Did you know that lack of sleep is linked to anxiety and depression and, country like South Korea and Japan are ranked the worst when it comes to a good night sleep? Did you know that sleep deprivation can cause a long-term health consequence, and links are seen with Obesity, Diabetes, heart disease and dementia? If your answer is yes, then you probably know what I am going to talk about in this blog and if your answer is no, then I would like you to read this entire article and educate yourself on the importance of a good night sleep, or as per the American academy of sleep medicine that recommends a proper uninterrupted sleep of 7 hours or more i.e., 8 hours of sleep every night
I am pretty sure we have heard Idioms like caught napping or burning the midnight oil as they are the very popular one in the world that we live today. We are expected to cut down on our sleep to make something out of our life. Sleep is considered as time being wasted, but the truth is an average adult need 8 hours of sleep every night. And in these 8 hours, a person complete five 90 minutes sleep cycle also known as REM sleep cycle and non-REM sleep cycle. During this cycle brain moves from deep non rapid eye movement sleep to rapid eye movement sleep. The first couple of cycle are dominated by non-REM sleep which helps cleanse and maintain our body, brain and heart. And the next cycle, the Rem cycle are needed to process and learning all the information that we gather throughout the day. So, not getting a proper sleep means drop in health and productivity. Also, according to the scientist lack of sleep is also linked to breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men. Researchers at Honkong found discernible DNA damage in those whose sleep was disrupted even for one night. Country like Japan has the phenomenon called karoshi which means death caused by lack of sleep. Japan has the highest suicide rate in the world, and you can blame that to sleep deprivation.
Sleep deprivation not only cause death but also cause you to gain weight. Researchers at Kings college London conducted a study in 2016 where they found sleep deprived people consumed an average of 385 kcal per day. Similar research was conducted by researchers at Pennsylvania State University where they divided two group of people in their 20’s where one half of the volunteer got regular sleep while the others slept 5 hours or less each night. The result from the study was pretty obvious and the sleep deprived ended up feeling less full than other after eating a high fat meal. Now you may ask why it is so? And I have an answer to that question as well, and it has to do with our hormone called leptin and ghrelin. The hormones leptin and ghrelin are linked between sleep deprivation and obesity. Sleep deprived people have low level of leptin and high level of ghrelin, The leptin hormone tells the brain that you are full while ghrelin urges you to eat more.
Lack of sleep is not good for anyone, and a study has also found sleep deprived people are more likely to cheat and lie. However, there are people who function well with sleep less than 8 hours, and it is because if you have a rare gene mutation but a sleep for an average individual like you and me is important in order to live a healthy and productive life. When you sleep your body repairs its DNA, your muscle relaxes, and metabolic processes stabilize. Sleep takes out your brain trash making you feel less irritable and focus more on your work and other activities. Your health improves: health problems like blood pressure rising, strokes, short time memory loss reduces significantly. So next time when you think of binge-watching, late-night talk or working on your dream project by cutting out on your sleep, remember that you dream better when you sleep better. In short, you live better and everything else can wait.
