The Benefits of Sleep
The benefits of sleep are as important as diet and exercise, yet many people don’t get enough. Poor sleep causes problems for our physical health and mental well-being, and can raise your risk of heart disease and stroke, diabetes, obesity, depression and memory disorders. It also robs you of the energy you need to stay active, think clearly and deal with stress. Getting adequate sleep on a regular basis improves your mood and brain function, and helps you handle the everyday challenges of life and work.
Despite its essential role, there is no single definition of sleep. It is typically defined by behavioral and physiological criteria, but some researchers use subjective experience and verbal reports of sleepiness as additional evidence to classify a state as sleep. These criterion can be at variance with each other, however, and may contradict the results of a person’s behavior.
A growing body of research shows that good quality sleep improves your physical and emotional wellbeing. It can make you more alert, improve your performance and decision-making, and help you maintain a healthy weight. In addition, it can help you process emotions and reduce the chances of having negative emotional reactions. It also contributes to the maintenance of a healthy immune system.
Most experts agree that the average person needs 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night to achieve a good quality of sleep. In fact, sleep deprivation is so linked to a number of chronic health conditions that the American Heart Association added it to its list of Life’s Essential 8 last year.
The need for sleep appears to be an evolutionary adaptation. Early humans needed to conserve energy, avoid predators and prepare for the day’s natural cycles of daylight and darkness. Sleeping in one consolidated block at night helped early humans meet all those needs. Scientists also suspect that sleep helped them survive and thrive by allowing them to store up resources during the day and then withdraw those reserves in the night for survival.
It is believed that most of the processes that occur in the body during the day and night are controlled by the “biological clock” or circadian rhythms. These rhythms work on a daily time scale and interact with the drive to sleep, which grows in intensity the longer we have been awake.
Sleep can play an important role in regulating your blood sugar levels, and can even affect how you respond to insulin. It is also thought that sleep can help prevent heart disease and dementia, and can improve athletic performance.
Getting enough sleep is critical to your overall well-being, but it can be difficult to find the right balance in our hectic lifestyles. Some groups are at higher risk for not getting adequate sleep, including Black and Latino individuals, those with lower socioeconomic status, and those who work overnight or irregular shifts. A whole field of medicine is devoted to sleep, and it’s worth talking to your healthcare provider if you feel like you aren’t getting enough.