heart to work harder. Just like the immune system, the heart also requires rest to function properly and powerfully.
4. Better Sleep Translates to Better Mood
The old saying, “Getting up on the right side of the bed” has some truth in it. While it has nothing to do with the actual side of the bed you roll out of, sleeping can lead to a good mood, which actually makes perfect sense. If you sleep well, you wake up feeling rested.
If you are rested, your energy levels will soar and when your energy is up, you won’t find life’s challenges annoying as much. When you aren’t annoyed, you aren’t as angry. If you aren’t angry, you are happy. So go to bed early and those around you will thank you for it. This research on Novafoam mattresses suggests that investing in a new mattress can help youtube get a restful sleep.
5. Sleep Helps Boost Productivity
You may think that burning the midnight oil is wowing your boss, but putting off a good night’s rest could be having an adverse effect at school or work. Sleep has actually been linked to higher cognitive function and improved concentration, both of which can help you be successful at work.
One restless night, however, can leave you feeling frazzled, which can make it more likely that you will make mistakes that a pot of coffee cannot fix. Speaking of coffee, the more tired you feel, the higher your likelihood of reaching for that afternoon cup.
A cup of coffee might seem to fix the problem of crashing in the afternoon that you experience, but the extra caffeine late in the day will likely set you up for another sleepless night, which is definitely a counterproductive cycle.
6. Lack of Sleep Can Literally Be Dangerous
A study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety shows that you are twice as likely to be involved in a car accident when cruising on 6 to 7 hours of sleep compared to if you get the full 8 hours. If you sleep less than 5 hours, your chances of being involved in a crash quadruple. The reason for this being that your reaction time slows down considerably when your brain is not fully rested.
7. Sleep Helps Boost Exercise Performance
Sleep deprivation and its effect on basketball players has been studied and guess what was revealed? If the basketball players did not sleep well, they were not very good basketball players. You might be thinking that this doesn’t apply to you since you aren’t a professional basketball player, right?
The reality is that sleep affects all types of exercise performance. Sleep recovery helps with muscle recovery, reaction time, and hand-eye coordination. Furthermore, depriving yourself of sleep can have a negative impact on power and strength.