How often do you evaluate your sleep hygiene? We all sleep but is the quality of your sleep good? Many professionals note that it is the most important aspect of health as the body cannot function without it, so let’s talk about why sleep is so vital.
Heart
Individuals who do not sleep enough have been linked to angina, high blood pressure, strokes and heart attacks. Although not clear as to why, we do know that poor sleep is often related to stress and an increase in the protein CRP that is often linked to inflammation.
Hormones
Sleep is heavily linked to hormones. Poor sleep is linked to an increase in hunger hormones, decreased metabolism and increased insulin resistance making an individual more susceptible to diabetes and weight gain.
Brain Function
When we sleep the brain stores everything we learnt from the day, if we have poor sleep it struggles to carry out this task thus information is lost. Poor sleep also affects our ability to take on new information the following day, all aspects of cognition are affected.
Immune System
When we sleep a certain type of immune cell called cytokines are released, a high level of these is needed to fight infection and inflammation. If you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t have as many cytokines making you more prone to infection.
So put that phone down, turn that television off and get a quality 7-9 hours’ sleep – your body will thank you for it!
Written by Becca Collingwood
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