Benefits of A Good Night’s Sleep

by: James Pendergraft

Sleep is a luxury for busy people, but everybody loves sleep. Sleep contributes to the overall health and well-being of an individual. It rejuvenates the body, mind, and spirit. There are many benefits of eight hours of sleep each night. Body tissues are repaired at the cellular level, and this helps to reduce stress, pollution, and infection. Sleep also helps us learn new skills. Research done by the Harvard Medical School students concluded that REM sleep is essential for learning new things. Waking up from a good night’s sleep normally puts you in a good mood and your mind is cleared from negative thoughts so you can think and study well when you have adequate sleep.

The Advantages of Getting Enough Sleep

Here are other ways in which a good night’s sleep can help you.

1) A good sleep keeps your heart healthy and strong and lowers high levels of stress ad inflammation in your body which leads to chronic diseases such as heart disease, strokes, diabetes, arthritis, hypertension, and cancer.

2) Sleep lowers stress hormone levels in the body. This will help the body fight aging and promote regeneration of the cells and organs.

3) Sleep also improves memory and cognitive function. When you sleep, your memory and organization skills are maintained properly. When you lack sleep, your memory function will suffer greatly. A study done in Germany found that people who obtained a good night’s sleep and full rest were three times likely to perform well on cognitive tasks, creativity, and problem solving skills than those who lack sleep.

4) Sleep can also control body weight because it can regulate the hormones that affect you appetite. A person that has proper sleep has a lower body mass index than those who sleep less. The appetite regulating hormone leptin decreases with lack of sleep and this signals fullness when we eat, while the hormone ghrelin that stimulates hunger increases when we lack sleep.

5) Sleep helps reduce disease risks. With just eight hours of sleep each night, the levels of the hormones melatonin and cortisol stay at a healthy range. Cortisol helps in preventing cell damage that can lead to cancer. With the help of cortisol, the immune system helps fight off potential infections.

These advantages are just a few of the many benefits that we can get as long as we have a good night’s sleep. It is crucial that we get enough sleep because if we don’t, we pay a price both physically and mentally. People around us are also affected when we lack sleep. We get emotional, short tempered and aggressive. Our reactions are slower and the chances of becoming involved in an accident increases. We all need to make the best effort to sleep appropriate.