Reasons For A Good Nights Sleep

We tend to think of sleep when the mind and body shut down for a while. But it’s not like that; Sleep is an active period during which significant processing, restoration, and strengthening occur, especially at night.

How this happens and why bodies are programmed for such a sleep period at night remains a mystery. But scientists understand some of the essential functions of sleep and why we need it for optimal health and well-being.

One of the vital functions of sleep is to help us solidify and strengthen our memories. During the day, our brains absorb an incredible amount of information. These facts and experiences must first be processed and archived, and many of these stages occur while we are sleeping.

Overnight, bits of information are transferred from more temporary short-term memory to stronger long-term memory, called “consolidation.” Researches have also shown that people tend to retain information and perform memory tasks better after falling asleep. Our bodies need long sleep periods to restore and regenerate, build muscle, repair tissue, and synthesize hormones.

How Much Sleep Do We Need?

A night of healthy night sleep is essential for everyone because we all need to retain information and learn the necessary skills to thrive in life. But this is probably one of the reasons why children need more sleep than adults.

Whilst learning a language, social and motor skills at an impressive rate during their developmental stage. While adults need 7–9 hours of sleep per night, one-year-olds need around 11–14 hours, schoolchildren 9–11, and teens 8–10. During these critical periods for growth and learning, young people need plenty of sleep for optimal development and alertness.

Benefits Of Good Night Sleep

• Night Sleep can reduce the risk of depression: Sleep affects many chemicals in the body, including serotonin. People with a serotonin deficiency are more likely to suffer from depression. It can help prevent depression by ensuring you get enough sleep, 7 to 9 hours a night.
• Sleep can help prevent cancer: Did you know that people who work late shifts have a higher risk of developing breast and colon cancer? It is believed that exposure to light reduces melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that controls the sleep-wake cycle. It is supposed to protect against cancer because it appears to suppress tumour growth. Ensure your bedroom is dark and avoid using electronic devices before bed to help your body produce the melatonin it needs.
• Sleep Can Help You Lose Weight: Researchers say people who sleep for a few hours per night are more likely to be obese or overweight. Lack of adequate sleep is thought to affect the balance of hormones that affect appetite. The hormones leptin and ghrelin, which regulate appetite, are disturbed by lack of sleep. If you want to lose weight, remember that getting enough regular sleep is an integral part of the equation.
• Sleep supports the body in repairing itself: Sleep is a time of relaxation, but it’s also when the body repairs the damages caused by stress, UV rays, and other harmful exposures. Your cells make more protein while you are asleep. These protein particles form the building blocks of cells, which allows them to repair the damage.

• Sleep improves your memory: Researchers don’t fully understand why we sleep, but they have found that sleep plays a vital role in memory consolidation. Your body can rest during sleep, but your brain is busy processing and making connections between events, sensory information, feelings, and memories.
• Sleep keeps your heart healthy: Heart attacks and strokes are more likely to occur early in the morning, which may be due to how rest interacts with the blood vessels. Lack of sleep has been linked to worsening blood pressure and cholesterol, which are risk factors for heart disease and stroke.
• Sleep makes you more alert: Good sleep leaves you energetic and alert the next day. Being busy and active is not only great but also increases your chances of getting a good night’s sleep. When you wake up feeling renewed, use this energy to step out into the light of day, do active things, and get involved in your world.
• Sleep reduces inflammation: The increase in stress hormones caused by not getting enough sleep increases inflammation. This creates a heightened risk of heart disease, as well as cancer and diabetes. Inflammation is believed to cause damage to the body as we age.
• Sleep reduces stress: When your body lacks sleep, it enters a state of anxiety. The body’s functions go on high alert, causing high blood pressure and stress hormones production. HBP increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes, and stress hormones make it harder to fall asleep.

If you listen to the advice above, you are bound to feel some positive changes in your lifestyle. Along with proper exercise and nutrition, adequate sleep is one of the pillars of health. You cannot achieve optimal health without taking your night’s sleep seriously.