The Top 7 Health Benefits of a Good Night’s Sleep
By Leslie K. Hughes
Few things feel worse than when your alarm goes off in the morning and you welcome the day with the rude awakening that you didn’t get enough sleep. After tossing and turning, constantly looking at your clock to count down the hours until you have to wake up, you’re left feeling as if you would have been better off not trying to sleep at all. The saying “woke up on the wrong side of the bed” is your reality, and that is not a reality that anyone wants to have.
Times like this are evidence that a good night’s sleep is key to not only your mood but your well-being in general. You are likely aware of some of the health benefits of a good night’s sleep, but chances are good others haven’t crossed your mind.
To drive the importance of getting a good night’s sleep, here are the health benefits of catching enough zzzs.
Health Benefits of Sleep
Before we dive into the benefits of sleep, let’s chat about how much sleep you need in the first place so you can determine whether you’re getting enough.
According to the CDC, an adult between the ages of 18 and 60 needs at least 7 hours of sleep per night. The CDC also recommends that between the ages of 61 and 64, you get up to 9 hours per night, and then after age 65, up to 8 hours per night.
By even getting just 6 hours of sleep, you are setting yourself up poorly for the next day and, over time, you are putting yourself at a higher risk of disease.
However, there are many more reasons to get a good night’s sleep.
1. Regulates blood sugar
A lack of sleep can have a majorly bad effect on your metabolic system. That’s because sleep helps to keep your body’s metabolism regulated as it works to convert the food you consume to the energy you need to live.
When you don’t get enough sleep, your blood sugar levels can spike, which puts you at higher risk of being in a bad mood, having less energy, and even developing type 2 diabetes.
Thus, a good night’s sleep means a healthy, regulated metabolism and normal blood sugar levels.
2. Keeps stress levels low
Sleep is the time when we get to put all of the worries and stresses of the day to the side and drift off into sleep (where we hopefully won’t have nightmares about those stresses).
When your body doesn’t get the sleep it needs to rest, recover, and prepare you for the next day, it goes into overdrive and releases stress hormones. And you will feel this stress. A study showed that 45% of adults with high stress levels felt even more stressed when they didn’t get enough sleep.
By getting at least 7 hours of sleep a night, you reduce your chances of stress, anxiety, irritability, and more, and increase your chances of productivity and strong decision making.
3. Helps maintain a healthy weight
Though you may feel lazy when you oversleep, studies show that those extra hours may be good for you (as long as we aren’t talking 12 hours a night – there is a sweet spot between not enough sleep and too much).
Though sleeping habits aren’t the only factor contributing to potential weight gain, it is important to consider your sleep schedule when looking to lose weight. People who sleep less are more likely to suffer from weight issues and potentially obesity.
So, if weight loss is a goal of yours be sure to clock at least 7 hours of sleep a night.
4. Boosts mood
When you sleep well, you feel rested and ready to greet the day. When you sleep poorly, your energy levels are low, which causes you to be irritable, anxious, stressed, and overall just in a bad mood.
A University of Pennsylvania study showed that subjects who only got 4.5 hours of sleep a night felt higher levels of stress, anger, sadness, and mental exhaustion. And, when the subjects returned to a normal night of sleep (7+hours), their mood was improved.
To set yourself up for a good tomorrow, get to bed early.
5. Increases memory
Though you may not be aware of it, the mind doesn’t sleep just because your body does. The brain spends this time processing your memories from the day – things that happened, things you learned, and more. This is called memory consolidation.
Thus, depriving yourself of sleep makes it harder for you to learn new things and maintain memories. So if you’re looking to do both, then ensure you get at least 7 hours of sleep every night.
6. Improves exercise
When you don’t get enough sleep your body feels tired and more lethargic. This means that you can’t expect yourself to excel when it comes to exercise or playing a sport.
A study on college basketball players found that a lack of sleep led to a slower reaction time, slower sprinting, and increased levels of fatigue. The bad night’s sleep not only affected their physical well-being but also their mental well-being, both of which are key to success in the game or any other kind of exercise.
If you want to exercise your best, then you need to sleep your best.
7. Keeps heart healthy
Though not the only cause of heart health issues, a lack of sleep can certainly contribute to issues such as high blood pressure, heart attacks, and other cardiovascular problems.
This is due to the different hormones that are released when you sleep. When you get enough sleep, hormones are released that work to keep your heart healthy. On the other hand, when you don’t get enough sleep, the hormones that keep your heart healthy aren’t released at the same level, and instead, the stress hormone (cortisol) is released which pushes your heart to work harder.
To keep your heart healthy and happy, get enough sleep.
Though a bad night’s sleep here and there isn’t going to do any serious damage to your health, consistently bad sleep habits will, over time, put you at risk of a range of different health complications.
