SLEEP | Healing Habits Week 4

Zzzzz….

Sleep. Something so simple, yet difficult for some people.

According to the Centers for Disease & Control Prevention (CDC), adults should sleep 7 hours or more per night for optimal health (2016). Anything less is considered insufficient sleep and can have negative impacts on an individuals overall quality of life. In the same article, it states that more than a third of the population in the state of California alone report they have insufficient sleep.

Sure, a lot of us enjoy a good nap and to sleep in our days off, but it’s not always possible. But why is sleep so important? Healthline has 10 good reasons why:

1. Insufficient sleep can make you gain weight
   • This can be due to a variety of factors, some of them being hormones and low motivation to exercise due to fatigue. Can you relate to this?
2. Those with good sleep tend to consume less calories
   • Again, this could be due to hormones that are thrown off by poor sleep
3. Better sleep can help improve concentration and productivity
   • Have you ever been at work or school after a poor night of sleep and found yourself nodding off? How about a good night of sleep? You’re flying through your to-do list and then some!
   • Sleep is so, so important for brain function! Some studies on sleep have compared poor sleep to alcohol intoxication!
4. Better sleep can make you a better athlete
   • In the article by Healthline, it states “In a study on basketball players, longer sleep was shown to significantly improve speed, accuracy, reaction times and mental well-being,” (2018)
5. Those with poorer sleep are at a greater risk for heart disease and stroke
   • While there are many factors that go into this, many studies have shown a higher increase of chronic conditions with poor sleep.
6. Sleep can effect metabolism and type 2 diabetes risk
   • Many studies have shown a link between poor sleep and prediabetes in all populations, including healthy young adults
7. Poor sleep = depression
   • Per Healthline, “Mental health issues, such as depression, are strongly linked to poor sleep quality and sleeping disorders. It has been estimated that 90% of people with depression complain about sleep quality (Source).Poor sleep is even associated with an increased risk of death by suicide (source),” (2018).
8. Good sleep can improve your immune function
   • Healthline summarizes this point by saying that with a minimum of 8 hours of sleep per night can improve immune function and even help fight the common cold! Garlic helps, too.
9. Poor sleep has been linked to inflammation of the body
   • when the body is inflamed, this can cause a cascade of events, specifically in the digestive tract. Those with poor sleep habits tend to have more issues with their GI tract, such as irritable bowel syndrome
10. Sleep can affect emotions and social interactions, both positive and negative
    • According to researchers (per Healthline), poor sleep can affect your ability to actually recognize proper social cues and process emotions!

I don’t know if you saw a trend or not in these 10 important points, but take note of poor sleep (to sum up) can make you eat more then gain weight, have poor concentration at work and interacting with others, more likely to have depression and chronic conditions… All of these can create a a vicious cycle and overall create a poor quality of life.

Sleep is so important!

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