What Happens When You Sleep?

The body does a lot of important work while you sleep. During slumber, muscles repair themselves and the brain clears out waste. Chemicals are released that affect everything from appetite to stress levels. It’s no wonder that good quality sleep is key to overall health and wellbeing.

But it’s hard to understand exactly what happens when we go to sleep, or why some people struggle with getting enough ZZZs. Modern medicine’s knowledge of what sleep does is like a partially assembled jigsaw puzzle. And there are many conditions that can interfere with this natural process and lead to problems like obesity, diabetes, depression, heart disease and stroke.

What isn’t commonly understood is that sleep is a highly complex physiological activity that involves many different parts of the body and the brain. What’s more, research shows that adequate amounts of restful sleep are key to a healthy mind and a well functioning body. And a growing body of evidence demonstrates that sleeping well can even help prevent some diseases and injuries.

Whether you’re a young child or an adult, your brain needs plenty of rest to grow and develop normally. In fact, scientists have found that insufficient or poor quality sleep during early childhood can result in cognitive and behavioral difficulties later in life. And for adults, a bad night’s sleep can be associated with a host of symptoms including poor performance on tests and difficulties in paying attention, planning and making decisions.

In terms of the immune system, a healthy dose of sleep helps keep it strong by resting and repairing cells that are damaged during the day, including those involved in fighting infections. It also gives the antibodies and other proteins that help fight germs time to build up again. Several studies have linked inadequate sleep to increased vulnerability to illness and slower recovery from the common cold, the flu or other infectious diseases.

Aside from the obvious physical benefits, a good night’s sleep is crucial for your mental health and emotional well being. It can help you regulate your emotions, think clearly and be more creative. It can also improve your relationships and make it easier to get along with others. For many people, a lack of quality sleep can be like an invisible weight that can slowly take on our lives and leave us feeling irritable and tired, or even depressed or anxious. And this is especially true for Black communities, where chronic sleep disorders are underdiagnosed and undertreated. This is likely due to a range of factors, such as racial discrimination in healthcare settings and difficulties with accessing care, including time off from work, child care and transportation. These barriers to proper diagnosis and treatment can disproportionately impact low-income communities, which are more likely to suffer from sleep problems. In addition, they are more often exposed to stressors that can interfere with the ability to get a good night’s sleep. These include economic issues, poor housing conditions, exposure to violence or trauma, and social isolation.