POOR QUALITY SLEEP CAN MAKE YOU PUT ON WEIGHT
Lack of sleep is one of the largest risk factors in obesity. Research has shown that adults not getting enough sleep were 55% more likely to be obese. This figure is even much higher in children at over 85%.
Not getting enough sleep negatively affects your hormones. Cortisol, your stress hormone is lowered with the right amount of sleep. Elevated levels of this hormone over time, is associated with poor skin quality, obesity and a long list of issues.
GREATER RISK OF HEART DISEASE AND STROKE
Research shows that sleeping less than 7 hours a night compared to 8 hours or more affects your immune system, not only are you more likely to catch a cold when you are sleep deprived, but you are at much greater risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.
SLEEP AND DEPRESSION
Good sleep lowers the risk of developing depression. Bad sleep increases the genetic risk for depression. It is estimated that 90% of patients with depression also suffer from some form of sleep apnea. Most patients suffering from depression often report having a lack of energy and experience extreme bouts of fatigue
SLEEP AFFECTS MOOD AND SOCIAL LIFE
Poor quality sleep affects both your mood and your social life. When a person gets enough sleep, they have a much better understanding of social cues. According to one research, those who are sleep deprived lose the ability to properly recognise and read facial expressions in others.
ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE
Poor sleep negatively affects Athletic performance. In a study of football players, a good night’s rest improves a player’s reaction time, speed, coordination, and accuracy.
Six Tips for Better sleep!
- Maintain regularity
Going to bed and waking up at the same time is a must if you want to get your brain and body in a healthy routine, even at the weekend.
- Darkness
In this modern era, unfortunately, we are often deprived of darkness because of screens, such as mobile phones etc. We need darkness in the evening to allow the release of the hormone called melatonin. This hormone helps us with the healthy timing of our sleep. However, this natural process is disturbed with the lights we have in our home from light bulbs, televisions, computers, tablets, and phone screens. The tip here is to try dimming down all lights in the hour before bed. Stay away from screens, especially LED screens as they emit blue lights which fool your brain into thinking it is still day time.
- Avoid Alcohol
People think that alcohol makes them fall asleep, but that is not actually true, alcohol is a class of drugs known as sedatives and when you drink alcohol you are ‘knocking’ your brain out, you are not putting it to natural sleep. Alcohol will also break up your sleep so you will be waking up many more times throughout the night. Alcohol also blocks what is called your REM or rapid eye movement sleep.
- Avoid Caffeine
In terms of class of drugs, caffeine is known as a stimulant. Even if you drink a cup of coffee in the evening and fall asleep fine and even stay asleep for the night, the depth of the ‘deep sleep’ that you have when you consume caffeine is not as deep as the sleep you would have if you abstained from that cup of coffee in the evening. This means that you wake up the next morning and feel tired. Now you find yourself wanting to drink 2 or 3 cups of coffee to make up for that poor night’s sleep. This is often how people build a dependency on caffeine.
- Temperature
In order to fall asleep efficiently, and to remain sleeping, it is important to keep it cool. Many of us have a bedroom that is too warm in terms of temperature. The optimal temperature is about 18.5 degrees Celsius. Your brain and your body need to drop their core temperature to initiate good sleep. Therefore, we usually find it much easier to fall asleep when it is cold, compared to a room that is too warm.
- Do not stay in bed if you cannot fall asleep
If you have not fallen asleep within 20 minutes of getting into bed, or you have woken up and are finding it difficult to fall back asleep, do not stay in bed awake. You want to make your brain believe that your bed is for sleeping and not let the brain associate your bed with being awake. So, the advice here is to get up, go to another room and do not open any screens, do not eat food. Keep the lights dimmed and read a book. Only when you feel sleepy you should return to bed.
CONCLUSION
Sleep is a very important part of a healthy lifestyle, a regular sleep pattern can benefit both your mental and physical health.
Sleep deficiency, if ongoing over a long period of time, has been linked to increased risk of heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke.
A good night’s sleep may simply be a matter of resetting your body clock, however, if you have long term issues with sleep you should visit your doctor.