What's so important about sleep?

Getting quality sleep is just as important as eating nutritious food, drinking water, and exercising regularly. Even though we don't know exactly why we need to sleep, sleep experts agree that consistently getting a full night’s rest has tons of benefits. Most adults should aim for at least seven hours of sleep each night.

While we sleep, our bodies go through a lot of repair and maintenance processes that impact almost every part of our body. So, whether you sleep well or not can affect you both mentally and physically.

Improved Mood A good night’s sleep can make a huge difference in how you feel. When you wake up well-rested, you’re likely to be in a better mood. On the flip side, not getting enough sleep can lead to mental distress, anxiety, depression, and irritability. Developing a consistent sleep routine can help a lot with these symptoms.

Healthy Heart Quality sleep is great for your heart. When you sleep, your heart rate and blood pressure go down, giving your heart and blood vessels a chance to rest. Not getting enough sleep, however, keeps your blood pressure high for too long, increasing the risk of heart disease, heart attack, and heart failure.

Regulated Blood Sugar Sleep also affects how your body handles insulin, which helps blood sugar enter your cells for energy. Getting seven hours or more of sleep each night helps regulate your blood sugar. Adults who sleep less than seven hours are at higher risk for Type 2 diabetes because their bodies don’t use insulin properly, leading to high blood sugar levels.

Improved Mental Function Sleep is believed to help with memory and cognitive thinking. It’s essential for the brain to grow, reorganize, and make new neural connections, which helps us learn new information and form memories. A good night’s sleep can improve problem-solving and decision-making skills. On the other hand, not getting enough sleep can make it harder to think, remember things, and function well during the day. Even a week of insufficient sleep can slow down your thinking and decrease your accuracy on tasks. Sleep-deprived people also tend to make riskier decisions because they can’t fully consider the consequences.

Sleep is tantamount to you health, give my book a try!